Sarah Robles is getting her sweat on in her workout gear. In a new social media post the Olympic weightlifter jokes about aging during an intense exercise session at the gym. “When I was a literal child, it squatted 150 for 5 sets of 8 and everything was just fine. Today, with 130 for 5 sets of 5…I am sore,” she captioned the Instagram clip. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
Sarah first started weightlifting in 2003 or 2004 “as part of my strength and conditioning program for track and field. I lifted in a few local meets and loved the sport. I wanted to compete for fun some day in the future. I was an all-American discus thrower in high school and received two full track and field scholarships to the University of Alabama and Arizona State University,” she told Bar Bend. “During my redshirt season at ASU, I was introduced to weightlifting as a sport again. My coach at the time said the numbers I was lifting in the gym could get me a medal at the Junior National Championships. I met him on a Thursday, qualified for Junior Nationals 2008 that Sunday and ended up making the 2008 Junior World team after an athlete ahead of me pulled off the team. I was able to lift well enough there to bring home a silver medal. That experience really fired me up. I decided to give weightlifting a try for a year and if I liked it, I would stick with it. I loved it! Now I’m answering these questions as a two-time Olympian.”
“I don’t really have a regimented diet,” Sarah says about her approach to eating. “I try to have a decently rounded diet and consume a lot of protein. I try to fill half my plate with meat and the other half with fruits or vegetables. I try to consume most of my carbohydrates at the start of the day and keep it to a minimum—or not at all—at dinner. After training, I drink protein. My diet is really nothing special.”
Sarah trains like it’s her job. “I train five days a week, training once a day in the afternoon. I train at 90% or more pretty frequently. Saturdays are my days to try and lift as heavy as possible in the competition lifts. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are generally squat, pull, and press days. Tuesday is a snatch day, Thursday is a clean day, and Saturday is heavy snatch as well as clean and jerk day,” she says.
What does Sarah do in her free time? “I like hiking, camping, and reading,” she said.
Sarah promotes self-love. “Fat people don’t need to perform ‘health and fitness’ to prove to you they’re worthy of respect and human decency. I find it fascinating that an an elite athlete, sometimes I get a free pass on some prejudices because I’m being a ‘good fatty.’ People know I workout all the time and that I’m conscious of my diet and other perceived health markers. Basically, I’m not like OTHER fat people. However, those biases you have about fat people are what people who don’t know me automatically have about me. I’m not excluded from being a fat person. It’s an interesting dichotomy to be both a world-class athlete and also part of this ‘obesity epidemic.’ I get told I’m promoting obesity and that fat people like me are bad for society and the health care system and all that. Then I get messages from people saying they just got into the gym for the first time or signed up for a competition because I inspired them in someway,” she writes in a Facebook post.