Nadia at BBB lifting party 11

Today was awesome! I got to watch Nadia lift her personal best powerlifting weights at the Barbell Babes Brigade lifting party :)

Photo of a woman wearing a brightly coloured singlet beams at the camera while holding her hands up towards the photographer to show her palms coated in white chalk. Behind her is a weight lifting rack with a weighted barbell across it.

Photo of a woman in shorts, a singlet, and socks with her hair tied back in a ponytail. The woman is leaning forward and gripping a barbell with heavy weights on it. Her expression is serious and her muscles are tight because she is about to start deadlifting this barbell. In the background is a weight lifting rack bolted into the floor and hooks bolted onto the wall with assorted weight on them. You can deduce from her environment that she's in a gym.

Photo of a woman in shorts, a singlet, and socks with her hair tied back in a ponytail. The woman is standing up, having successfully lifted a heavily weighted barbell. Her expression is one of joy and bewilderment as if she can't believe she just successfully lifted that much weight. She is looking at another woman, also in gym attire, who is clapping and cheering as she walks towards the powerlifter as if to give her a celebratory hug.

This is BBB’s eleventh lifting party and the third I’ve attended. It’s such a joy and rush to watch so many fantastic powerlifters achieve so much and have that much fun while doing it!

Also, happy fourth birthday to Barbell Babes Brigade!

Photo of about four dozen women in powerlifting gear gather for a group photo in a warehouse gym with the worlds 'Barbell Babes Brigade' painted on the wall behind them. The women and smiling, cheering, and shouting. There is a balloon in the shape of the number four behind them.

Lifting party 10 at Barbell Babes Brigade

Last year Nadia joined the fantastic Barbell Babes Brigade: a powerlifting training centre run for women, by women.

Not every member joins BBB to compete, of course, so every few months they organise their own ‘lifting party’. This is an event that gives all members an opportunity to come together in front of a hugely supportive audience of trainers, peers, and invited friends and family while they attempt personal-best lifts.

The assembled crowd cheers and celebrates a successful deadlift. Those are Nadia’s upraised arms in the foreground :)

This is the second lifting party that Nadia has participated in (and that I have, therefore, attended) and they’re always so much fun.

Nadia watches someone off camera attempt a deadlift. Nadia is wearing her BBB top with their ‘just strong’ tagline written in large, bold capital letters across the back.

Also, it turns out pigtails are super handy when you’re a strong badass who is lifting heavy weights in her shoulders :)

Nadia warms-up before her squat attempts.

This year Nadia managed a 75kg squat (up from 55kg last year!), 47.5kg bench press, and 65kg deadlift. Click those links (to Nadia’s Instagram account) to watch videos of her doing to those lifts.

If you’re a woman who is interesting in powerlifting and wants to be trained by (and train with) a fantastic bunch of women, I cannot recommend Barbell Babes Brigade enough.

Group photo of the participants at the March 2020 lifting party.