In today’s episode, I speak with Leah DeCesare, a 47kg or 103lb weight class powerlifter who’s competed at the Arnold and in several national powerlifting meets with great success. Leah’s been vegan for well over 15 years and built all of her incredible strength and muscle on a fully plant based diet. In competition, Leah’s hit a 275.5 lb squat, a 176.3 lb bench press and a 308.6 lb deadlift at only 103 lbs bodyweight, giving her a DOTS score of 448.28. Leah has always had an interesting approach to nutrition for an elite powerlifter of her status. She’s always leaned towards a more lax, intuitive approach towards nutrition and has never really been much for tracking calories or macros. This was a topic I found to be very interesting to discuss with her about and I think highlights the importance of diet sustainability as well as other factors that may be more influential for strength and muscle accrual. We also got into the details of Leah’s training history, what has worked well for her to skyrocket her numbers, her reasons for going vegan, and much more.
You can find her on Instagram at @leahrayex – Thanks again to Leah, for taking the time to come on the podcast and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed our chat!
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Podcast intro
00:40 – Leah intro
2:15 – Podcast with Leah start
3:15 – What drew Leah into fitness and eventually powerlifting?
9:00 – Leah’s first competition and first meets in general
16:30 – Getting more serious with powerlifting, gyms in NYC, finding a gym
25:00 – Powerlifting programming, Reactive Training Systems Project Momentum, more competitions
31:15 – Powerlifting as a super strong girl in commercial gyms
36:00 – Going to the Arnold Powerlifting Competition, seguing out of Powerlifting, injuries
45:00 – Future competition?, other interests?, WWF, Eric Bugenhagen
49:30 – Going vegan, being vegan 15 years ago vs now
56:30 – Leah’s approach to her diet and how other people often treat their diet, what Leah eats often
1:07:45 – Closing, where can you find Leah?
