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LIZ: Powerlifting Coach

@liz_fortress

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🫅🏼CEO @fortress.athletics
💖Coach @joyful_lifter
🍎Performance Nutrition
⛓️PRO athlete 1107 at 67.5kg
🏔️ Helena, Montana

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NYX - Goddess of Night

She was born into chaos, yet she controls it to shape her reality and bend her fears into freedom.

She is not consumed by it. She contains it.

Nyx is the dark side of feminine, a part of us we are both shamed for and feared for. She reminds us that we can settle the storms within us and around us.

To master chaos is to hold power over potential itself. It means we can navigate and mold disorder into new systems, new realities, and new destinies.

You are allowed to hold power in your darkness and your chaos. It is not your demise. It is your opportunity to sculpt a more beautiful and authentic self.

It’s all a part of the journey to our peak.

📸 @quartz_view_photography @isaacellisonvisuals
You guys nailed this one 🖤

#nyx #goddessofnight #goddessphotoshoot #gothchick by @liz_fortress

⚔️ May your labor build a legacy ⚔️

Hats off to those who grind every day to build someone great, something great, and whose hard work doesn’t just earn a living….
It leaves a mark.

Prep season has begun. The next plot twist in Liz’s return to the platform?

The goals are bold, but a LOT of hard work and a little delusion is how a girl like me ever got this far. Let’s see what we can do this round, team. 🤝🏼

Shop @iron.hooligans.apparel and use code lizfortress
📸 @timecapsulemediallc

@fortress.athletics
@joyful_lifter
@trainerqueen
@kseniya___o by @liz_fortress

This view is what a year off the platform looks like. 🏔️

After my first year without competing in a decade, I’ve had room to discover what matters to me beyond the platform.

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But stepping back has changed how I define success. Numbers, titles, and accolades lose their weight when the life around them leaves us exhausted, disconnected, or always bracing for what’s next.

My accomplishments gave me strength, bravery, confidence, and room to pursue the things that really matter, and I genuinely feel more successful than ever.

Here’s what I’ve learned deserves a place in our definition of success:

1. Peace Enjoying the life you’ve worked so hard to build. Feeling content without rushing to prove more, do more, or become more.

2. Presence Giving your full attention to the people you love and the moments you’ll never get back.

3. Rest Recovering before exhaustion makes the decision for you. You don’t have to earn every quiet moment through productivity or sacrifice.

4. Alignment Making choices that reflect your values and the person you want to be. Being honest when something you once wanted no longer fits the life you want now.

5. Safety Having a home and relationships where you can exhale, where you can speak honestly, have needs, and be yourself without fear of what it might cost.

I still have goals. I still love getting stronger and helping others do the same. But I want my accomplishments to exist within a life I feel good living.

I’ve created a personal life that my professional life can really thrive inside of. It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done, but it has come with the greatest rewards.

Peace, presence, rest, alignment, and safety count too. They’re things worth being proud to have built.

Which one are you working on right now?

#StrengthCoach #Powerlifting #WomenWhoLift #strongover40 by @liz_fortress

You can have great genetics, a great coach, and a great program. But if your mentality is trash, you’ll only get so far.

Do you find the negative in everything?
Do you show up with a bad attitude?
Do you ask questions to understand, or do you argue to be right?
Does your self worth rise and fall with every training session?
Do you villainize people you could learn from because they’re better than you?
Is your ego your ick?

Seriously. Ask yourself these questions…and be honest about whether you’re standing in your own way.

I’ve coached HUNDREDS of athletes. The ones who keep moving forward remain students of the sport. They’re curious, eager to learn, and grateful. They take ownership of their training and educate themselves.

They don’t define themselves by a missed lift, a bad session, or a disappointing meet. They don’t use someone else’s progress as a measure of their own worth, and they don’t put a ceiling on what they can become.

They listen to feedback without turning every correction into a confrontation. They ask thoughtful questions, communicate openly, and put what they learn into practice.

They show up. They learn. And they actually enjoy the barbell.

There isn’t misery in every moment.

Your mentality shows up in your language, your habits, and how you respond when things don’t go your way. You can hold yourself to a high standard without tearing yourself apart and shifting blame.

Approach the barbell with respect. Be willing to be taught. Take responsibility for what you bring to the table.

Your coach and your program can give you direction. You still have to be willing to grow.

As a coach, my number 1 goal is to teach you how to think different. Think like a champion. Think like a winner. We change your language and we chip away at all the lies that limit you.

Speak, think, and behave as you aim to be.
The rest will follow.

Want coaches who will help you break these internal barriers? Join the team. We put people over powerlifting. We don’t just want to see you improve your total. We want to see you improve your character.

Winners aren’t born. They’re built. We can show you the way.

@fortress.athletics
@joyful_lifter by @liz_fortress

5 habits that make an athlete great.
Part 1: Their Behaviors

None of this is profound, and none of it is new. There isn’t some secret we’re gatekeeping. But it’s a conversation we have to keep having.

