Powerlifting, Body Image and ED Recovery with Schae Zarew

I’m very excited to introduce Schae Zarew; an incredibly caring strength coach, elite athlete, business owner and all-round phenomenal woman. I’ve invited her for an interview because I have found her authenticity and kindness tremendously reassuring, inspiring and hopeful.

We’ll be discussing why all bodies can be competitive in powerlifting, how to navigate ED recovery while lifting and evaluating the need for dieting to improve body confidence. 

Would you like to share a little bit about your journey into powerlifting?

Absolutely! I found powerlifting very quickly after stepping off the bodybuilding stage. I was desperate for a change and was looking for something to take my mind off the aesthetic side of training after spending the last 5 years having it as a main focus. 

I did my first novice meet only a few months after finding the sport and did my first ‘official’ competition not long after that in Melbourne! I instantly fell in love with powerlifting and haven’t looked back from that moment. 

I’m glad you have found joy in powerlifting and a new approach to training. I imagine the transition away from bodybuilding must’ve been quite difficult. You’ve openly shared about recovering from an eating disorder on your platform during this time. Was it difficult navigating ED recovery while powerlifting? What did you find most helpful and what was the most difficult part?

Initially I did have some difficult times navigating ED recovery, especially coming out of a relapse. However there were so many other important and pivotal moments that were happening for me that really pushed me towards healing, and quite quickly. I know a lot of people (women in particular) have a similar story when finding strength based sports; they seem to have the ability to infiltrate some of the deepest stories we have about ourselves and our bodies. 

The sport itself offered me the space to enjoy movement again which honestly felt life-changing and the most helpful thing of all. It had been years since I engaged in a sport purely for enjoyment and this offered me so much on both a mental and physical level. I know this story rings true for so many. I was incredibly young when I decided exercise was for the sole person of losing weight and becoming smaller, which meant that the contrast when I started lifting felt like stepping into a new life; and in hindsight, I kind of was. 

On the flipside, whilst powerlifting gives so much power and space to what our bodies can do, it is still a weight-class sport at the end of the day this needs to be acknowledged. This was difficult for me to begin with as I was in between two weight classes heading into my first official meet and found myself wanting to go straight back into dieting to reach the u57kg class. At this point I was sitting around 59kg after gaining 3-4kg after my last bodybuilding competition which meant I was smack bang in the middle of two weight classes. 

It took a lot for me to stick to my decision to compete in the u64kg class, particularly because I had a lot of people telling me how successful I would be in the one below it. At this point I was still navigating what the last few years meant and wasn’t particularly open about my ED and knew that these external comments were well-intentioned. Personally though, I knew straight away that trying to reach that weight class would have been a massive step back in so many different ways. I had no doubt that the work that had been done in such a short time period when it came to my history with ED and diet-culture beliefs would have gone straight out the window; I wasn’t willing to risk. Whilst difficult in the beginning, I’ve been in the 63kg weight class ever since and am so glad that I chose what felt like the harder choice at the time.

Thank you for sharing Schae. It takes a lot of courage to stand your ground and listen to your gut when individuals that you respect and trust may feel differently, especially when you’re new to the sport. While often well-intentioned, there are still many coaches and health professionals justifying potentially harmful decisions with “well it didn’t happen to me” and “not everyone will be affected.” I think that remembering that that even when athletes play a role in the decision-making process, the dynamic is often such that the athlete is heavily influenced by their professional’s opinions and biases. I’ve found as a health professional that there is so much work that goes into developing self-awareness around our own biases so that we can help clients come to a decision that is based on evidence and clinical judgment, not our personal beliefs or experiences. What tips would you give to other coaches who are helping clients who struggle with disordered eating or body dysmorphia? 

Refer out. I know in today’s world coaches feel the push to BE everything and provide all of the expertise to their clients. However in this space, eating disorders and disordered body-image can be  incredibly complex and life-altering for an individual. Not only would you be doing a disservice to your clients, I would argue that you could be prolonging someone from getting the help they need. 

Whilst it’s great to be able to lend an ear and show up for your clients, there is also a scope of practise we need to exist and work in; navigating your client’s eating disorder does not fall into this. You are the best coach for your client when you have a team of health professionals around you who specialise in different areas. Build those relationships, listen to your clients, and create some boundaries for when you feel a situation could be crossing those professional lines. 

I couldn’t agree more! In the fitness world, there is never-ending subtle and blatant messaging that athletes and coaches need to change our appearance to be worthy, successful and “look like someone who lifts”. Often restrictive diets coupled with workouts are marketed as “improving confidence” What does being confident look like for you and what are some tips you would give someone struggling with confidence?

Confidence to me these days looks a lot different to what I thought it would at one point. It doesn’t so much revolve around my body which I once thought it would.

Confidence feels like looking in the mirror and being my idea of ‘neutral’ around my body. 

Confidence shows up in my mission to find a wedding dress that makes me feel like ‘me’, instead of centering my choice around how it looks.

