This week on the Pod I was delighted to bring Pollyanna Isabella to the show. Pollyanna offered so much sporting experience to the show with history in Swimming, Netball, bodybuilding, strength training and now Olympic lifting.
Pollyanna’s sporting life started at school where she would play most sports but excelled particularly in swimming. She was taken out of school to train hard in the pool week on week at Millfield with the Street & District Swimming Club. She had her sights set on a scholarship at Millfield but it didn’t happen. After leaving boarding school and heading to College, Polly joined her local leisure centre gym. She describes how she became much more body conscious at college and at this point wanted to change her body and become (in her words) “skinnier”.
In 2014 Pollyanna’s path led her to a proper gym (Progress Gym, Yeovil). She wanted to take her body shape and conditioning to another level by taking on the huge challenge of a bikini fitness prep and competition. Pollyanna took on a brutal 16 week competition prep programme and diet to get stage lean. She recalls this being an extremely eye opening experience that really tested her mental strength and determination. Pollyanna placed 3rd at her regional British qualifier which led her to the British Finals where she placed top 10 in Britain in 2015.
In 2019 Pollyanna started learning the Olympic Lifts, after a year of drilling technique and building strength in other areas she decided to take on her first Olympic Lifting competition, with the British Weightlifting Federation. Pollyanna’s latest competition was in 2019, as part of the -81kg category where she Snatched 63kg and Clean & Jerked 78kg. Due to Covid, competitions have not been taking place in recent times, but Pollyanna’s lifts continue to go from strength to strength – she is now Snatching 73kg and Clean & Jerking 82kg.
Honestly, Pollyanna’s interview is an incredible listen with a really deep insight into the world of Women’s body building and how it can potentially affect your body confidence, mental state and disrupt eating behaviours. I really appreciate Pollyanna for being so open and honest with the regards to the influence of social media on herself throughout her journey – and especially how affected her at the time. I would recommend anyone wanting to start their fitness journey and who might be experiencing body confidence issues to listen to Pollyanna’s story and just how motivated and passionate she is when it comes to women in sport, weightlifting and strength!
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