Muscling through

Observing junior Eliza Cedergreen's journey with weightlifting and bodybuilding

by Max Eastman editor in chief

As sweat drips off her brow, junior Eliza Cedergreen pushes through the last few reps of her set of chest flys. She wipes off the sweat and glances at her phone, where the next exercise planned for the day is displayed. She moves with small. I danced and I did gymnastics, and I did cheerleading. I always got comments from the time I was young about my body, and how skinny I was and how people wanted to look like me. But in my head, it didn't make any sense because I wasn't super happy.”

Cedergreen’s path to success in the gym was not al- wanted to like lose weight and get skinnier,” Cedergreen said. “I started doing cardio because that's what my sister did, but we have always had opposite body types. But my brother always weight trained and after a couple months the motor on me just completely switched and I kind of went on my own and started doing a bunch of research about everything. And then, I just got super into the weightlifting area of fitness and then it just kept on going.”

After doing research on the best training methods and lifting ideologies, Cedergreen came up with a framework to help keep herself orgaduring her journey in the gym. She makes sure to emphasize variation in exercise choice to keep training inter-

“I have specific days of the week that I train specific muscles,” Cedergreen said. “I don't have a coach of any sort and I don't have like a specific program but I know what exercises I need to do for what muscles. Right now I'm hitting every muscle group twice a week and that's where I start from. Then I do the exercises [within said muscle group] that I feel like doing, that I know I need to work on or that I have goals for. In my head, I have things that I need to do but I also definitely have fun with things and do the things that I like to do.”

Cedergreen also makes sure to find the balance between eating healthy and eating to maximize preformance in the gym but also making sure she still enjoys food and all the social aspects that go along with it.

“The meal plan is not specific,” Cedergreen said. “It's not like I have a setup meal plan but I'll occasionally track calories. If I'm out with friends, my meals are whatever I want to eat but I always am eating a super high protein diet. For school, though, I do meal prep at the beginning of the week, and I pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday. Dinner is sometimes the same as lunch. Everything stays super similar. It's structured but then at the same time, I have make my own choices and go off and have fun. I would only be super strict if I was in bodybuilding prep.”

After switching her initial goal from weight loss to muscle gain Cedergreen began to see results, not just physically either. She first started seeing her relationship with her brother strengthen as they bonded throughout time in the gym.

“[My brother] is graduated from college so there's a really big age gap between us,” Cedergreen said. “We've always been close just because I'm his little sister. But once I started lifting weights it made our relationship much better. It was never bad, but now we are best friends because of the gym. He loves that I got into it and I love getting to ask him all the questions I had at the beginning.”

In addition to seeing herself grow closer with her brother, Cedergreen was also starting to really feel tangible improvements to both her mental health and stress levels.

“The mental health part of it is is huge and that has been like over 50% of why I love doing it,” Cedergreen said. “People are like, 'it's all about your body'.' I'm like, ‘No it's about passion and discipline.’ It becomes routine and you realize how much better you feel after you get into it.”

However, Cedergreen’s experience in the gym has not always been 100% positive. She has had to deal with the hardships associated with breaking into a male-dominated space as a young female.

“For me, being in such a male-dominated space, at first, it was the scariest part of the whole entire thing,” Cedergreen said. “I don't even know how to explain it, it was just super uncomfortable. When I look back and look at the type of person I was when I went into it, I honestly don't understand how I did it because I was super low confidence not even just with males, but with people in general. I remember being really scared, but I became so passionate about it that the passion for the gym kind of took over the worry about what people would think and the judgments I would get. Now like the male-dominated side of it does not affect me at all anymore.”

As Cedergreen has spent more time in the gym and with other members of the community she has learned people don’t always go to the gym just for the physical benefits, rather because the gym is a great teacher.

“When you think about the gym, you can make it relate to so many other things that are going on in your life,” Cedergreen said. “I don't think people ever make that connection. They all think 'these are a bunch of hunks and only care about muscles'. More than half the people that are in this community that is not even their main focus. It's because the gym teaches you so much about persevering and hard work. It's discipline and it's hard work and it's failing and accomplishing.”

LEFT: Eliza Cedergreen is using the chest press machine. Chest has always been a very important part of her training. “I do chest and back almost everyday,” Cedergreen said. "It's one of the best accesory chest movements ."

BOTTOM LEFT: Eliza Cedergreen is practicing on bench to bring her max up. She recently met the 135 lbs. milestone. "Benching is my favorite compound movement," Cedergreen said. "I usually start off with this lift."

BOTTOM RIGHT: Eliza Cedergreen prepares her set. She has always enjoyed using music to help focus. "I didnt train this when I frst started," Cedergreen said. "Now its my favorite lift." (Photos by Sydney Collinger)