January Member Spotlight – Mary Brunst

We will kick 2017 off with a monthly member spotlight.  We have a gym full of amazing people who have done great things and it’s time to introduce everyone to them.  We understand the misconceptions of strength training or the fear many people have to get started.  Our hope is to introduce you to people just like you who have changed their life with a barbell.  To show you that everyone starts somewhere and where that place is doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is that you begin.

Finding a monthly person to spotlight will be easy.  Picking just one each month will be difficult.  We have been dong this in Westminster since 2010 and the number of people who have changed their life with a barbell is long.  We could do this weekly and still not get to everyone this year.  With that in mind someone had to be the first and Mary Brunst immediately came to mind.

Mary is a local photographer who started training with us last spring.  (See here for an awesome photo of Mary on her website)  I vividly remember her first day.  She was about as nervous as a person could be and I knew it took all her courage to walk in the door that morning.  We immediately got her to work learning how to squat, press and deadlift.  There’s a lot to learn on those first few weeks and that first hour goes by quickly.  When we finished up I wasn’t sure if Mary would be back for her second session.  Thankfully she showed up and she hasn’t looked back.

Mary spent the next week or so learning the basic barbell lifts.  All our new members begin the Starting Strength program to establish a foundation of strength.  We keep things pretty simple and focus on mastering the squat, press, deadlift, bench press and eventually the power clean.  We start light and add weight each session.  Once confidence builds in the proficiency of these lifts we will begin to talk about nutrition.  Our nutrition program starts simple and becomes more complex as needed.  We taught Mary the importance of establishing a caloric deficit to lose weight.  That foods are not inherently “good” or “bad” but simply made up of proteins, carbs, and fats.  We established a caloric load and helped her as she learned how many macronutrients were in the foods she ate.  She slowly began to hit daily caloric goals and eventually macronutrient goals.

By March her lifts were slowly going up and she began tracking her nutrition closely.  In addition to her barbell training she added one or two days a week of conditioning.  Conditioning consisted of work on the prowler for short intervals.  Her program has been largely unchanged since her start.  She still strength trains three times a week, conditions at the gym if she has time and gets outside for a hike or walk on the weekends.

How effective has it been?  Her hard work and consistency has her down over 32 pounds and 10 inches off her waist.  She hits the gym with a smile and is the first person to introduce herself and offer words of encouragement to a new member.  She has done what many won’t.  She has learned the difference between training and exercise.  She has learned the basics of nutrition and has learned how to apply it to reach her goals.  She has established a training program and a nutrition plan she can live with for the rest of her life.  Our coaches at WSC have done their job.  We educated and delivered the tools of success and watched Mary succeed on her own with her own hard work.  She now understands more about the world of strength and conditioning, weight loss and strength gain than most coaches.  She will be able to apply these principles for the rest of her life and we are proud of her.

Please share with us a little about your background?

I almost feel like I should start off this blog interview like a confessional – “Hi, I’m Mary and a year ago I was a total gym newbie,” or “Hi, my name is Mary and I was terrified to walk into Westminster Strength & Conditioning that first day,” or better yet “Hi, I’m Mary Brunst and WSC has changed my life for the better this past year.” All of those statements are true, but to give you some background let me share with you a little about myself. I work as a self-employed, professional photographer; I’m 28, not married, and do not have any children. I’m blessed that I truly love my job and I’m so grateful for the opportunities that it has provided me; however, working 60 to 80-hour work weeks to get my business off the ground has given me little time for much else these past 6 years. That is not at all a complaint, but rather a reality. You know that saying about some people working 80 hours a week to avoid working 40? That’s true for me. To say that it has been a constant hustle seems like a bit of an understatement at times. So while I have a job that I love, last year at this time, my work life and personal life were way out of balance. My personal life and health were at an all-time low.

I’ve always been someone who has struggled with my weight. Over the past 6 years my weight has dramatically fluctuated due to a crazy work schedule and a lot of inactive hours in front of a computer screen. I have tried what feels like every diet around in efforts to fend off the weight gain – including Ideal Protein, the HCG diet, and Whole30, to just name a few. After all of the yoyoing back and forth I got really, really tired of it all. A year ago I was 50+ pounds overweight, so frustrated, and frankly unhappy.

