Friday Spotlight: Marilyn Moedinger of Precision Powerlifting Systems
Happy Friday!! (FINALLY).
Running with my friday theme of highlighting my teammates and badass people in my life I wanted to highlight one of our newer members of Precision Powerlifting Systems, Marilyn Moedinger.
So typically, when I decide who I want to be on my next post it comes from a beam of inspiration. Some of the people I highlight, I see regularly and some I have never met more than once (Vin). I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, these posts FIRE ME UP. I plan to highlight everyone (or close to everyone) on the team at some point. And we are up to 50 people now! (so much content excites me). Marilyn is a new friend of mine. She is considered a beginner powerlifter (same, girl) even though she has been lifting for years (also, same). Marilyn comes to the gym after working a full day on her feet and she own her OWN BUSINESS. Something about a strong woman owning her own business by day and coming into the gym to lift heavy ass weight by night really, really inspires me. After speaking with Marilyn last week (which is always a treat because she is a deeply emotionally intelligent person) I decided I wanted to highlight her.
Before I get into Marilyn’s Q’s, I wanted to talk briefly about our Coach. I probably don’t give Kevin Cann the recognition he deserves. If you are new to my page, you notice that I highlight all these athletes and that I write about my powerlifting team a lot. None and I literally mean none, of this would would be possible without our coach, Kevin. I look up to him as mentor and a great friend. We met almost a year ago and without him, this blog, my new total in powerlifting, and all my friends who inspire me so much would have never happened. Kevin and I both found ourselves having just left our jobs right around the same time last year and we met at RX in Somerville. We both have come pretty far since then.
Anyways, Here are the questions I asked Marilyn and they are so great!
Q: How long have you been lifting and when did you start powerlifting?
A: I had to take a PE course in undergrad, and I chose a lifting class. Turns out it was all machines and bench pressing, but I really liked it, and it provided a baseline for the next 10+ years of noodling around in the gym. A couple of years ago, I decided to get more serious about lifting, and I started to read more about how to do it, work with some trainers, etc – but powerlifting came along because of…a Tinder date! I matched with a powerlifter, and our second date was in the gym – I just did whatever he did, and eventually, that led to me getting a trainer, a program, and to competing a couple of times. Turns out he and I were just meant to be friends, but the true love connection made that day was powerlifting!
Q: When is your first (next) USAPL meet? Are you ready for it? Nervous? Excited? Etc..
A: I’m competing in my first USAPL meet on 7 April. I’m super excited, because I feel like I’ve made great strides, and I’m ready to put myself to the test. I’m also nervous, of course, because I want to do well. Usually after a meet, I lose focus and feel kind of down, so mostly what I’m excited about this time is having a team and coach to keep me moving forward – I’ve already signed up for another meet in July!
Q: How do you juggle owning your own business (Runcible Studios) and make lifting work?
A: In some ways, it helps that I own my own business and that I’m the boss – I set my schedule, and I leave the office at 5:30 sharp to make sure I’m at the gym at a reasonable hour. I tell my clients that I’m in training, which for the most part, they respect and think is pretty cool. Other than that, though…there are lots of challenges. The stress is intense, and I’m in a business that’s quite demanding – clients, contractors, staff all need me to keep things moving…at least once a week I’m arriving to the gym still on my phone about something. I do some practical things to balance work and lifting, such as putting my gym schedule into my work calendar to show myself and others that training isn’t optional. I also took the email notification icon off my phone. I have to look at my phone during training to see my program or record sets, and when I’d see the work email notification at the top, I would feel like I had to check it. Now I don’t see that little envelope, and it’s “out of sight, out of mind” and I can concentrate on lifting. I also meal prep so all my lunches and dinners are ready to go to save time, and I am very serious about getting to bed early. Rest is absolutely key to keeping up my resilience to stress – both professional and lifting-wise! In short, it’s about finding what works to get into the headspace I need to be in to lift, optimizing the physical factors [sleep, food, recovery], and treating training in a professional manner.
Q: What are you future goals for powerlifting?
