Born, May 31st 1991 Amanda Lou Ann Harris was born on May 31st 1991, one month early weighing only five pounds and four ounces. She was taken by emergency cesarean as the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and caused her heart rate to drop very low and cut off oxygen to her brain. When she was born she was as blue as a Smurf and her left foot was twisted up underneath her body causing her to wear corrective braces for two years, so she could walk. As you will see the braces worked and now Amanda has overcome these obstacles to become one of the strongest people on this planet. As Amanda grew she was underweight and a little shorter than her friends but that never slowed her down. She was a very active little girl and a little on the mischievous side. She was influenced by her older brother Beau and they were always competing against each other. Neither Beau nor Amanda were spanked for discipline, they were made to do push-ups and leg lifts for punishment. It did not matter where we were if they got out of line they were dropped for push-ups. This became their first competition, as they would always attempt to out-do the other one in push-ups. This is one of the key factors that built Amanda’s strength at such an early age. By the time Amanda was four years old she could easily do several hundred push-ups in a day. One day out by the pool Beau got a little rough with his sister and was dropped for push-ups. Amanda began to taunt him and told him she could out do him in push-ups and that he was a wimp. That was all it took (LOL) they both went to work, to out do the other. In a two hour time span Beau, her brother did 1200 push-ups and Amanda completed 750 push-ups. It bothered her that Beau beat her and that motivated her to do push-ups all the time. Amanda is 15 years old now and weighs under 120 pounds and has competed in the Teen level Competition as well as the adult level of competition. To date Amanda has never been defeated in competition and will give any elite female adult lifter in the amature 123 pound weight class stiff competition. Her skill levels are that of a seasoned veteran and are ready for the adult world of competition. She has trained hard and earned her place on the platform with the worlds best female Powerlifters. Now that Amanda has taken her success to an all new high by winning 7 World Championships in just one year Amanda wanted to share with her friends what she has done over the last seven years and help others get in better shape and take control of their lives. This is why she has created the stage name of Barbie Barbell and created www.barbiebarbell.com We also have www.myspace.com/worldpowerchamp and is has some great pictures and a good bit of information about her. We will continue to add to these web sites the good and the bad things that may happen. There is always that chance of Amanda not winning at the adult level but she is ready for the challenge. Amanda has a powerful message to all young ladies and will share her experiences here on her web site and will be traveling all over the country demonstrating her lifting skills and teaching others how they can accomplish their dreams and goals in life. Amanda is very unique in her strength and lifting abilities but outside of the gym she lives a very normal life doing all the things a young lady her age would normally do. She loves going to the movies with her friends or hanging out at the local mall and of course the sleep-over (us old folks called them slumber parties) has always been fun for her. She is not really on a special diet but we make sure she eats plenty of protein to build healthy muscle and drinks plenty of water. Other than that she is allowed to eat junk food a couple time a week and yes we even let her eat McDonalds if that’s what she wants. She is however very picky about what she eats (most of the time) as she knows the importance of proper diet. Amanda asked to be home schooled in 2004 so she could focus on her training and be allowed to travel to Powerlifting events all around the world. We wanted to make sure this was not just a whim and she was truly dedicated to what she wanted to do. We told her that if she maintained her grades for the year and still wanted to be home schooled the next year (2005) we would consider her request. As you can imagine when Amanda sets her mind on a goal she sticks to it. Amanda completed 7th grade with honors making all A’s and B’s. We moved closer into Houston so we would be closer to better training facilities and she enrolled into Katy Junior High School for the first six weeks of school. We decided to enroll her into school for the first semester and allow her to be home schooled after Christmas break. We wanted her to get to know some of the other kids so she would have a social life with kids her own age. The first six weeks went fast and Amanda was pushing to be home schooled so much that we decided to pull her out October 1st 2005 to be home schooled. We told her that studies at home would be more detailed and advanced from what she was learning at school and she accepted the challenge. Now her day starts a 7:00am with breakfast and by 8:00am she is in the gym with her three times a week workouts. By 10:00am Amanda is back home ready to start the school day. Her first study is Science and in particular Human Anatomy. Next class is English Grammar and Creative writing; she will maintain a journal of her training and be responsible for the posts on her web site. Then she has a break for lunch. Some times she will be given an hour for rest or even a nap if she needs it. After her break she studies math and last social science. In the evenings Amanda has two outside activities that she participates in. She loves to dance so she will be going to Hip-Hop dance class twice a week and Kung-Fu classes twice a week as well. In less than 6 months Amanda has already earned her Orange belt and is moving up faster than the others in her class. This all falls back to conditioning. Friday evenings and Saturday is time Amanda can spend with her friends when she is in town. Most of her competitions are on the weekends so she will be on the road often. Amanda as you can see, has a very busy schedule and as she moves forward it will become busier. Amanda is in hope that you will find her story of interest and motivating to the point that she will have a positive impact on your life. So many people come to her and say, “That’s amazing how you can lift so much weight?” Amanda always tells them that she believes in herself and that no one ever told her that she couldn’t lift that kind of weight. There is a very strong message in what Amanda has been able to achieve. The power of positive thinking can move mountains! When Amanda speaks to people she always reminds us of whom we really are making a simple statement and then asking the audience a question. It goes like this, “In life, we are not born winners or losers, we are born choosers. Which one will you choose to be?” Competitions Amanda has attended and lifted 52. -AAU 2001-2003 Jr. Olympic Gold Medalist 2 times. Has held or holds State, National and World Records in every weight and age class she has lifted, in all the above mentioned Federations.
TV Appearances ABC Jackson Mississippi Nov 2005. |
