Petite ex-cheerleader morphs into powerlifting dynamo

MANSFIELD – She can lift three times her body weight and has the state powerlifting records in her division to prove it. But Melissa Stevens can remember a time when she thought she truly was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

She was a teenager and gave up cheerleading because — believe it or not — she thought it was too tough.

Now the petite wife of MMA pro Cody Stevens approaches a lifting bar loaded with 300 pounds of plates and doesn't even flinch.

"They started requiring a back tuck in cheerleading, so I quit. ... I was chicken," Stevens said. "I was not really athletic. That's as far as I took myself as far as challenging myself in school.

"I was so insecure about myself and I didn't have a thing that was just mine, that I excelled at."

Judging from her performance last month at the American Powerlifting Association nationals in Florida, it's safe to say she's found her niche.

Stevens, competing in only her second full-blown sanctioned meet, deadlifted 325.5 pounds, bench-pressed 143.3 pounds and squatted 243.3 pounds — all APA state records in her 123-pound division.

She's competing in another meet later this month in Columbus, where she'll take aim at the national deadlift record of 340 and world mark of 350.

"I've pulled 360 tap-dancing on my tiptoes, so I know I'm strong enough," said Stevens, who trains at the Fitness Factory in downtown Mansfield, where she also is a certified CrossFit instructor.

"I have high expectations for myself, and I want (the records) really bad, so I know I can get there. I'm going for the American record (in Columbus), and if I feel super strong, I'll go for the world record."

Stevens has come a long way since doing her first competition as almost a lark with friends in December 2012. Her husband barely recognizes the woman he started dating five years ago.

"I told here she could do whatever she wanted to do ... just play around and find your niche," said Cody Stevens, known as "The Wolverine" to cage-fighting fans. "She started doing cardio-kickboxing with me, then started weight-lifting, and I could tell she was competitive.

"Even when she didn't know how to do things properly she always went at it until she almost puked," he said.

That was the inner Melissa Stevens telling her she was capable of much more than a scary back tuck.

"Cody and I joke all the time about how I started tapping into my inner athlete a couple of years after we started seeing each other," she said. "I didn't know that part of me existed. I wish I had been pushed when I was younger to try things.

"Now I want to win everything I do, but I don't go into (competition) with the idea that if I don't win, I'm never doing it again. I do it to get better. I didn't have that mindset before."

Melissa Stevens isn't worried about her 10-year-old daughter, Jocelynn, needing that type of attitude adjustment.

"I think about being 10 and staying inside watching cartoons," she said. "She's begging me to go to tumbling classes and begging me to go to CrossFit. She's 10 and she's got no fear.

"When Cody and I met, I weighed 100 pounds. I wasn't active. Being active intimidated me. I remember his first kickboxing class I went to. I sat in the parking lot and thought about leaving. I just had not tapped into that side and I didn't feel good about myself."

Powerlifting and CrossFit, a high-intensity strength and conditioning program, have changed her outlook on life. She doesn't give in as easily to temptation when someone brings treats to Summit Therapy, where she works as an occupational therapy assistant.

"People will bring in doughnuts and cakes and I'll smell them," she said, grinning. "One of my bosses, Kim Brown, is always on me about cutting weight. He says 'Don't do it; victory will be sweeter.' But I have such a sweet tooth."

Her appetite for competition is much greater — "it's the best feeling in the world" she says — which helps explains how she earned Best Overall Lifter acclaim at an APA competition in Columbus last December where there were men bench-pressing more than 500 pounds.

"Pound for pound, she's the strongest person in this gym," said Allen Antonelli, owner with his wife of the Fitness Factory and a competitive powerlifter himself. "She mostly did CrossFit her first year with us, but training is training as long as it gets you stronger."

Melissa Stevens, 28, says strength should be empowering to women, not something to shun or find as intimidating as a back tuck.

"When I had Jocelynn, I weighed 250 pounds; I've been 100 pounds; I've been heavy; I've been really, really, really disgustingly skinny," she said. "Being stronger has made my world better. Training with super vision, forcing yourself to use good technique and good habits, has made my body healthier.

"I need my shoulders to have a little bulk to do what I do, but I don't think of myself as this bulky, manly girl. I still feel like I'm pretty; I'm petite. ... I'm like an ant. Lifting as much weight as I do, I think that's a testament to the fact you can be a beautiful woman and yet strong and capable."

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