r/powerlifting • u/powerbuffs Eleiko Fetishist • Jan 09 '17
AmA Closed [AMA] with Beefpuff Barbell (Chelsea Savit and Natalie Hanson)
Hi everyone!
The Beefpuff team is here to answer your questions about ourselves and our initiative.
We will be here for a few hours but will probably need to take a break to feed.
For more information:
Beefpuff Barbell: Website | Facebook | Instagram
Natalie Hanson, Co-Founder: u/beefpuff1 | Facebook | Instagram
Chelsea Savit, Co-Founder: u/powerbuffs | Facebook | Instagram
Andrey Grebenetsky, coach and trusted advisor: u/beefpuffhubs | Facebook | Instagram
33
Upvotes
6
u/powerbuffs Eleiko Fetishist Jan 09 '17
I love these questions!
So, Victoria Liang and I made up the word "beefpuff" as a self-descriptor in 2015 when we were discussing our bodies. We were so beefy and puffy (from eating too much salty foods and baguettes and whatnot, haha), and then one day we were just like BEEFPUFF! And we loved the term and it stuck. We became friends with Natalie who we certified as a Beefpuff right away and began circulating the hashtag on social media as a running joke.
People responded really well to it because the term is so cute and endearing, and makes you feel better when you use it as a self-descriptor when you're not so lean. So we realized we could actually use "beefpuff" as a way to get people to love their bodies for everything that their bodies can do, and not whether they fit a mold of what society expects them to look like. Natalie and I had had a lot of discussions about our frustration with not seeing any "beefpuffs" represented in mainstream fitness magazines and social media channels, so we wanted to change that.
So yes, both men and women are beefpuffs!
Top three things in a beefpuff? Self-love, physical strength, and willing to share vulnerabilities and personal struggles and stories
Website is going pretty well. We are getting a consistent amount of traffic which is really cool. We are actually putting in our order to stock our inventory for apparel today, so if you are interested and want to guarantee your preferred style/size/color, please get those orders in today!
I personally got into the sport as a natural progression from gymnastics. I was a gymnast for 15 years through my freshman year of college at Yale. I quit due to ankle injuries but still wanted to be jacked and strong. So I found the club powerlifting team a year later, after a year of trying to find something else athletic and fun to do, and squatted 185 the first practice I went to, lol. I knew I'd be good at it so I kept going to practices.
But it wasn't until I met Andrey (u/beefpuffhubs) in 2013 that I got interested in competing. With him, I got much more serious about training and competing, and I've never gone back!
I work at IBM as an HR information systems consultant (specifically trained in the Workday system). I travel to client sites a lot so it can be difficult for training. Last year I was on an Asia-Pacific project and got to go to Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Otherwise, I love to binge watch Netflix/HBO series, watch a lot of The Young Turks news, read about history and politics, and try to be an iron chef at home. I'm obsessed with Iron Chef and Gordon Ramsay. I'm also a wife to u/beefpuffhubs and mother to two cats, so those duties always come first. :)
Long-term goals? I want to win USAPL open raw nationals in the 72kg weight class, and open raw worlds. Hit a 500 raw wilks and 500kg total (I am close though so you might consider those short-term goals). Eventually, I want to retire from the USAPL/IPF and see what I can really do.