The Country Music Festival will take a break form the tunes and flex its muscle on Saturday as the Strong Man and Strong Woman competitions take centre stage on Peel st with three local girls pumped up to compete.
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Melissa O’Connell, Kat Mackie and Madii Corey have formed a tight friendship based around lifting heavy weights, chasing PB’s and living fit and healthy lifestyles, and on Saturday they will take that training to the street.
"Being a strong woman is so much more than lifting up weights,” Mackie said.
“It encompasses how we see ourselves and how we react towards others. It's essentially being comfortable enough in your own skin to say, yes I'm good enough. I accept me for me.”
“Society has told us for years that a fit woman is a slim woman, but I say a fit woman can be any shape, size or colour, a woman who is achieving her goals, loving life & exuding confidence".
For busy working mum Mellissa O’Connell her training and gym time is essentially her only “me time”.
"I work full time, I've a great supportive hubby and two young girls, my life gets crazy busy but when my girls see how much support we give to each other as women, I know that I'm being a great role model for them to achieve anything they want to.”
O’Connell and Mackie have been preparing for the competition for months and have just completed 10 weeks of heavy lifting specific training four times a week, with Corey also joining them and trainer, Soulfit Training and Mentoring proprietor Jay Ramirez.
“It’s a sisterhood,” Corey said.
“We keep each other accountable and on track with our strength gains and we also pick each other up when one of us is having a rough time.”
“We're about smashing that old stereotype of what a 'fit, strong' woman looks like, about how other women should feel in their own bodies, and what society tells us is acceptable. Just love yourself. That's what we're all about.”
The 2017 Tamworth Country Music’s Strongest Man and Woman Competition will be held opn Saturday in Peel Street just north of Brisbane Street (in the festival road closure between Brisbane and Bourke Streets)
The event will be held from 10am to 4pm approximately and will include a log press, deadlift, Atlas stones and truck pull.
This event will be a qualifying event for the Melbourne Arnolds strong man competition in 2017 as well as the New South Wales strongest man competition in 2017.
