by Carol Radin<\/p>\n
Photos by Maureen Tricase\/Capture Your Moments<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rheta West still remembers the day a man said to her, \u201cWomen don\u2019t dead lift!\u201d<\/p>\n
She was in her 30s, working out at a gym at the Carrier Corporation, where she was a software programmer. He was telling her that women could never lift hundreds of pounds of loaded barbell from a dead stop on the floor to a fully-erect body position. That didn\u2019t bother Rheta, though. She was going to lift a heavier and heavier barbell off the floor no matter what. Eventually she earned the man\u2019s respect, and he put her in contact with some serious bench lifters who taught her even more.<\/p>\n
Not only did Rheta get stronger \u2014 she got world-class strong. She has since attained nine all-time world records for any female in her weight class. To this day, Rheta still holds two records in the 148 lb. weight class \u2014 one for a 675 lb. squat, and one for an \u201cequipped total record of 1,570 lbs.,\u201d where she squatted 665, benched 395, and deadlifted 510.<\/p>\n
Rheta now owns Blood Iron Barbell, a Syracuse gym for weightlifters and bodybuilders. She calls it an \u201cold school power gym,\u201d where the cement floor and the unmatched equipment tell you appearances don\u2019t matter, but respect and self-esteem do. The \u201cBlood\u201d in the name stands for family, which is how she runs her business. Her logo of interlocking loops is meant to convey the message: \u201cPaths change and cross, but you\u2019re never alone.\u201d Without those values, Rheta knows she and other lifters could not endure the mental and physical rigors of getting stronger.<\/p>\n
After 13 years of co-owning a Hercules gym in Syracuse, Rheta started Blood Iron Barbell in June 2019. She liked the building on Burnet Avenue as soon as she saw it, although it was unquestionably raw material.\u00a0 After extensive repairs, she moved in with one bench, one bar, and one monolift squat rack, all that remained from her Hercules partnership. Austerity didn\u2019t deter her though. Skilled in website development and social media, she put up her webpage, advertised at competition meets and set up tables at bodybuilding shows. She provides space for 315 Strong, a CNY competition team, and some of her clients followed her from Hercules as well.<\/p>\n
Six months in, Rheta now has a gym with roomfuls of bars, benches, barbells, competition platforms, power racks and more, with equipment for her non-power lifting members as well. She contracts two personal trainers and a chiropractor on site, and also offers on-line training programs, where people can enter their goals online and get a program tailored to their needs.<\/p>\n
Though Rheta has trained for world records, she had never trained as a businesswoman. Aside from her experience with the Hercules gym, she was on her own with Blood Iron Barbell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t operate under the same business model as a regular gym,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of it was intuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s let her creative side take over, fostering community spirit with t-shirts and hoodies she presses under her own brand, \u201cJakked Life.\u201d She also sponsors meets, where people from all over the state gather to compete and inspire each other. On Feb. 8, she will host a co-ed team \u201cStrongman\u201d competition, and on March 28, the \u201cIron Asylum Powerlifting Meet\u201d for invitation-only \u201cbig numbers lifters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Champion lifter that she is, though, Rheta will be the first to say that not everyone has to compete or achieve a record.\u00a0 She trains women and men of all ages with a range of goals.\u00a0 Some women, she says, will tell her, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be bulky, but I want to be strong.\u201d \u00a0After a consultation with each new member, Rheta will say, \u201c\u2019Show me what you can<\/em> do.\u2019 Then I take people from where they are and start tweaking depending on what they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n For women in particular, Rheta sometimes has to quell fears about how far they really can take their bodies.<\/p>\n \u201cOne biggest thing I work on with women is \u2018owning up to the weight you\u2019re gonna do\u2019 and having the confidence to do it,\u201d she said. As training kicks in, she notices, \u201cWomen start feeling more confident about other parts of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n As a world record holder, a business owner, a mother of two and now a grandmother, Rheta knows that transformation firsthand. Growing up in a military family frequently on the move, Rheta had a tough time in high school, admitting she\u2019d gotten into trouble a few times. At a facility for youth offenders northwest of Albany, she started lifting weights to get stronger and defend herself. It started to change her.<\/p>\n \u201cI started feeling empowered and liked myself more,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n She became more accomplished professionally, too, completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from SUNY IT-Utica, and working in Carrier\u2019s software department for 13 years. In her early 20s, Rheta pursued powerlifting more seriously to get stronger for the cardio-kick-boxing she was doing at the time. Later she would also devote more time to bodybuilding, which differs from lifting in that it sculpts the body rather than building strength.<\/p>\n Those long hours of intense training and coast-to-coast lifting records take heart, sheer heart and will. Yet when asked what motivates her, Rheta says simply, \u201cI just like to be strong. Not the strongest. But as strong as I can be.\u201d\u00a0 Now she has made Blood Iron Barbell the place where others can be that, too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Blood Iron Barbell is located at 900 Burnet Ave., Syracuse, NY. The website is bloodironbarbell.com or contact Rheta at 315-440-9627 or rheta@rhetawest.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Carol Radin Photos by Maureen Tricase\/Capture Your Moments Rheta West still remembers the day a man said to her, \u201cWomen don\u2019t dead lift!\u201d She was in her 30s, working out at a gym at the Carrier Corporation, where she was a software programmer. He was telling her that women could never lift hundreds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,126],"tags":[1057,483,157,1056],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health","tag-blood-iron-barbell","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-inspire","tag-rheta-west"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/fullsizeoutput_1ea6b.jpeg?fit=4603%2C5370&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2242,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2242","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":0},"title":"INSPIRE: Two heart surgeries won\u2019t keep Anne Proppe off the roads","author":"Staff","date":"February 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"By Matthew Gutierrez In her early 50s, Anne Proppe gained about 40 pounds. 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