Confidence looks like taking risks and being vulnerable in my business without questioning if I deserve to be there.

Confidence plays into how well I set boundaries in my relationships and how I honour them.

And confidence is stepping into the world knowing that what I offer is more important than this exterior shell that I get to do it in.

My advice in this space is to actually give no solid/set in stone advice. I don’t think we need any more people telling us how to be confident. Instead, I think we need people empowering us to figure out what this looks like on an individual level and supporting us as we take our first steps. Everyone’s definition will be so different and there is absolutely no guide book or rules, which means it’s hard to f** up! Play your own game and create your own rules around confidence and what it means for your life.

“Confidence is stepping into the world knowing that what I offer is more important than this exterior shell that I get to do it in.”

Schae Zarew

Yes, I absolutely love the idea that confidence is so personal and different for each individual, that like any other feeling waxes and wanes day to day. It’s not something we achieve and then never have to worry about again. For many of us, myself included, it’s a decision we continually make - a commitment to take care of ourselves, to show up for the people we love, and to extend self-compassion to every part of ourselves.

I’d like to move on to another controversial topic - weight classes in powerlifting. In my last interview with Billie Asprey, she also mentioned her support of Alex Hayes’ notion that “weight classes are height classes in disguise. How do you feel about that? Do you feel like the weight classes in powerlifting are an accurate and fair representation of the diverse bodies in powerlifting?

Powerlifting is the most diverse sport in the world when it comes to individuals being able to excel regardless of their bodies. However, I don’t think the weight classes support that. It was only a few years ago that a federation introduced a higher weight class for female athletes who were above 84kg; which suggests to me that weight classes are still really behind when it comes to supporting this range of diverse lifters and bigger bodies. 

In regards to the quote regarding weight classes being height classes, I think it’s more applicable for those who are cutting or doing water-loads to stay in a particular class. It’s fair to say that these people could do better in weight class one higher which may correlate to their height, however I don’t find this quote necessarily rings true for those who are shorter.  

I’m considered quite short for the 64kg class and I have lifters just taller than me who are 4 weight classes above. I think it would be hard to argue that my frame is more suitable for the 57kg class just because of my height, or that one of my lifters who weighs 83kg yet is just taller than me is more suitable for the 72kg class. It can definitely help with guiding which weight class someone might fall into, however I don’t think it's as simple as your height is X which is why you fit into Y.

I appreciate the way this quote shows that weight & height classes are linked, emphasizing that what weight class you “should” choose in the beginning is based largely on genetics. The taller you are, the more likely you will sit in a higher weight class. It is important to note though that this often changes as you become more advanced and accumulate more muscle mass over time. I am glad to hear you say that as I am also in a similar position to you. I’ve also felt the pressure to stay in the smallest class as, let’s be honest, the shortest lifter despite truly knowing that I had long outgrown that class. I think that height is a great starting point for which weight class to choose, but it’s one of many factors to take into account. Powerlifting is widely regarded as an inclusive sport, however, there is also the prevailing notion that you can only be competitive in powerlifting if you have a certain body type. As a powerlifting coach and athlete, did you feel the pressure to fit into this concept of what an “elite powerlifter” should look like?

I’ve done a lot of work when it comes to my body so I don’t feel this on the level of how my body looks (noting here that I also still fit this stereotype which would absolutely play into this). I do feel it in the sense of what I should be doing to be an elite powerlifter, however. 

Often we hear and see this long list of what someone needs to be doing to be ‘elite’. Things like tracking your macros or going through cycles of cutting/bulking, tracking your sleep, avoiding alcohol and/or social situations and ensuring that your protein target is always met. At times, these tools are absolutely important (for example, accurate protein targets when you’re in a hard training block). However the messaging we almost always get is that they’re required 24/7, which I would argue especially in the context of an ED recovery, is absolutely not true. They are tools and like all tools, we don’t need to be taking them out of our toolbox all of the time. 

Personally I haven’t tracked my macros for years and don’t really plan on reaching for that tool unless it’s absolutely required for some reason; I’ve still managed to reach my lifting goals. I wouldn’t want someone coming from an ED background thinking that this is a requirement to not only get into a sport, but excel in it. These ideas and concepts of what it takes to look and be an ‘elite powerlifter’ are often some of the barriers that keep people from getting into lifting, encourage lifters to stay in a lower weight-class for no particular reason, and often contribute to recreational lifters losing some of the fun or enjoyment out of the sport. 

Elite isn’t the end goal for many and I think the powerlifting industry sometimes forgets that. 

What a wonderful note to end on; you can enjoy powerlifting in the way you may enjoy playing volleyball, dancing or swimming. You don’t need to change your body to be good and you certainly don’t need to track every variable in your life to be great. Thank you Schae for providing such vulnerable and thoughtful commentary on powerlifting, eating disorder recovery and building confidence.

Where can we find you?

You can find me at @beyonschae on instagram! It’s where I am most active and have any additional links handy in my bio!