Courtenay’s Lataisha Maynard is B.C.’s strongest woman.
The 33-year-old single mom can claim that title, thanks to a dominating performance at last weekend’s BC BC CAASA Provincial Strongman competition in Victoria.
Maynard said there is a lot to love about strength competitions: “I love lifting heavy things. I love that strongman has a whole bunch of different (elements) like giant logs, and giant tires, and big atlas stones, and it’s just so rough and tough. There are not a lot of girls who join the sport, so that was something that appeals to me as well.”
In Victoria, Maynard set the pace by finishing in a first-place tie in the 150-pound Log press.
After that, she went on to win the next four out of five events.
Maynard said she went in just trying to score a bunch of personal bests, and ended up taking it to a whole new level.
Highlights included:
- The aforementioned 150-pound log press,
- new B.C. Amateur Heavyweight Dinnie Stone Record Holder at 80 percent weight 0.98 seconds
- Carrying a 160-pound sandbag 200 feet in 60 seconds
- Taking two 150/hand farmers handles (300 pounds total), run 50 feet with 400lb yoke run medley in 23.09 seconds
- Only female to lift the back of the pickup truck (420-pounds in hand) five times
Maynard says she likes to train at Lewis gym and at home mostly but she only gets to lift Strongman implements at HGG (Hayes Garage Gym) because “there’s nowhere else in town with this kind of equipment.”
Sean Hayes (who recently finished third in Canada) runs the group every Saturday.
“He taught me all I know,” Maynard said.
She said she wants to be an inspiration to women everywhere.
“Girls can lift heavy and get dirty too, if I can find the time to hustle as a single mom and do it, anything is possible,” Maynard added.
She’s been lifting for years and even got my personal training certification from ACE in 2019.
“But it was something I put on the burner while I trained for strongman for a while as a hobby just to see how I would do,” she explained.
Maynard said after posting about her successes in the sport, “people started asking me about when I’m going to start training, so I started my own business, ‘Feral Strength Training.’
“This is just like my passion for strength and fitness coming together to help people so I couldn’t be happier,” Maynard said.
“There were a lot of strong people out there last weekend so I just focused on myself and gave my all in every event, that’s all I could do.”
Maynard has her sights set on the Strongman Nationals which will be held in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Oct. 16th.
Strong local contingent
She was part of a crew of competitors who went down to Victoria to compete. They included:
Kalem Nygren-Hardy – 3rd overall,
Cain Manton – 9th overall, and
John Jesperson – BC Max Log Masters LW Record Holder- 212.2 lbs.
