Ariadna Mena, a 23-year-old from Dianense, has become a public figure in sports on social media, specifically in fitness and powerlifting, accumulating 183.900 followers on TikTok. Something that started as a hobby, then became her passion and among her latest achievements are fourth place in the Spanish Absolute Championship in powerlifting or first place as absolute champion in the Levante Championship.
The young woman tells in this interview for Dénia.com what her daily life is like, how she became a sports influencer and the difficulties that women who dedicate themselves to this sport encounter in society.
QUESTION: What is powerlifting?
ANSWER. It is often compared to weightlifting, as it consists of doing a weightlifting movement for one repetition with the maximum weight you can, but it is actually quite different. What we do are more basic gym exercises: squat, bench press and deadlift, in that order in competition. Then we prepare throughout the year, for whatever months, for the competition; obviously we don't always train for one repetition, but in competition it is only one and as much weight as you can.
Q. How long have you been practicing this sport and how did you get started?
R. I just turned 23 and I started when I was 20. The first year I was completely off work due to an injury. Then I had to go through an operation for another thing… So the first year I started was terrible. I've actually been doing powerlifting for two years, which is really not much.
I’ve always been more into sports like tennis, a lot of indoor soccer, a bit of athletics… things like that. When I stopped playing indoor soccer, I didn’t do anything for a while and I said “I’m going to do something.” I joined the gym when I was 17, I think, and I started to really like it. I started to find out a lot on my own and then I discovered what the basics were: I did a lot of squats and deadlifts… admittedly, I didn’t do much bench press.
Then, I think it was with YouTube videos, I started watching people doing powerlifting and that's when I knew what it was, because I didn't know about it. I was training on my own and doing it the way I knew how until one day I said "okay, I'm going to hire a coach because I'm really enjoying it and I'm going to compete".
Q. What do the competitions consist of?
R. We have three attempts at each movement, meaning we do three attempts at the squat, three attempts at the bench press, and three attempts at the deadlift. The first attempt at each movement is called the opener (opening) and it is basically a weight that you are going to ensure yourself, that you know you are going to take out perfectly without any problem to ensure that mark. The second would be with a little more weight and the third, well, it depends, because The competition also has a lot of strategy behind it.: It depends on what you are interested in doing in competition or not, you can set your own personal record or a Spanish record or simply a weight to beat a certain person on the podium…
You play around with it a bit and then the heaviest move (of the three attempts), the one you made valid, is the one you keep; then you add up the three valid moves from each move and that would be the total, which makes you win the competition.
Q. How many competitions have you won?
R. Well, the first competition of my life, I came second, but I was already injured, I was very unlucky when I started.
Then I came first, both in my category and in the overall category, in the Levante Championship. Of the rest of the girls, I was the one who lifted the most, but not in kilos as such: maybe one girl squatted 160 kilos and I did 140, but based on body weight and proportion I won.
Then I did Junior, which was a fairly important national competition and I finished fourth, just outside the podium. And in the last one, which was the Spanish absolute (in this case 'absolute' is not due to weight, but to age), I also finished fourth.
Q. What is the approximate age at which people can practice this sport?
R. You can practice it as long as you want. There are master categories and it is really a sport that has been around for quite a long time, Although it may seem that by lifting weights and so on you will always be injured or you will reach old age in bad shape, this is not the case at all..
If you manage your training and everything that it involves well, you can do it all your life.
Q. How do you become a public figure in powerlifting? How do you get into social media and start uploading videos?
R. With what social networks are, I started in quarantine, because that's when I started to like fitness a lot more and well I was just doing it for fun, because I've always liked social media..
I would record myself doing anything at home while training or some silly tiktok, but they were really popular at that time, that's when I grew the most in followers and it also transferred to Instagram, where I also uploaded videos.
Then I opened a YouTube channel, I uploaded videos and when I started powerlifting the same thing: I uploaded TikToks, reels... and I started making vlogs about my day-to-day life, how I train, how I eat, and people liked it.
It's true that I used to be much more up to date on social media, let's say, but not so much has happened for some time now. I focus more on my competitions and creating content based on that, whereas I used to create more.
Q. What is your daily routine?
R. Now, in my day-to-day life, I get up, work online advising people on training and dieting, as I am a dietician. In addition, I study fitness online, as I have so many things to do I needed to stay here at home. Then I go to train (five days a week); it is usually a very simple workout, an hour and a half, and if it is a more complex workout, it can last two and a half hours.
Q. And your diet?
R. Diet is quite flexible, but it depends on each person. If you are looking for maximum performance, diet is super important: it is not only important how many calories you consume to fit into a weight category and such, but also that what you are eating will give you that energy to train.
In my case, I try to eat healthy, trying to get into the category. Normally, when you are far from the competition, you try to weigh more to have better performance. Then you lose weight, if you need to, to get into your category.
Q. Have you ever felt judged for your body?
R. Not sometimes, quite often. I try not to let it affect me, because I don't dislike it, I like it, but when you leave the gym bubble that surrounds you... when you go out on the street in tank tops... well, you notice it, people look at you...
It usually happens to me especially with older men who tell me “uff… now you're fine, don't go overboard”… Some comments are even worse. I have also been compared to some man or whatever, and I am not a bodybuilder either, but just with that people already tell you enough things.
I feel very comfortable in the gym, nobody says anything to you, it's the most normal thing in the world, in fact everyone likes it.
Q. Who tends to criticize more, women or men?
R. Men totally, although some women too, maybe they just keep quiet about it and just think about it.
Q. Do you think powerlifting as a woman is still not normalized?
R. More than powerlifting, it's about the physical aspect; I'm quite strong physically, but you don't necessarily have to be that strong to be strong.
There are girls that you see and they are fit, but they are not super muscular and yet they have incredible strength. They don't criticize that as much, although there are people who may find it strange, the physique is more criticized.
Q. Do you think there is some hesitation among women to practice this sport?
R. Yes, but I think there are fewer and fewer of them, there are more and more girls. I think what many girls are most afraid of is their physical appearance., they don't want to get too big on top, etc.
But well, if they are more used to all this, they usually don't care, we even look for it, because we focus more on performance, it's what interests us the most; in the end, the physique is a consequence of it and, if we have to dedicate ourselves to this, well, it is what it is. It's like if you tell a swimmer that she has a very broad back, but it's just that she is passionate about doing that sport. That's it.
Q. Do you think that thanks to your social networks you serve as an inspiration to other women?
R. I think so, a lot of girls talk to me, we talk amongst ourselves, they get a little more interested… I really like that because we are debunking a lot of myths about strength training in general. I find it super interesting.