Enter Westminster Strength & Conditioning. I have friends who do CrossFit and a cousin who is really into powerlifting. After hearing about their experiences, both were something that I had wanted to try but put off for several years. Working 60 to 80-hours a week and hearing people say “you don’t find the time, you make the time to workout,” (I’ll be honest with you) my thoughts were always responding with “yeah, that’s nice, but THERE IS NO TIME to make. A girl has to sleep and I’m already running myself into the ground.” I eventually reached a point where I knew something had to change. I was in my mid-to-late-twenties, unhappy, unhealthy, and questioning what I was really doing with my life. I also knew that I didn’t want to wake up at 50 regretting that I never made my health a priority. The current pace I was keeping was unsustainable and I knew it. There were no easy answers, the same amount of work still had to get done, I wasn’t at a place where I could hire anyone to help, and I wasn’t at all confident that taking an hour to an hour-and-a-half out of my work day would be do-able. I know how crazy that sounds and how much I sound like an insane workaholic…. however, that was my frame of mind at the time. It’s not that I wanted to be working 10-14 hour days but that’s what my present reality was and there were no easy answers for how to change it. Give up a dream that I had poured blood, sweat, and tears into? Scale back the work and pray that I somehow would make enough money to make the ends meet? I know it seems crazy, we’re only talking about a few hours a week here, but at the time I was stretched really thin with very little margin in my life. I read a quote on Instagram around that time that said something along the lines of: “you are your business’s biggest asset, when are you going to start treating yourself like it?”, and it really struck a cord with me. I decided that I needed to carve out the time for my health. Instead of having all of my questions answered of how I was going to gain time and margin in my life, I decided to just jump in and take it one day at a time. So here I am almost a year later and I won’t lie to you, finding the time to spend at the gym is not easy or convenient, but the benefits far, far, outweigh the cost. Not only has my physical health greatly improved, but also my mental health because of it. Now that hour, to an hour and a half, has become less of a sacrifice and so much more of a blessing.

What was your exercise history before WSC?  

I played soccer through high school but that is the extent of my athleticism. In recent years, if there was a workout routine in my life it looked like running a mile or so three times a week. I tried a 24-hour gym and held a membership for a year, however, I rarely went because I had no idea how to use any of the equipment other than the treadmill…. and I preferred to run outside so that was a waste!

How did you find out about WSC and what was the catalyst to get you to contact us and come in your first day?

I’ve known about WSC for awhile but never had the courage to actually come. Once I decided that I needed to change my health, and my life, I researched all of the gyms in the area and kept coming back to WSC. I knew WSC had a great reputation and I knew that I needed to go to a place that would train and educate me. With my schedule I didn’t have the time or energy to be self-taught, I also didn’t want to spin my wheels and pick up bad habits for lack of knowing better. I saw on Facebook that my friend Lindsay Archer went to WSC so I contacted her to see if I could tag along with her sometime. To my dismay, Lindsay responded immediately with “yeah! How about this week?” …. and in my mind, I was like “uhhhh no time to mentally prepare and work up my courage, so guess it’s just time to jump in.” To say that I was out of my comfort zone is an understatement. However, walking through the door I couldn’t have been met with more kindness and patience by owner Beau Bryant and the other gym members. Looking back it’s almost laughable. For all of you other gym newbies out there, I can tell you from personal experience that it is so much less scary than it seems in the beginning!

What are your current personal bests for all the lifts?  

Back squat: 205, Press: 85, Bench Press: 105, Deadlift: 230

What is your favorite lift and why?

My favorite lift is the deadlift and I think that is because I’m half afraid of it! As silly as it sounds, because the deadlift is so challenging for me I feel the most successful after a good set, and that feeling of success makes it my favorite…. even if the relationship is a little bit of both love and hate!

How long after starting at WSC before you noticed a difference?

The first week at WSC I was too nervous to remember anything other than my awkwardness, but definitely by the 3rd or 4th week of going I was confident that this was going to provide the life-change that I had been needing and wanting. I started noticing the biggest difference when I started the nutrition program.

How has strength training impacted your daily life?  

Strength training has impacted every area of my life. I can say without a doubt that it has been the best thing that I did for myself (and my business) in 2016! It’s truly been life-changing in the best way possible. I feel more capable than I ever have. I have more energy than I’ve had in a very long time, and the back pain that was a constant during every busy summer/fall season photographing weddings is virtually gone. I feel happy and confident again, and for the first time ever I feel in control of my health. I no longer feel like my weight is this ever-changing mystery dependent on how stressful life is at the moment. Tracking my macros along with strength training has finally given me the answers that I’ve longed for and with that I’ve found a new sense of freedom.

How is strength training different than what you did before for exercise?

Before strength training my version of exercising was running or hiking. Strength training has been a million times more beneficial as well as less time intensive, which has made it so much more do-able and practical for me.
What would you say to someone who is unsure about starting a barbell strength training program?  How would you convince a friend to get started training?

To anyone unsure about starting a barbell strength program and wondering if it is for them, I’ve been there, I’ve had all of the same questions and doubts. Can I do this? Will I look like a bodybuilder? Will I still look feminine? Is it only for athletic types? Is it really for me? However, after almost a year I can tell you that not only can I, or anyone else, strength train but 1.) you won’t look like a bodybuilder. However, you will feel more capable than you ever have…. and that feels so good! 2.) For better or worse, will still have the body shape that God gave you, even if that shape is slimmer and more “toned” :). Yes, you will still look feminine, but you’ll be stronger and feel more confident. 3.) I’m about the farthest thing from an athlete and if someone would have told me a year ago that I would actually love barbell strength training there is no way that I would have believed them, but I do love it, and it’s way more fun than I ever imagined it would be. 4.) I honestly believe that strength training is for everyone, no matter your age, background, or weight. I know it’s scary getting started, I was terrified, but looking back almost a year later, I can’t put into words how happy I am that I made the first step to go to WSC. That I decided to just jump in and take it one day at a time, that I’m still taking it one day at a time. The knowledgeable coaches at WSC have always been there to guide and help me every step of the way. I promise you that getting started is the hardest part and I’m confident you will never regret it!