Kent State Ladies Lift Club has found success in helping women explore the sport of weightlifting in the past year.

The club was founded by Avery Marrs in Feb. 2022. Marrs’s mission was to get women to feel more confident in the gym and lifting weights.

Marrs started lifting weights a year before she started Ladies Lift. After working as a fitness instructor at the university, Marrs noticed there was a need for a lifting club at Kent State. She found lifting to be an empowering form of exercise, and decided to start a women’s lifting club on campus.

“If it’s something that you enjoy as a woman, it is very important to feel comfortable and confident where you’re doing it,” Marrs said. “It’s crazy the ratio of men to women in the gym, especially on the big weight floor.”

Lifting being a very male-dominated form of exercise also encouraged Marrs to get more women involved in the sport.

“The quarter of the weight floor being women, it feels really empowering to be there and fill up the space,” Marrs said.

Social media coordinator Giovanna Marinho joined Ladies Lift at the beginning of this semester and has had a very positive experience so far.

“I really love that we have this group and we can empower women by helping them understand how to properly lift,” Marinho said.

Marinho started lifting when she was sixteen years old, and she was happy to find a place where she could help other women learn how to lift.

A lot of the women that join the club have little experience lifting before joining.

“For a lot of them it is a new thing and they want to learn how to do stuff properly and how to start becoming confident or trying out new exercises,” Marrs said.

Marinho believes a lot of people have trouble knowing where to start when it comes to lifting. Ladies Lift gives people interested in the sport the opportunity to find a starting place and learn proper techniques alongside other members.

Marrs said she has built a community with the women in the Ladies Lift Club.

“I feel like we’ve definitely built a community,” Marrs said. “Everybody’s there to try and gain some confidence and it’s really nice to be in the same boat with some other girls.”

The members also enjoy seeing familiar faces when they go to the gym outside of Ladies Lift meetings.

“If you’re there alone, by yourself, and you see one of those girls, you can say, ‘Hi,’” Marrs said. “You have someone there with you in the gym.”

For some people, going to the gym alone can be a daunting task, especially for those new to working out. Marinho said going to the gym with a group helps people feel more comfortable in the beginning.

“Until you get used to it, if you go with a group of people you’ll feel 100% better,” Marinho said.

At their weekly meetings, Ladies Lift gives members the opportunity to explore different types of lifting and exercises. The club usually splits into small groups depending on what the members want to focus on, whether it be arms, chest, lower body or learning how to use certain equipment properly.

There are several “lift captains” in the club who are more experienced in lifting that head these small groups and help where it’s needed.

There are even some meetings where members can try out different types of exercise as well, such as yoga.

Marrs said meetings are free to join and members can come and go to meetings as they please. The club can be found on Instagram for updates on meetings and events.

“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Marinho said.

Addison Foreman is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].