DVHS offers a variety of extracurricular activities for any student who wants to participate. For those who love to run, there’s cross country or track. For people who thrive in the water, there are sports like water polo, swimming and diving. For people who like to compete, there is football, soccer, tennis and the list goes on.
This extensive list of activities for students to join offers much variety. But for the students who don’t particularly connect with any of them, weightlifting has emerged as an extension of the school’s sports programs. For those who don’t quite fit into any of the school’s provided activities, the weightlifting community at DVHS holds out a welcoming hand.
Senior Michael Pon is a local gym influencer who posts his accomplishments online to track his progress and help inspire others. He claims that weightlifting has changed his life, both physically and mentally.
“It saved me from things like depression and low self esteem,” Pon reflected. “Not only did it bring up my confidence, but mentally and physically made me stronger in almost all aspects of life.”
One primary factor for consistency in weightlifters is discipline. For Pon, going to the gym became a lifestyle change that laid the foundation for his success. Rather lifting for a sense of motivation, Pon utilizes a strict regimen to optimize his goals even during adversity.
“Going to the gym when you’re tired, eating the right foods when you’re craving unhealthy things, all these things add up over time,” Pon said. “The more disciplined you are, they become routine”
Although gym culture is notoriously known for being toxic, Pon felt that the weightlifting community at DVHS is an exception, with a supportive community that continually uplifts each other.
“At Dougherty, everyone is supportive, down to learn and teach one another. A community like ours helps uplift people on their path in the gym,” Pon acknowledged.
While there is a lot of discourse regarding gym culture and its toxic relationships between an individual and their body, lifters at DVHS believe that it’s more nuanced than that. Junior Lincoln Tieu compared lifting to a game.
“It’s a competition between each other, but mainly it’s a competition between ourselves. That’s what makes it a game,” Tieu explained.
Tieu stated that the constant push from other people to improve creates an environment that promotes personal betterment, both in lifting and life in general.
Cory Chen, a junior at DV and another routine lifter added onto this analogy, taking a simplistic approach to weight training, seeing it as an opportunity to get better and improve on oneself.
“Everyone talks about how it’s hard to be consistent, but not really. It’s like leveling up… People talk about discipline and whatever, but I don’t think it’s discipline. It’s just fun.” Chen recounted.
Chen compared his experiences to valleys and mountaintops, or lows followed by highs, explaining how this analogy describes the journey of lifting that has helped him push through challenges.“After you get out of the valley, you always go higher than where you were before,” Chen adds
In reference to his own experience, he referred to a back injury he faced, reflecting on the change it made on his mindset. “When I recovered from that injury, I surpassed what I was doing before weight wise,” he said.
“You’re always growing from whatever your failures are. You learn from that, and then you apply what you learn into your current [life], into what you do, and that’s how you’re constantly getting better,” Chen stated.
