LAFAYETTE — "Its' just a great feeling to have achieved that, you know."
Donna Matte has proved that age is nothing but a number.
When she began her fitness journey over two years ago, never in a million years did she think it would lead her to heavy weights and big pumps
"Before I started on this journey thinking that I'm old and this is what it's going to be", says Matte. "I'm gonna get some life insurance because I'm not going to live that long and all that kind of stuff because I was so unhealthy. After I've done this, I'm just I'm just loving this life."
The 60-year-old was at 267 pounds at the start of her journey. Now a lean 176 (pounds), she decided to weigh the option, of power lifting
"She told me that she wanted to compete in the squat competition. So, I searched and I tried finding whatever I could", says Matte's trainer, Eli Justilian. "She wanted to do it in about May and I ended up finding just a full power lifting meet for her to do."
Competing in her first meet in Baton Rouge was as easy as lifting the bar.
She fought through a minor injury leading up to the competition, but came out on top sweeping through four events in the opening round.
"Going into it, she had a bit of a strain in her hip. So, we were having to deal with that prior to actually lifting. So, going into weren't even worried about lifting weight, we were just worried about like lifting herself."
"We went into it setting the weight to already break the records. So, after one time the records were already broken, I just kept competing against myself."
The true victory was creating a healthy lifestyle, but now that she's in the best shape of her life, she hopes to inspire others that it's never too late to try something new.
"I'm better than I was whenever I was younger and there's no limits. There's nothing that I can't do."
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