When one thinks of a bodybuilder, the image that comes to mind is usually a man, with huge muscles, veins popping out, grunting away at the gym surrounded my weights. But that’s not always the case. Not every body builder is a huge man in a speedo though, in fact body builders can be girls, and there’s one right here on this campus, she’s a junior and her name is Ariana Palma.
A typical day for Ariana is much different than the average girl on campus. She wakes up every morning at 7 am, and goes right to the gym to do some cardio. After spending an hour there, she heads to class with a protein shake in one hand, and a yogurt in the other. After going to class, she returns back to her Drexel Arms apartment, packs a gym bag, and heads to the gym for the second time that day-where the lifting begins.
“Every day is different, I train a different body part each day of the week, 6 days a week. So no workout is ever the same. I lift heavy, and I lift as hard as possible, I’m always trying to get stronger.” Said Palma.
Ariana didn’t always know that she wanted to be a bodybuilder, in fact she rarely went to the gym all of high school. It wasn’t till freshman year of college, when she underwent a huge personal transformation, that she became interested in working out.
“Freshman year, I weighed 210 pounds. I didn’t have any energy and was very sedentary, I never did anything ever. I ate really unhealthy, and didn’t care what I was putting into my body. I was extremely depressed and was super unhappy with how I looked and how I felt. It wasn’t until my second semester when I was looking in the mirror that I realized that it was up to me to make a change, I was tired of being unhappy and it was time that I did something about it.”
Ariana devoted 6 months to losing weight and getting healthy. She went on a diet, and began to eat well-balanced meals and exercised, where she started to fall in love with running.
“I ran 4 to 5 miles every day, and it really kept me feeling good about myself. It was very therapeutic, especially when I would go running outside. I couldn’t wait to go for my daily run, I loved it that much.”
After losing 80 pounds, Ariana felt like a completely new person. She became a certified Zumba instructor and continued to run her sophomore year of college. It wasn’t t until summer going into junior year that Ariana started lifting, and it all started by accident.
“Right as sophomore year ended, I got a knee injury from all of the running I had been doing and I couldn’t run as much anymore. Even though I couldn’t run, I knew that I loved the gym and wanted to keep going, but since I couldn’t run anymore my options were really limited. So one day I just decided to go to the weight floor and see what it was all about. I started off by experimenting with the machines, and touching the weights a little bit. I became really intrigued with the whole concept of lifting and bodybuilding and began to do some research on it. I would ask people in the gym questions on different methods of training and they were really helpful, and that’s really how this all began.”
Like many girls, Ariana had developed an obsession with the scale while losing weight, so when the number on the scale started to increase, this was very difficult for her.
“I began lifting and after a month I started to weigh more because I was gaining muscle. At first, this was really hard for me and I didn’t know if I wanted to continue lifting because I was so obsessed with the number on the scale. But soon I realized I loved how I felt, and I looked really good. So it didn’t really matter what that scale said.”
The stigma against women who body build is really simple-it’s that they don’t, only men do. Women aren’t generally seen as strong as men, and Ariana knew that this was definitely a challenge that was going to be hard to overcome.
“The first time I hit the weight floor I got the dirtiest looks from all the men in the gym. I knew that they didn’t want me there, and it made me feel like I didn’t belong. It was so hard to stay at the gym at first because I felt like all eyes were on me. But once I decided that I was a bodybuilder, I can lift, I belong and I was just as capable as all of them it was okay. I now don’t feel out of place anymore at the gym, and in fact I lift heavier than a lot of guys there and I’m the one who helps some of them.”
Ariana has some advice for girls who want to begin bodybuilding.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t give up. It’s not easy, it’s tough, but the beginning is always the hardest. Getting over the intimidation, and the awkwardness of not knowing exactly what you are doing is a challenge. But the more you do it, the more you want to do it. There’s something really rewarding about the feeling you get when you push yourself to your limit, it’s hard to describe but it feels good knowing that any time you go to the gym and complete a workout that you succeeded. I want girls to know that they should never give up just because they feel like they don’t belong. As cheesy as it sounds you really can do whatever it is you set your mind to in the gym, just go for it.”
Ariana feels so passionate about lifting and bodybuilding, that she and her friend from home have just started their own business called Fail Forward Fitness, where they create diet and workout plans for women and men who want to get healthy.
“I really want to help people achieve their personal fitness goals. I know how it feels to not be happy with how you look, and I want to be someone who motivates people to try and be the best version of themselves that they can be. If I can do it, anyone can, and that’s really what this is all about. Lifting has become so important to me, and I just want to help make a difference in other peoples lives.”