A: I’d like to qualify for Nationals. It feels crazy to even say that, given my numbers, but I’m ready to put in the work, and I know I have the capacity and the stubbornness to plug away and continue to improve. Short term, I’d like to continue to work on finding ways to support my teammates and help them get better too. I also love the conversations we have in the gym about training, theory, skill acquisition, mind-body interface, programming, etc – so I’d like to continue learning about all that stuff too!
Q: How has being on a powerlifting team (PPS) helped your performance? (if it has!)
A: I can’t even begin to quantify how much it has helped me…well, I guess I can, since my numbers have all gone up…but it’s much more than just increased numbers on the bar. During any given training session, I get to see hundreds of reps from people much more skilled than I am – I hear Kevin’s advice for them, I see how they adjust their training or fight for reps, I’m trusted with spotting and handoffs, I can ask others for their thoughts about technique, training, nutrition, competitions, whatever – or lately, chaos theory [see: Kevin’s blog] – for a lifter with a lot to learn [aka me], it’s an amazing environment. The thing is, though, none of that would be possible without a positive, supportive team atmosphere – I’ve felt that from day one. Kevin and our team captains and leaders deserve a lot of credit for fostering this culture – it’s not something that happens by accident. When someone has a big attempt or a PR, everyone is cheering for them, no matter what weight is on the bar. Everyone here remembers when THEY were just a beginner, and they have respect for anyone who’s putting in the work. We’re all working professionals who dedicate a lot of our precious free time to training – and as a result, we train with intensity, purpose, and respect. For me, it’s a perfect fit.
Q: Did you know you wanted to own your own architectural design business one day?
A: Well, I always wanted to be an architect, even before I knew what one was. When I was a little girl, I had Barbie dolls, but I built them houses instead of dressing them up. I did all kinds of weird things when I was a kid – I would watch TV, and based on the inside of a house shown on a sitcom, I’d draw up floor plans or 3D views of what the whole house might look like, or I almost failed 6th grade math because I spent the whole time drawing this giant city that took up maybe 50 sheets of paper. After undergrad, I spent 4 years working construction, and then I got a grad degree and worked in an architecture firm here in Boston, as well as in academia for a short while. All of those various experiences gave me the breadth of experience, and the knowledge and confidence, to open my own firm about 5 years ago, and I’ve never looked back. It’s certainly been an adventure – we’ve done everything from houses to breweries to a drone shipping facility to a waste management plant to stores and offices to a pot dispensary…and more cool stuff on the horizon! So I guess it was inevitable that I go out on my own at some point – I’m pretty driven and independent, and I love the challenges of the business side.
Q: How have you improved in technique and strength over the last four months?
A: How long can I go on?! Let’s just say that I had, and have, a lot of work to do! Obviously I’ve been working a lot on technique, which has improved greatly in short time. And I’m a helluva lot stronger, for sure! But, there are some intangibles too – before, I was always afraid I’d hurt myself, so I’d be extra cautious or treat every ache and pain as an emergency. Kevin told me on week 2 “you’re not made of glass.” And he’s right – I grew up on a farm, I played sports my whole life, I worked construction – why would doing some squat reps be any harder or more dangerous than using my body for those other tasks, which ALSO include tons of squatting and deadlifting?! I know my lifting technique has improved a lot, and that helps me be a better *lifter* – but improvements and developments in my confidence, my mental/emotional self, my desire to learn and grow, my humility, and my curiosity have made me a better *person*, which is pretty friggin awesome. LFG!!
Thank you so, so much for sharing, Marilyn. Honestly, my point for writing these posts about different teammates is exactly what this entry is all about! It is to highlight how literally anyone can be a powerlifter and how different we all are. To put it into perspective, Marilyn owns her own design business not only that but we have a wellness editor for Boston Magazine, to a dog walker business owner to a podiatrist, to personal trainers and more on the team. Everyone is different and we all come from totally different backgrounds yet we are all bonding over the same thing. Powerlifting finds you, you don’t find it!