A few weeks ago one of our editors here at BroBible, Chris Illuminati, brought you the story of “The 5’4”, 140lb Teenage Girl Who Can Deadlift More Than You.” It went up on the site and we all continued about our day, writing up posts about hot girls with giant boobs and…what else is it we cover? I couldn’t tell you if I tried.
But then a few days later I was goofing around on my Facebook and I saw the following on my newsfeed:
“Wait…that’s a BroBible link.”
“Wait…I’m Facebook friends with the 350 lb. deadlift girl??”
Although those two separate realizations came with a 5-minute gap in-between (I’m not the sharpest tool in the…living room?) I was still blown away. For one thing, Michelle isn’t a teenage girl. She’s 25. For another, we were both in the same chapter of Delta Gamma at the University of Maryland.
The main reason I hadn’t recognized her at first in the initial deadlifting story was because despite being in the same sorority, she was a graduating senior the semester I joined. I don’t know if any of you know what it’s like to be in a sorority, but your first semester is a bit of a whirlwind and you don’t necessarily get to know the seniors who are about to leave. What’s the point? Not only are they leaving but they stopped giving a shit months before you even signed your bid.
Regardless, I was a little stunned. So I did what any normal millennial my age would do in this situation – message her on Facebook and ask for an interview.
As you can see, Michelle was happy to talk to us about how she got into weightlifting in the first place, what her workout regimen is like and what it took to get to where she is today: deadlifting 350 lbs. Like it’s no sweat at all.
When did you first decide to start weight training, but in a serious way? Not just a “Oh hey I’m on the leg press for the first time in 2 weeks”?
Michelle Enkiri: I started on a regular schedule about 4 years ago.
Did lifting interfere with your daily class schedule/homework at all when you first started?
I was much more casual when I first started. My classes and social life took precedence over making a workout. Over time, I started planning everything else around the gym rather than the other way around probably because I was seeing the improvement.
What made you decide to take weight training up in the first place?
It all started because my brother wanted to see if I could deadlift twice my weight. I guess he thought it would be funny and I’m not sure what my motivation was at the time.
Do any of your sorority sisters weight lift to the extent that you do?
None that I know of.
Have you ever tried to get your sisters who don’t lift to start training with you? Do any of them know that you have this “hobby” on the side?
I don’t think most of them knew before this because I never really talked about it. My roommates know since I stick to a schedule and disappear the same times each week. I’ve probably joked with some of my sisters about lifting, but I haven’t actually tried to get them to train with me.