Gaining 25 pounds twice: fitness mom Stephanie Sanzo’s transformation story

When we hear about powerlifters, we tacitly picture people with huge and not always beautiful muscles. That’s what most athletes look like. But, as with everything, there are exceptions. We tell the story of Australian Stephanie Sanzo, who avoided gyms until she was 19, and now she is one of the most popular female powerlifters in the world.

She gained 25 kilograms twice

As a teenager, Stephanie was not interested in going to the gym regularly. The girl was far from a healthy lifestyle: she skipped gym classes and ate fast food. But soon her life changed dramatically.

At 19, Stephanie gave birth to a son and gained a lot of weight. Before her pregnancy, Sanzo’s scales regularly showed 47 kilograms. “I was amazed when I saw my weight.” After the birth of the child, the girl got much better – the scales showed a record 72 kg.

During my first pregnancy, I ate absolutely everything in sight. My real weakness – fast food and chocolate.

Soon Stephanie, armed with dumbbells from the nearest sports store, began to train at home. The girl quit her job and devoted all her free time to body transformation. Stephanie also took a course and studied to become a trainer. She was sure that she would need it in the future.

Stephanie went jogging every day. Sometimes she got carried away and did not notice how she ran 10 kilometers. Soon Sanzo lost weight, and a few months later became pregnant for the second time. All efforts to transform her body were in vain. Nine months later, Stephanie gave birth to a baby girl. But during childbirth there was a pelvic prolapse, so for an indefinite period of time with running exercises had to say goodbye. Stephanie switched to strength training. Like a year ago, she started with dumbbells. Soon Sanzo noticed that she was able to gain muscle mass quite easily, Stephanie bought a gym membership and training reached a new level.

Debut competition and second place

Since the days of home training, Stephanie dreamed of competing in competitions. To achieve this, the Australian hired a professional coach.

My coach developed a 16-week program for me. He taught me the correct technique for lifting weights and I started to get good at it.

In 2012, Stephanie began training for her first competition. She had to sacrifice her health for this: daily diets and grueling training exhausted the young athlete. As a result: second place and a silver medal at her debut regional tournament.

Sanzo participated in all kinds of competitions for the next three years, and then took a break. The girl admitted: regular diets were destroying her body.

Now Stephanie had enough free time. The young mom remembered that she was finishing courses, and became a personal trainer. She trained clients and shared useful tips from her competitive past. Also, Sanzo’s training style changed: strength exercises were complemented by powerlifting.

Unexpected popularity on the network

The girl decided to share photos of clients from the gym on social networks. The image was complemented by a brief story of each of the charges about the desire to transform the body. Unexpectedly, Stephanie gained popularity. On the Internet, the girl began to be called “Steph Fit Mom”. Now she uses this pseudonym in social networks.

Stephanie intends to continue to engage in fitness and delight subscribers with unique author’s workouts. Now there are 1.9 million people subscribed to her in Instagram.

How does the powerlifter train?

Stephanie likes to alternate between strength training and powerlifting.
The girl regularly performs 8-12 repetitions at each training session. Sanzo doesn’t believe that a large number of repetitions with light weights will help build muscle.

That’s nonsense. The only way to tone muscles is lifting heavy weights and proper nutrition.

By the way, the girl excludes cardio training during dieting. But if you need to lose weight – she 4 times a week makes twenty-minute jogs on a treadmill.

One of Stephanie’s favorite exercises is the sumo squat. According to the girl, this is the best exercise for the development of gluteal muscles. Sanzo performs the exercise slowly, which promotes proper muscle contraction.

Stephanie has a well-established training program.

Monday – exercises that target the chest and triceps.
Tuesday – exercises targeting the gluteal muscles, calves and abs.
Wednesday – exercises for the back and biceps.
Thursday – exercises for calves and abs.
Friday – hamstring strengthening and shoulder exercises.
Saturday – rest.
Sunday – rest.

Emphasize protein

Stephanie’s daily food intake is 1,800 calories a day. But if the girl feels that she lacks nutrients, she can easily get them with additional calories. Sanzo maintains the right balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Emphasis is placed on protein intake, so the girl easily gains muscle mass.

Also Stephanie strongly disagrees that carbohydrates have a negative effect on the body. According to the girl, they do not make a person fat. But extra calories are happy to cope with this task. Also powerliftersha refused alcohol because of the sugar content, but can afford one chocolate bar a day.