Who Says Women Can't Powerlift?
The world of female powerlifters has often been clouded by misconceptions – from claims that lifting heavy weights will make women look ‘too muscular’ to warnings that it could harm their health.
“Why do you want to look like a man?” “Don’t lift heavy weights or your womb will drop!”
These were among the comments frequently heard by Amirah Nursaidah Amir Hamzah, 38, Nicole Lee Shu Wei, 25, and Dr Izza Arsyika Abdul Rahim, 37, three Malaysian women who have found empowerment through powerlifting.
Both Amirah Nursaidah and Lee are competitive female powerlifters who have set records in a few national and regional powerlifting competitions, while Dr Izza Arsyika, a medical specialist at a local hospital, became enthusiastic about weight training after a sports injury.
Powerlifting is a strength sport focused on lifting the maximum possible weight in three specific exercises: squat, bench press and deadlift.
Despite their different backgrounds, the three women share a common goal – to challenge misconceptions about women’s participation in strength sports and promote the physical and mental benefits of lifting weights.
“People have this perception that female powerlifters can’t lift as much as men, but we can do squats with weights double our body weight and deadlift triple our body weight… (which is not a surprise as) we can carry babies in our womb during pregnancy,” said Amirah Nursaidah, a mother of two.
BATTLING OBESITY, SLIPPED DISC, HERNIA
She said before taking up powerlifting, she struggled with health issues such as a slipped disc in 2012 and a hernia in 2019. On top of that, she was also obese, weighing almost 90 kilogrammes (kg) when she was in her early 20s.
“I tried dieting and even lost 30kg once, but gained everything back within months because during that time, I didn’t know how to eat right or train properly.
“Then, I couldn’t walk or move properly due to a slipped disc, and later I developed a hernia. I also kept vomiting after eating. That's when I knew something had to change,” she told Bernama.
Now a full-time personal trainer, Amirah Nursaidah said her new chapter began when she learned about bariatric surgery to lose weight and eventually underwent the procedure in 2019. She also spent a year working closely with a personal trainer to shed her excess weight safely.
“From around 80 to 90kg, my weight dropped to 47-48kg after bariatric surgery. After I regained my health, my personal trainer introduced me to strength training.
“From there, I discovered I could actually lift heavy (weights); that’s when I started to love the feeling of being strong, and I could carry my own children and do household chores without feeling any pain,” she said.
Her passion soon led her to participate in her first powerlifting competition in 2021.
“I didn’t even plan to win anything… that time, my squat was 110kg, bench press 57.5kg and deadlift around 130kg… and I went on to win my first medal. I just felt super excited to continue my powerlifting journey,” she said.
In 2022, she took part in the Southeast Asian Cup tournament in Johor Bahru, where she won the bronze medal in the squat category.
FROM DANCER TO RECORD BREAKER
Lee’s journey into powerlifting started at 19, shortly after finishing school in 2017. Recently, in July, this young Malaysian powerlifter broke the Asian record with a 151kg squat in the under-52kg category at the Asian Pacific African Powerlifting Championships 2025 in Himeji, Japan, setting a new benchmark for women athletes in the region.
According to Lee, powerlifting also helped her to overcome body dysmorphia, a mental condition marked by a fixation on perceived physical defects.
“I used to be a dancer (specialising in Chinese ethnic and cultural dances) in my teenage years, and back then, I was extremely conscious about how I looked because, as a dancer, you needed to maintain a certain weight so your partner could lift you. I remember not eating at all during training sometimes. It was quite bad,” Lee recalled.
Her poor eating habits, however, had disrupted her hormonal balance as she was later diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition often linked to hormonal imbalances and lifestyle factors.
“I cut out carbs and wasn’t eating enough during puberty, and because of that, my nutrition was off balance. But now, it (eating) has gotten better,” she said, adding that she chose to take up powerlifting to change the way she viewed her body as well as her relationship with food.
She said powerlifting enables her to focus on what her body is capable of, rather than on how it looks.
“When I started focusing on what my body can achieve, I slowly let go of the obsession with how it looked; that’s what kept me in this sport for the last seven years,” said Lee, who worked in the advertising industry before becoming a freelance personal trainer, focusing on powerlifting.
FINDING STRENGTH IN LIFTING AFTER SPORTS INJURY
As for Dr Izza Arsyika, she played basketball in her student years, but later, a knee injury kept her off the court. This, however, opened a new chapter in her life, one where strength training became both her recovery tool and her passion.
Recalling her knee injury, she said it occurred in 2018 when she was participating in a basketball tournament.
“I tore my posterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in my right knee. I couldn’t play or even walk properly for a while and followed the traditional R.I.C.E. method – rest, ice, compression and elevation. However, new medical understanding suggests that prolonged rest can do more harm than good.
“In the past, we were told to rest completely, but now, doctors recommend only up to two weeks of rest before starting rehabilitation because too much rest leads to muscle loss,” she said.
A month after her injury, a sports medicine doctor told her that her quadriceps (muscles at the front of the thigh) had atrophied and that she needed to rebuild strength before returning to the court.
“During that time, I was on medical leave and I had no choice but to hit the gym every day, so I used the opportunity to focus on my recovery and rebuild muscle strength,” she said.
It marked the beginning of her strength training journey, starting with her lower body. Dr Izza Arsyika gradually incorporated upper-body exercises to improve overall strength, balance and performance.
Working in a hospital setting made her realise how essential strength is for healthcare professionals.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us had to perform tasks like transferring patients and taking blood (samples) for hours without a break.
“I saw a colleague developing a slipped disc due to long hours of bending over patients. I told myself I couldn’t end up the same way, and that was when I started taking care of my back seriously by embarking on deadlifting and strengthening my core to protect my spine,” she said.
Encouraged by her own progress, Dr Izza Arsyika now actively promotes strength training to her patients as a way to maintain bone and joint health.
“I’m living proof that strength training works and helps us move better. It also prevents injuries and keeps us independent,” she said.
She added that lifting weights does not necessarily mean heavy powerlifting – it is about progressive training, gradually increasing strength and improving mobility.
Meanwhile, addressing claims that women cannot progress in strength sports after the age of 30, Amirah Nursaidah said athletes like her have proven otherwise by continuing to improve and grow stronger.
For Lee, powerlifting taught her self-compassion.
“Now, every time I step onto that platform, I’m reminded that I’m no longer punishing my body… instead, I’m celebrating what it can do,” she said.
“Your body is capable of so much more than you think. When you start focusing on performance, everything else falls into place.”
