Serving as a beacon of strength, she illuminates hope in others by openly sharing her personal accounts of adversity with others that are battling negative body image and low self-esteem. Through her work as an Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and CrossFit trainer, Julie is on a mission to support, encourage, and motivate people of all ages to stay healthy, work towards their goals, and coach them through hardships in and out of the gym. But how did she discover her athletic abilities? Growing up with four older brothers. She had no choice. It all started when her father, at a very young age, wanted her and her brothers to know self-defense. That was just the beginning…

Realizing The Need For Strength

I grew up in sunny Huntington Beach, California. And when I was younger, I decided to learn how to horseback ride. I started with that and loved it. This led to jumping horses, and made me realize that I had to be stronger to do what I wanted to do. After moving to Nevada due to my parent’s divorce, I changed course and started playing tennis and dancing a lot.

Competition With My Brothers

I think athletic development definitely started with trying to keep up with my brothers, and trying to be better than them, since I was the only girl. My other older brother’s involvement in tennis kept me in it. He was really good at it and always wanted to be better than me. That lit a fire inside me. Another one of my brothers was on the wrestling team and the track team, and I wanted to do something where he wasn’t better than me. Soon, we were on the same track team, and we would do the same hurdles, sprints, and long jumps. Though my dad didn’t let me wrestle…

Finding My Own Identity

Once I was 18 and moved away from home, I decided I wanted to have my own identity, instead of trying to keep up with my brothers. That’s when I started to get into the CrossFit and weightlifting. That’s also where I actually found my love of Olympic weightlifting. It was completely different than anything I had done. And it actually related to a lot of the sports that grew up I playing. In school, I wasn’t the cheerleader or the prom queen. I was kind of that odd ball out. Finding myself and standing out that way is what actually made me happy and then I stuck with it.

The Community Makes the Difference

The main difference with Olympic weightlifting compared to any sport is the community aspect. While we know that everyone is competing individually, we’re still always rooting for the other person, whether they make the list or not.

In Love With Weights

The best way to put it: lifters tend to be the black sheep, or the underdog. You’re not the real social person, you’re not the person who wants to be going out all the time. You’re just in love with lifting the weights, and hearing the barbells drop. And then lifting the weight again. People understand that. When you’re lifting with a group of people that do the same thing, they respect it. They congratulate you for stepping up and trying it, even if you didn’t make it. That community in itself is completely different from any others.

The CrossFit Family

CrossFit is a huge family. Whether you’re a competitor or someone who just wants to get better in your own health. Everyone supports you and respects what you’re doing at the same time. Two different worlds that combine into one.

Defining Moment

When I was living up North, before I was training, I was just going to the gym doing my own thing. I was in a relationship and my boyfriend was pretty heavy into drinking. Things started going downhill after a while. And there was a night where he literally broke in and assaulted me: he choked me and I passed out. But I wasn’t strong enough to fight back, or protect myself. And that was a scary moment–but it was also a moment when I decided that something needed to change.

“I realized I needed to be a stronger person mentally, and if life….and decided to stand up for myself.”  - Julie Adams

Find Your Focus

After that I realized I needed to be a stronger person mentally, and in life. I really started to get into training, and decided to mentally strengthen myself and stand up for myself. It makes you a whole new person, when you actually focus on something.

Working Towards The Olympics

One of my biggest goals when I started the Olympic weightlifting was to actually qualify and make the Olympics in Rio, which is going on now. That was my main goal and I was in the right direction with my strength and training to possibly get there. And also I wanted to actually do that before my dad got too old to travel, so I had a couple reasons behind it.

The Injury

Unfortunately one day, while I was coaching, I stepped down off a step and twisted my ankle and had a third degree ankle sprain. It took me out for a good 9 or 10 months. At that point, as an athlete–or if you have any goal–when you suddenly don’t have your goal in your grasp anymore, it seems as if you almost lose who you are.

“I felt like I was losing my identity, and who I was. I couldn’t do anything.” 

The Struggle to Find the Silver Lining

Even coaching and training people became a challenge because I had to sit the whole time. I could barely walk around and show them what to do. At the same time, I had to face reality. I believe things happen for a reason. I had to believe that spraining my ankle was saving me from an injury down the line, because I was so strong in some areas and extremely weak in others.

Blessing In Disguise

It actually helped me a lot in my work because I became a better instructor and teacher. I learned a lot about rehabbing certain muscles, and I wanted to learn more about how to make people stronger for when they came back from injury. Injury prevention is so important.

It also helped me find different ways to explain things. And now, it makes me appreciate my body, health, and LIFE more. I used to take a lot for granted, and I didn’t even realize I was doing it, at that time.

“It’s easy to forget it that it actually takes certain steps to get to a desired ending.”

The Reward

Although I didn’t make it to the Olympics, I’ve been able to help a lot more people since now I’m not just focusing on myself. I learned a lot during the process, not just for me, but so I could help other people. That was the rewarding part.

Written by Shirley Ju

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Image Credits: simlyperfectionphotography, Julie Adams