Raising the bar By Faith Giambarberee On Dec. 3, Abigail Jonas stepped up to the platform at her weightlifting practice, ready to lift the bar and show off her skills after months of hard training. Her teammates cheered for her, chanting motivational words as she persevered to reach new records, in great form. “It’s a lot of personal goals and setting things for yourself and really working and pushing towards all your goals and anything you want to achieve,” Jonas said. Having a motivational mindset is very important and Jonas is proof of that. She sets short term and long term goals at the gym Train Harder with her coach, Jordan Garrison. “He is the most amazing coach I’ve ever had. He helps me through everything; he pushes me, and he really makes sure I reach all of my goals and meet all of my expectations,” Jonas said. Having people like her coach there to help Jonas reach her expectations has proven to be very beneficial. He makes sure she’s alway on the right track and pushes her to put in effort even when she feels like giving up. On Nov. 30, she reached a new back squat personal record (PR) of 273Ibs. In competition, she set a school record for the clean & jerk in her weight class of 154Ibs. She got a 155Ib lift to beat the
14 DECEMBER 2020
previous record of 145Ibs, then beat it with her next lift of 160Ibs, and surpassed it again with 170Ibs on Nov. 18. “I haven’t had any doubts yet because I try to maintain a positive mindset when I go through this and train and spend every day. Even though I don’t max out, I hit new PRs, I’m still super super positive and I always wanna make sure that I can always do better. I’ve built a lot of muscle and I’ve lost a lot of weight and really it just improves my self image of myself and I get to achieve all the goals I’ve wanted. It really just boosts overall confidence and self esteem for me,” Jonas said. Weightlifting tremendously helps Jonas in several ways, making her feel more confident in herself during rough times. Striving always to do better has brought her a lot of success, not only for her team, but for her self-image as well. “I have made new friendships. I’ve only been doing it for about 3 months but I’ve made a lot of really, really close friends and I spend a lot of my time with them,” Jonas said. She has bonded over something she loves with other people who can share the same passion. Jonas explains that she is with those people a lot of the time which has got them much closer. “Right now I’m looking
Abigail Jonas performs a clean and jerk in competition. Photo provided by Abigail Jonas at all of the Florida schools like UF and UT and I hope to get into one of those come my senior year. Although weightlifting is not an official sport in college, I do plan to continue throughout college and upkeep a healthy lifestyle that is goal achieving,” Jonas said.
Even though Jonas is a junior this year, she plans on going to a local college here in Florida and pursuing weightlifting after she graduates. Congratulations to Abigail for being the Gregg Schindler State Farm Femaile Athlete of the month for December!
For Advertising Info 727-943-0551 I info@nnlflorida.com or visit tbnewsandlifestyles.com