Let it be a reminder from someone who has coached hundreds of athletes over the past decade and from an athlete who climbed her way from beginner to pro.

The hard truth…excellence takes a level of discipline and dedication most people aren’t willing to put in.

Every one of us is limitless, but strength and success are not owed to you.

You have to earn them.

If you’re stuck or going backward, start with accountability to self. At the end of the day, you’re responsible for who you become, not your coach and not your program. They’re a support system that guides you as far as you’re willing to go.

Decide what you’re willing to sacrifice and what you’re willing to change. Then accept that this determines how much of yourself you’ll be able to unlock.

If you want an honest conversation about what it really takes to improve, I’ll tell you the truth. And I’ll hold you to the standard it requires. I’ll give you the details.

Together we’ll define who you want to become, I’ll build a plan to get you there, and I’ll walk alongside you on that journey adapting and adjusting through every pivot. It’s a team effort.

As you lean into greatness, you’ll find parts of yourself along the way giving you confidence and self trust you’ll carry into every competition.

Which of these five habits do you need to take more seriously?
What habits do you have to add?
Tell me in the comments

Stay tuned for part 2. We will cover the mindset behind athletes who succeed and ones who get stuck.

Coaching spots available!
Shoot me a DM if you want to learn more.

@fortress.athletics
@joyful_lifter by @liz_fortress

There’s something pretty incredible about being surrounded by strong women who genuinely want to see each other succeed.

We can be competitive, have big goals, and want to be the strongest person on the platform while still being the loudest person cheering for someone else.

At the end of the day, we’re all working toward becoming stronger versions of ourselves. And that’s a whole lot more fun when we’re building each other up along the way.

#strongwomen #womenwholift #builtstrong by @liz_fortress

We finally found a place we can both call home 🤎

The journey to get here wasn’t easy, but we leaned into this dream together. It’s our reality now, and we get to build a life in a place we never have to leave.

Everything in life led us to each other and to this place, and there is a future we can finally see.

I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you here, Cody. Thank you for everything you’ve done to forge this path with me.

Together, we truly are limitless.

@doane_cody by @liz_fortress

1. Know what you want from coaching.
Programming? Accountability? Technique? Meet prep? Communication? You don’t need it all figured out, but know what you need help with.

2. Know how you want to communicate.
How often do you want feedback or check-ins? Make sure you feel comfortable actually TALKING to your coach when something hurts, you hate an exercise, or life is a dumpster fire.

3. Ask how individualized the programming really is.
Your goals, schedule, strengths, weaknesses, equipment and life should matter. You want a program designed for you.

4. Look at WHO they coach and not just what they lift.
Being a great lifter doesn’t automatically make someone a great coach. Do they successfully coach people with goals and lives similar to yours?

5. Find out what happens when things DON’T go according to plan.
Missed workouts, injuries, stressful weeks and plateaus happen. Programming is easy when everything is going perfectly. Coaching matters when it isn’t.

6. Look for someone who coaches the HUMAN and not just the numbers.
Training has to coexist with work, kids, relationships, travel, stress, sleep and everything else that makes up a life.

7. You should be able to ask why you are doing something.
Your coach should be willing and able to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing.

8. You don’t have to be “good enough” for coaching.
You don’t need a certain total, perfect technique or even plans to compete. You don’t have to earn the right to have a coach.

9. Talk to them before you commit.
A consultation is a two-way conversation. See if this coach is a good fit for you.

The best coach isn’t necessarily the strongest or most popular.
They’re the one who’s the right coach for YOU.
And if we talk and I’m not that person? That’s okay! I know so many amazing coaches, I’d be glad to refer you to someone who is going to be the right fit for what you need. by @liz_fortress

Crazy to think these are our final days in New Mexico and that our next and last stop is right around the corner.

We get to call Montana home very soon. 🏔️

Almost every day, Cody and I look at each other and ask, “Has any of this sunk in yet?”

It hasn’t.

We’ve both spent years leaning into our calling and realigning our lives, and somehow, it all led us to each other with the same vision, values, and goals.

Now we get to build the life we’ve dreamed of, together, and we get to do it forever.

And we can’t wait to share this life with the people we love. There are exciting times ahead!

We’re more than ready to be out of this transition period. It’s exhausting, but we get to walk through it side by side. Nothing worth having comes easy.

And I CERTAINLY don’t come easy. 😆

But I’ve met my match. My person. My best friend. My other half.

We’re really doing this, y’all. 💙

Winnie and Rye are ecstatic 🫠

@doane_cody by @liz_fortress

My fiancé looks like a stripper, and I look homeless, but I HAVE A REALLY GOOD PeRsONaLiTy.
People just get really hot and strong when they run with me. 🤌🏼
Especially him.
It’s a flex.

@fortress.athletics
@joyful_lifter by @liz_fortress