These are somme of the comments directed at Amirah Nursaidah Amir Hamzah, Nicole Lee, and Dr Izza Arsyika Abdul Rahim, three Malaysian women who have found empowerment through powerlifting.

Amirah, 38, and Lee, 25, are competitive female powerlifters who have set records in national and regional powerlifting competitions, while Izza, a medical specialist at a local hospital, found a passion for the sport following an injury.

Powerlifting is a strength sport focused on lifting the maximum possible weight in three specific exercises: squat, bench press and deadlift.

Despite their different backgrounds, the three women share a common goal – to challenge misconceptions about women’s participation in such sports, and to promote the physical and mental benefits of lifting weights.

“People have this perception that female powerlifters can’t lift as much as men, but we can do squats with weights twice our body weight and deadlift triple our body weight,” said Amirah, a mother of two.

She said before taking up powerlifting, she struggled with health issues including a slipped disc in 2012 and a hernia in 2019. She was also obese.

Now a full-time personal trainer, Amirah said her new chapter began when she underwent baratric surgery in 2019. She then spent a year working closely with a trainer to shed her excess weight safely.

“From 80-90kg, my weight dropped to about 48kg post-surgery. After I regained my health, my trainer introduced me to strength training.

“From there, I discovered I could lift heavy weights. That’s when I started to love the feeling of being strong, as I could carry my own children and do household chores without feeling any pain,” she said.

She participated in her first powerlifting competition in 2021, winning her first medal. The following year, she took part in the Southeast Asian Cup tournament in Johor Bahru, where she won the bronze medal in the squat category.

Lee’s journey into powerlifting, meanwhile, started in 2016 when she was 19, shortly after she finished school.

In July, she broke the Asian record with a 151kg squat in the under-52kg category at the Asian Pacific African Powerlifting Championships 2025 in Himeji, Japan, setting a new benchmark for women athletes in the region.

According to Lee, powerlifting helped her overcome body dysmorphia, a mental condition marked by a fixation on perceived physical defects.

“I was a dancer in my teenage years, and I was extremely conscious about how I looked. As a dancer, you need to maintain a certain weight so your partner can lift you. I remember not eating at all during training sometimes.”

She was later diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition often linked to hormonal imbalances and lifestyle factors.

Lee, a freelance personal trainer, said she took up powerlifting to change the way she viewed her body, as well as her relationship with food. The sport enables her to focus on what her body is capable of, rather than on how it looks.

“Your body is capable of so much more than you think,” she said. “When you start focusing on performance, everything else falls into place.”

Finding strength after injury

As for Izza, she played basketball in her student years, but a knee injury in 2018 eventually kept her off the court.

“I tore my posterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in my right knee. I couldn’t play or even walk properly for a while,” the 37-year-old recalled.

“In the past, we were told to rest completely, but now, doctors recommend only up to two weeks of rest before starting rehabilitation because too much rest leads to muscle loss.”

A month later, a sports-medicine doctor told her she needed to rebuild strength before returning to the court. “So I hit the gym, focusing on recovery and rebuilding muscle strength.”

While this marked the beginning of her strength-training journey, working in a hospital made her realise how essential strength is for healthcare professionals.

“During the pandemic, many of us had to perform tasks like moving patients for hours without a break. A colleague developing a slipped disc due to long hours of bending over patients.

“I told myself I couldn’t end up the same way, and that was when I started taking care of my back seriously by deadlifting and strengthening my core to protect my spine,” she said.

Izza now actively promotes strength training to her patients as a way to maintain bone and joint health. “I’m living proof that strength training works and helps us move better. It prevents injuries and keeps us independent,” she concluded.