Before every lift, Daisy Arreola puts her earbuds in and head down. It’s game time.
She paces back and forth to shake out any nerves, then straps on her power belt, chalks up, and marches to the bar. She grabs on and stretches herself out back and forth in ritual.
With her face tense and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” blasting in her ears, she clenches every muscle in her body and with complete control squats 360 pounds.
After taking first place and setting a new squat record of 370 pounds at the national Powerlifting America competition on June 2, Arreola, 22, is now moving on to compete in this year’s Junior World powerlifting tournament in Romania.
She’ll head to the competition the last week of August.
Arreola first found an interest in the sport during her sophomore year at North Salem High School. After trying basketball, volleyball, and track and field she realized her favorite part of all of them was when she got to lift in the weight room.
Arreola said she has struggled with eating disorders for a while and found powerlifting a positive outlet to build up her strength and take care of her body in a healthy way.
“I needed something to put my focus in that was somewhat not detrimental to my health,” said Arreola, and the gym “slowly helped me out of a hole.”
Once Covid hit, and with more free time on her hands, she started to take the sport more seriously. One of her friends convinced her to sign up for her first official competition in February 2021.
This tournament set Arreola off on her journey to worlds. She went into it entirely self-trained with the mindset to give it her best. After doing well in each event, Arreola was encouraged to continue competing.
Powerlifting is a unique sport made up of three events: a squat, bench press and deadlift. On each event, competitors get three attempts, with the heaviest successful lift counting for rankings. Competitions are divided by age, weight, and gender. Arreola’s current personal records in competition are 370 pounds for squat, 209 pounds for bench press and 418 pounds for deadlift.
With a twelve-week carefully calculated training regimen to get her prepared for worlds, Arreola has plans to beat each of her previous records.
After her initial competition in February 2021, she was twice disqualified for not making her squats, so she took this as an opportunity to “attack her weaknesses.”
Two years later, she set a squat record in her class.
Arreola said that squats have caused her the most hurt and questioning herself. But they’ve also helped her grow the most.
“I feel like if I believe in myself a little more, I think I could do something great,” she said.
After taking second place at nationals in 2022, Arreola had some major life events occur including losing her older brother she was living with at the time.
He had just done his very first powerlifting meet and was starting to get into the sport. Arreola was able to take his place at a meet in Texas to honor his memory with her family.
Previously, her drive to keep working at this sport was her healing. Now, she wants to honor her brother by believing in herself and accepting the competition.
“He has been my biggest push,” she said. “I think about him every day when I’m in the gym.”
At competitions, she is always the first one warming up. She hides out in a corner of the hotels to get herself mentally prepared for competition.
Despite her level of seriousness in training and on the bar, off the bar, she has a smile from ear to ear and a passion for helping others.
In high school, she got her friends to come to the gym with her after school and spent time with each person to help them reach their personal goals and feel confident in their abilities.
Competing in worlds will help make a name for Arreola in the powerlifting community and help her get a step further to her goals. She hopes to continue competing and one day be a personal trainer.
There’s not a lot of money in powerlifting, and competitors typically pay to enroll in competitions and for travel. Top competitors might have a plane ticket paid for by the host, she said, and sponsorships can lead to sustainable income.
Arreola has gotten a few one-time sponsorships and one that paid for her equipment, but she hopes to secure a long-term one.
She has been working extra shifts at her gym, Salem Powerbar, teaching classes and helping out where they need it, in addition to caretaking for her two nephews with autism in order to make enough money to get to Romania and help her parents make the trip with her.
She has also started a GoFundMe to help cover the costs.
Since there isn’t money right off the bat, people get into the sport because they are passionate about it. That’s Arreola’s favorite part: she loves the genuinely supportive community it brings.
To train for worlds, Arreola is in the gym five days a week for two and a half hours each day. She says she typically pushes herself pretty hard during training so she warms up extra long to be safer and calm her nerves.
She treats Wednesdays like an actual competition, as this is the day she is set to compete. On these days she will train for four and a half hours and go through every event with vigor.
Since getting involved with the sport, Arreola has worked to avoid having a person or role model she aspires to. Growing up, she realized through her healing process that she does not need to compare herself to others.
Instead, whenever she needs motivation she looks at old videos of herself of a time she failed or was frail and undernourished, and compares herself to where she is today.
“I like to acknowledge the little improvements,” said Arreola “We should be our own motivation.”
Arreola is set to compete at worlds in Romania on August 30th, first thing in the morning. The event will be live-streamed on the International Powerlifting YouTube.
“This is something I wanted and I didn’t know I could make it happen,” she said.
Contact reporter Natalie Sharp: [email protected] or 503-522-6493.
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Natalie Sharp is an Oregon State University student working as a reporter for Salem Reporter in summer 2023. She is part of the Snowden internship program at the University of Oregon's School of Communication and Journalism.
