How Lisa Maximus Found Strength Beyond the Scale

The champion powerlifter talks breaking records, battling demons, and building back.

All-time world record holder Lisa Maximus

Lisa Maximus is about as badass as it gets. The 37-year old record-holding powerlifter’s strength journey began as a battle with disordered eating—one she overcame through relentless hard work. Now, she channels that into coaching, empowering women and men (yes, she trains both) at the gym she co-founded with her husband, retired MMA fighter Bobby Maximus.

I was introduced to Lisa through our mutual friend, Maria Colacurcio, who trained under her a couple years ago. “She can deadlift and squat more than anyone I’ve seen,” Maria wrote of Lisa. “My gut says the two of you will hit it off.”

We did.

What follows is an excerpt from our recent conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

Were you always a powerlifter? What’s your sports background?

I come from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It was a little uppity. My dad was a second-generation Pontiac car dealer. My world was country clubs, and I rode horses pretty seriously. I would compete year-round. I was competitive and I loved it. It established a work ethic in me, too: I would be at the barn four to six hours a day, warming the horse up, grooming, tacking. With a horse, you can’t half-ass it. It’s an animal that’s counting on you.

Lisa’s athletic journey began with horses.

How did horses turn into barbells?

It wasn’t a straight road. When I stopped riding— for financial reasons, I was about 20 years old—I started hitting the gym. I moved back home, then went back to school for a degree in physical education. I was into dietetics and nutrition. It was around this time that I became obsessed with weight loss. I really wanted to be skinny; I got super obsessed with food. I was into the keto diet and went down this unhealthy [rabbit hole] with nutrition. I remember I’d lie in bed and grab my stomach and cry. My strength training really came out of that dark place.

How did it happen?

I had an epiphany in the gym one day. I’d hired a coach and was training alongside two other girls. And every week they were hitting PRs; every week, they were adding a little more, a little more. And I wasn’t. As we trained, I’d listen to them chit chat, say stuff like, “Oh my god, I’m so bad. I ate a whole pizza on Saturday.” And I’d think, “Gosh, I’m trying to eat as little as I can and I went on a 16-mile hike on Saturday.” It became clear that I was starving myself and overtraining, and it wasn’t working. I had this moment where I thought, “Let’s see what happens. Instead of trying to hike all the mountains and starve myself, what if I had pizza. What if I had the cookie.” So I added in some cals and tried to recover. I thought, “What if I try, what if I really commit myself to doing this thing.” And all of a sudden, things started to progress. I was lifting more. I was PRing. And I was hooked.

That’s really when I changed my mentality. I wasn’t looking in the mirror for validation anymore. It was about performance–- and that felt better than “skinny.”

It sounds like your approach to food really changed. Can you describe that shift? It’s hard for many women who struggle with disordered eating to make that leap.

My lifts started going up and I surrendered to it.

And, by the way? I was never “skinny” per se. It was like, I’m chasing this thing, [and it was] never enough. Even when I was 116 pounds and 13 percent body fat and didn’t have a period, I still wasn’t “skinny”– I just didn’t have muscle.

I thought, enough is enough. I started to really listen to myself, the messages that were zooming through my head. There was a lot of negativity, lots of “I’m fat” and I was just done with it. And eventually things became more purpose driven: I’m making better choices for my lifting. I’m eating for this purpose. I’m sleeping for this purpose. It was for performance purposes versus aesthetic. And it started this positive feedback loop: if I eat, I do well. Food wasn’t the enemy anymore. Now food is the helper, food is for nourishment. That was my biggest shift.

How did all this translate into competing in powerlifting?

I started competing after I had my son in 2016. A turning point came for me when I spent three days training with Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell [an invitation-only strength training gym]. He inspired me to change my thinking about my limits. He asked me what my goal was, I said that I wanted to deadlift 300 pounds, and he said “Pfft, I have girls half your size deadlifting 4.” That made me feel like, “F—k yeah!” I started hitting 400. I spent 6 to 8 months studying for their personal training certification. And I went back home totally inspired.

My first big competition was in 2018—FitCon at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, where I won best lifter at the meet, among women.

From there, I’ve done nearly two dozen competitions. Among the highlights have been holding all-time [across all powerlifting federations] world records in the squat and in the total [across the three powerlifting events: squat, bench press, deadlift] in my weight class.

Lisa crushing a deadlift at her first big meet

You’re a mom and a stepmom. Your husband is an athlete and has his own training schedule. You both train clients at the gym. How on earth do you get your workouts in?

I need a team to train, because I need spotters. You're not hoisting 600 pounds without someone behind you. So I train on a team that meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 to 10:30 at night: On those nights, I don’t put my kids [aged 5 and 8] down for bed, which is really hard for me. Then on Fridays, I train alongside some of my clients between 4 and 6 p.m. On Saturday mornings, I do it before my kids’ sports practice. And then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I fit it around kids’ sports and my work schedule. It’s brutal, but I don’t ever skip.

I also walk every day for 30 minutes, for sun exposure and to move my body. Sometimes I’ll call my friend or my mom. That’s my down time and it’s important to me.

What’s next in competing for you?

This year I’m moving up a weight class. Being in a 123-pound weight class, I just look different from anyone else. Typically anyone with my 5’4” height is twice my size–- 160, 170, 180 pounds. I’m slight–I have long legs, long arms, a wide stance– and I’ve had to adjust and move a little differently because I have long limbs.

So I’ve decided to go up a weight class. It just feels like I’m not optimal at this weight; my body wants to be heavier. And so, for me, mentally, it’s challenging. Seeing the number on the scale go up to 140, I’m not gonna lie, that’s still hard for me. We’re so conditioned to want the numbers to go down. I mean, I haven’t seen 140 since I was pregnant.

I love the way I look. My body fat is 16 percent and I can still see my abs.

But to some extent, I still struggle. We all do. I have to tell myself, “It’s OK.” It’s OK.