For some athletes going to the weight room is just something they do to check off their to-do list or because their coach says they have to. But for senior Geli Doles, it’s more than that — it’s a big part of her life.

“I started lifting in middle school, just whenever we’d go to the weight room, but I didn’t really, like, get serious and start lifting a lot until my sophomore year,” she said.

It slowly started to become part of her day-to-day routine. She lifts five times a week, and on the weekends she is resting, prepping meals, and thinking about how she can improve.

“I wake up at 5:20 every morning, and I get ready for the day to work out and then I leave my house at 5:50 to get to the school at 6 to lift,” she said.

But those hours of lost sleep are worth it.

“I enjoy lifting because it really helps me clear my mental space,” she said. “It’s like a form of therapy for me, and I just like working at something to get better.”

Geli competes indepently, and in one of her recent meets she set two personal bests. She also qualified for the next level of competition this month. Coach Christa Henry is Geli’s powerlifting coach. But to Geli she is more than just a coach.

“She definitely changed my perspective on lifting and helped cultivate a healthy relationship with it,” she said.

She has helped Geli not only with the lifting side but also with her mentality.

“I think before I kind of put my identity in lifting, even though it’s just an extracurricular, and there are more important things to life,” Geli said. “She has taught me not to take it too seriously.”

Powerlifting is very difficult and takes a lot of training, but Geli has found a way to overcome the physical demands and mental strain.

“Powerlifting taught me that if you work at something,” she said, “you can achieve it.”