A Cherry on Top

Inspiring Figures ⚡

Inspiring Figures is a monthly blog column where I share with you people who are catalysts in inspiring and motivating me. They’re people you should know about. Last month, I spoke to Matt Burman, the living breathing Minimalist. You can read his feature here.

This month, I’m featuring Cherry Yeung. 🍒

Cherry is a student in Sheffield, but also the most badass-powerlifting-goddess you’ll ever meet.

When I first started my fitness journey, I switched gyms twice to make sure that I could go to one that was convenient to get to. I finally settled on one close by University. During one of my first times at that gym, I caught glimpse of this kickass gal (it was hard not to notice her – presence was 🔥) absolutely KILLING it. She was jumping around, doing those dips, lifting heavy asf, looking super healthy, happy and powerful.

I was inspired. That night, as I was scrolling through my gym’s Instagram tag, I found her and decided to follow her.

She followed me back. *cries*

After a few months of DMing each other over Gymshark clothes, her workout structure and a hell lot of fangirling from my side, we decided to meet up at the gym. Since then, we’ve hung out when we are at the gym the same time and I’ve been watching her progressingly become more badass as if that is possible 😆

 

A post shared by Pauline P. Narvas ⚡ (@paw.lean) on Sep 28, 2017 at 2:11pm PDT

I’m so thankful to have her on the blog today! I hope her story inspires you to realise that you are stronger than you think.

You can find Cherry on Instagram where she posts daily workout motivation. Warning: you might find yourself saying “#strengthgoals” a lot and showing all your friends her Instagram page because #shook. 😆

Over to you, Cherry! 🍒

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I started my fitness journey, very similar to Pauline – a bad break-up.

…which is probably why we got talking too much when we first met 😝

I had a bad break up when I was 17.

One day, I decided that crying over a cheater for days and nights for about 2 months wasn’t the way anymore!

I started the gym as a distraction – just to not think about that guy anymore – and came across Kayla Itsines’ Instagram page. I saw LOTS of success with people’s “dream body” which got me thinking that strong is pretty badass.

 

Hopefully I would actually get 52.5kg in 7 weeks time😡🍝💪🏽 #spaghettiarms – Photo by @liftdalyphoto

A post shared by C H 🍒 R R Y (@cherryyeungg.g) on Feb 12, 2018 at 11:41am PST

I started by doing random exercises at the gym consistently for about 2 months, I remember not seeing results but just the endorphins after lots of sweat coming off my face and wanting to give up… kept me motivated. I dragged myself to the gym after school anyways.

I remember this one particular day, I actually fell asleep! My friend (who isn’t actually into the gym or anything) had seen the hard work and consistency I’ve been putting in the past 2 months, said “aw no don’t break your streak” After that, I kinda just stuck with that for a little while – just to keep my streak going! 😂

Strength is pretty badass.

I started weight training for about a year now and got into powerlifting. I was inspired by all the strong girls out there. I want to be as strong…stronger! (I’m a very competitive person haha.)

I motivate myself… I’ve always been a bit of a loner. I went from dragging myself to the gym to actually really look forward to the gym and falling in love with this sport.

I entered my first powerlifting competition recently.

And I was very unsure of entering myself to start with but you have no idea how glad I am that I’ve done it.

I weighed in at 42.1kg, squatted 82.5kg, benched 50kg and deadlifted 130kg which were all my all-time PB’s. I surprised a lot of people! They were most impressed by my deadlift because it was 3x my bodyweight 😆

I was so worried and nervous when I was one week out. But just like everybody says, once you get that squat opener in, all the nerves will be gone! I recommend it!! YOU’LL LOVE IT!

 

A post shared by C H 🍒 R R Y (@cherryyeungg.g) on Jan 13, 2018 at 12:07pm PST

My favourite exercise is…

Deadlift. (Anyone surprised? 😂)

Occasionally I do dread it because it is hard but once you’ve done that set, after the grind, there’s no better feeling in the world than finishing a heavy deadlift set!

A piece of advice I’d give to anyone wanting to start their fitness journey is…

JUST START!

Don’t wait for a “new” week, month or year, JUST START.

And try and enjoy it. Remember how it feels after your run/ set of burpees/ set of high rep squats! It is hard at first, but it gets easier ✨

 

A post shared by C H 🍒 R R Y (@cherryyeungg.g) on Sep 7, 2017 at 8:00pm PDT