Instagram has become a great platform to follow all of the progress the weightlifting industry is making, especially in regards to women.
Some amazing fit chicks are blowing up the Gram with their self-started companies and fitness campaigns, not to mention their own motivating selfies and helpful tips. Here’s a couple of the many badass women who have become Instafamous for being lifters.
1. Krissy Mae Cagney
Creator of Doughnuts & Deadlifts, entrepreneur and professional lifter Krissy Mae Cagney’s Instagram account has more than 300,000 followers. She’s living an inspired and adventurous lifestyle, climbing mountains, and occasionally cheating on her healthy regime with doughnuts.
She’s a role model for anyone who has had any kind of drug or alcohol dependency, as she’s now celebrating being sober for more than 1,000 days. She’s a strong supporter of CrossFit and how it has changed the way society views women who lift. Finally, it’s “sexy” for women to be strong.
2. Elizabeth Akinwale
Elizabeth Akinwale is a mother, trainer, CrossFitter, autism advocate and a blogger. She also loves to read, and gets a lot of inspiration from her favorite books.
She supports gender equality and feels that the fitness industry is slowly changing to give women a more equal position than just models in bikinis. As a female athlete, she wants to see the fitness industry pay male and female athletes equally, and don’t we all?
3. Kristin Pope
Athlete, JTS Olympic weightlifter, pitbull awareness advocate, small business owner, diet coach and more, Kristin Pope is one busy woman. As a competitive weightlifter, she knows what it means to fight hard for what you want.
She’s insanely confident and could care less about what people think about her body. She’s been a competitive athlete for over 20 years and is gaining momentum, letting her followers watch her progress in her training vlogs.
4. Kimberly Walford
Another competitive weightlifter, Walford has had a lot of success, and she has been a member of the 2016 World Powerlifting Championships IPF Ladies’ Team Champions. She lives by the slogan:
Destroy any obstacles that stand in the way of you accomplishing your goals.
She is also a member of a community called “The Iron Sisters U.S.A.,” which is an enterprise dedicated to “educating and enabling all women to become champions in their own iron goals.”
5. Aroosha Nekonam
Aroosha was born in Scotland to Iranian parents and has a journalism and law degree, but has been following her passion for fitness and works as an online coach and meal planner. She’s a chocoholic and posts plenty of pictures of protein-packed desserts with various combinations of bananas and chocolate.
She keeps her head up and focuses on progress over perfection.
6. Brittany Fried
Brttany Fried has 134,000 followers, and endorses Blackstone Lab products in her posts. She also shows off her squat-built legs in super trendy leggings. She’s inspired by her body and looks back on old pictures on instagram to inpire her to keep improving her body everyday. She definitely feels the media has changed the way it views women, and she agrees it’s empowering.
7. Emily Abbott
Abbott is a three-time CrossFit Games athlete, and she is considered the eighth-fittest woman in the world. She has recently announced she is partnering with PaleoEthics, which is an enterprise that sells high-performance supplements. As someone who has struggled with body image issues, like most of us, she has some words of wisdom:
“Well, of course I want to look a certain way, but lifting and being able to clean-and-jerk 240 pounds is way more joyful to me than looking good a pair of skinny jeans.”
8. Lauren Fisher
This 22 year-old CrossFit athlete and college student is incredibly inspiring. She’s faced a nasty leg injury and yet posted pictures of her going about her normal training with some modifications due to her leg cast.
The amount of squat modifications she’s figured out will make you want to try them all. She reminds anyone who wants to try CrossFit to sign up, and don’t be too hard on yourself at first. If it’s not fun, then it’s not worth it.
9. Becci Holcomb
Becci Holcomb is a USAPL/IPF lifter, who considers a 231lb bench press easy. The victim of an abusive relationship, Holcomb has become an inspiring role model for several women. She talks openly about how her ex-boyfriend was physically abusive, and that is a testament to her strength.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvwK6CCzAOY
She’s squatted 480lbs and she’s posted videos of it. Besides being a kick ass iron woman, she’s also an animal lover and posts pictures of her adorable furbabies too! It’s not hard to see how proud she is of her body and how weightlifting is such an instrumental part of her life:
“When you walk out and squat 500+ pounds, it’s exhilarating. There’s something about lifting weights that lifts your spirit to a level of pure independence.”
10. Lindsey Valenzuela
Lindsey Valenzuela is one busy woman. She’s a proud wife and mommy, but also the co-owner of Autumo CrossFit. She’s been in the CrossFit Games four times, and she’s endorsed by Reebok. She posts her workouts on the Gram and plenty of adorable photos of her baby boy. She’s proof fit moms can do it all.
Looking to build and maintain muscle like these boss girls? A T-booster might be just what you need…
