“Grief is like a dirty little word. No one likes to admit it or talk so much about it. It is a personal and private experience with no timelines, varying degrees of intensity, and no manual to help one troubleshoot. But walking to this gym helped troubleshoot my grief,” Diana Beth says in a rather pensive voice.
Until last year, the 34-year-old event’s organiser had never been to a gym, let alone involved herself with any form of physical exercise. She harboured no plans of ever wanting to start an exercise regime.
“I didn’t see the need to because I have always eaten healthy. I’m also blessed with good genes,” she says.
“It’s nine months now since I began exercising. I had never in my entire life worked out until I lost my mother last year and my world crumbled,” she tells BD Life.
Engulfed with grief, Beth struggled with coming to terms with the loss.
“People sometimes say, ‘I can imagine what you are going through,’ but then when you go through loss, it’s nothing close to what you thought someone would go through. No amount of consoling helps. Those flashes of her memories didn’t make it any easier for me. I needed to find a distraction, and that’s how I began entertaining the thought of joining a gym. In March this year I made that decision,” Beth says.
At first, Beth’s whole idea of going to the gym was to pass time and be around people instead of being alone with her thoughts. Mornings before going to work were her lowest moments and she needed a boost.
“As a newbie, I wasn’t sure I would keep up with the gym routine. I thought I would find an excuse or two not to come; maybe it would have felt hard, or I wouldn’t be able to keep up with waking up early or coming in in the evening. But then the community I found here (at the Workout Warehouse gym) made me want to keep coming. Look at me, it’s been nine months of consistency,” she says.
Since she embarked on this exercise journey, Beth says grieving is unpredictable.
“Grieving can really be funny; when you wake up in the morning, all you can think of is your lost loved one. I needed my morning to start a little better, and that is why I thought a little distraction would come in handy. When you exercise, you forget about the loss. Over those nine months, what this gym distraction has done to me mentally is something I honestly find hard to explain. My mind is clearer, which has also been another motivation for me to keep showing up,” she says.
Emotions aside, she has also noted physical changes too.
“I’m no longer bloated as I used to, I don’t feel tired at work as was the case before. I feel more energised and psyched. I generally feel better both mentally, emotionally, and physically,” she says.
Goal: toned and thick
For the past nine months, Beth has been going to the gym three to four times a week, consistently. Most times, she does strength training.
“I’m a faster learner, and over the months, having got hooked to the gym, I found a goal that I am now working to achieve. I would say I am 40 percent there because, as mentioned earlier, when I began hitting the gym, it was because I needed a distraction. That has now changed over time.”
Having already reaped the immediate benefits of a workout, which are improved strength, mind clarity, metabolism, and energy, Beth is now chasing a longtime goal, which is body aesthetics.
“Now that I know better, this is the reason I lift heavy weights. My intention now is to curve my body. The goal is to achieve a toned, thick physique as opposed to lean and toned. I’m not yet there, but there is no rush. I have reaped the inward benefits; now I want the outward reward, which is the aesthetics. I want to look good,” she says.
Beth says she is now fully sold on the idea that lifting heavy weights gets the job done despite the risk of injuries it poses.
“I didn’t just start lifting heavy; I had to learn first the right form and range of motion. I began with ‘baby’ weights to ensure I don’t compromise on the form, which is very important in strength training, and now I have graduated to lifting heavy. For illustration purposes, my heaviest good goblet squat is 10 reps (repetitions) with a 40kg dumbbell,” she says.
How exactly does lifting heavy get the job done? I ask.
“It's simple; it helps build muscles. Muscle growth is triggered by stimuli, and to achieve that stimulus, you will need a load that will impact the muscle and put it under pressure,” Beth explains.
Whereas she has received a lot of encouragement from men to keep pushing with weight-lifting, she has suffered discouragement from fellow women.
“The kind of compliments I get from men and women are the complete opposite. Most women have questioned why I lift heavy weights instead of just doing cardio exercises like them and call it a day. They say I will end up looking like a man because I lift heavy weights and that’s where they get it all wrong.”
She explains: “I know, naturally a woman can’t look like a man, even if they lift weights, unless one uses certain supplements. We are built differently from men. Our capability to build muscles isn’t the same as that of a man because our hormones are different. When men build muscles, they will appear chiselled. For women, when we build muscles, we appear toned,” she says.
