Harder to Kill

Jennifer Perrier has been throwing barbells over her head for over a decade. A 5-time Pan American Masters champion, two-time World Championship medalist, and USAW Level 2 coach, she's one of the most accomplished Masters Olympic weightlifters in the country. She's also 56, has osteoarthritis in her hip, and just went six for six at Masters Nationals less than a year after emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and an accident that totaled her car three weeks before competition.In this episode, we talk about how a friend's road trip to Kentucky launched Jennifer's weightlifting career; what it took to come back from abdominal surgery in a sport where everything starts from the core; how she manages the "critical mind" and limiting beliefs both in herself and in her athletes; what a woman lying in the next hospital bed with a broken hip did to Jennifer's sense of mission; and how she coaches athletes who are navigating pain, aging bodies, and the constant recalibration that Masters sport demands. We also get into the mental game of Olympic lifting, her unorthodox approach to competing with arthritis, and how she's building what she calls "an army of people who are harder to kill."Find Jennifer at www.jenniferperrier.com, on Instagram at @jp.weightlifting and @kittyperrier, and on Facebook at facebook.com/jpweightlifting.For show notes and past episodes of That Badass Broadcast, visit thatbadassbroad.com/podcast.Writing on strength, training, and competing later in life at thatbadassbroad.com.Clips and training on Instagram: instagram.com/mirslam.Full episodes on YouTube: youtube.com/@thatbadassbroad.