Team Lis Smash has an intern! Margaret Peth is a weightlifter who’s been training with us for over a year. After volunteering at last year’s Pull for Pride event, she approached me, inspired and excited to get involved with future events.
Margaret is helping out this spring with the Whole Life Challenge, Quarterly Progress Checks, Pull for Pride and our Spotify Training Playlists.
Originally from Macon, Margaret is a junior at Georgia State University. You can reach her at info@teamlissmash.com and follow her on Instagram at @suprememeatball.
What is your major at GSU?
Philosophy and Linguistics
Tell me about your lifting experience.
I started lifting weights my freshmen year after a bad break up with a guy I was totally head over heels for.
Fortunately, I had an awesome friend, Chris, who was tired of seeing me wallow in my self pity and do nothing to better myself. He insisted I start going to the gym with him and I started my journey of some basic strength training, as well as a little body building.
It did the trick! I was hooked on becoming stronger from my very first time in the gym! Fast forward a few months and I transferred to Georgia State.
I saw the powerlifting club at a booth in the rec center and decided to join! Through the club I was able to compete in two meets, one mock meet and one USAPL meet. I even won the mock meet!
But, from the time I started powerlifting, what I really wanted to do was move into olympic weightlifting. I was running my mouth one day in the gym (of course) and my friend Reed overheard me mentioning I wanted to weightlift. He gave me Lis’ name and that was that!
Here I am a year later, with much cleaner form and a whole community of amazing people who are also interested in becoming stronger!
What do you do in your spare time?
I just recently got into skateboarding, I also love traveling, reading, and honestly just sleeping and doing nothing. Nothing beats a good Sunday nap.
What’s your favorite book?
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I read it every spring, and every year I find something new that I connect with.
Favorite post-workout meal?
Chicken Tacos, hands down!
What are your 2019 goals?
My main goal is to set a consistent schedule and stick to it! I think this will help everything else fall into place, like sleeping, cooking, eating well, etc. I also want to compete in my first weightlifting meet! A more personal goal of mine is to stop always focusing on completing a finished product, and just enjoy the process of doing things.
Anything else you want to share?
If lifting has taught me one thing, it’s to be honest with myself about my weaknesses, and what I really need to focus on in order to be a better athlete. It’s hard to admit that I don’t always know what I’m doing (believe it or not), or that I need to lower the weight on the bar in order to make a cleaner lift.
I think it can be hard to swallow our pride and really evaluate what we need to do in our lives to be better people in general, and I’m glad that weightlifting has given me the opportunity to that, both in, and outside of the gym.
