Deadlifting 240 lbs., senior Alex Kominowski feels her muscle tighten as she hears people cheering her on, confidence radiating through her body. All the comments floating in her head about how she looked small, and that she could not possibly lift as much as she claimed, suddenly disappeared. 

“The power I feel when I max out is insane. I love how important and powerful it makes me feel,” Kominkowski said.

Not many people believed Kominowski’s claims of being strong; that is, until she could prove it. Kominowski has now been lifting for around five years, improving her skills on a weekly basis.

“Honestly, the rush I feel from lifting is one like no other. I love showing off how strong I am, whether it’s when I’m competing, practicing or just doing it for fun with friends, which I do a lot,” Kominowski said. “I have improved by not always trying to max out and realizing that won’t help me get stronger as fast. I’ve grown and realized training different muscle groups will help them grow when I max out.”

Kominowski also throws discus, and has done better each year since starting in seventh grade.

“I started lifting because I needed something to do to keep me in shape during the off seasons of track,” Kominowski said. “I throw, and I quickly learned that it helps when you don’t stop practicing for the meets.  I throw shot put during the indoor season, but during outdoor I mainly throw discus. My personal records are 100’2 for discus, and 26 inches for shot put. In eighth grade, I started getting really good, and placed 8th in MIC [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference]. In high school, I’ve received 4th place a few times, but I can’t remember all my exact placements from each meet, I’ve competed in so many.”

Still focused on her passion for working out and powerlifting, Kominowski started thinking about how she could incorporate it into her daily life beyond high school.

“I want to find a personal trainer that can help with my lifting and help me become more prepared for an upcoming meet, and that’s what got me thinking about what I wanted to do after high school,” Kominowski said. “It hasn’t exactly been easy trying to find someone, and it has influenced me to want to become someone who can help others.”

In Nov. 2021, Kominowski committed to Franklin College, mainly for the major she is interested in: exercise science.

“I like how small of a campus Franklin is. After sitting in on a class for exercise science majors, I saw how close of a relationship the professor had with the students,” Kominowski said. “There were only about 20 kids in the class, and I feel that with having a smaller class it’ll be more beneficial in learning new things, especially when it comes to my major.”

As time went on after committing, Kominowski felt like she was finally able to explain to people what she wanted to do with her life. 

“Even though I started lifting for fun, it started to turn into something more. I would see a lot of people at the gym or in weights get hurt because of their form,” Kominowski said. “It made me realize I wanted to help more people become familiar with lifting and sometimes pushing the limits is not the safest option. That’s the main reason I want to major in exercise science. I want to be able to become certified and become a trainer to help kids, teenagers and adults learn how to lift with correct form and get stronger. I remember struggling with hardly any weight and hating the feeling of my muscles tightening, but now it’s one of my favorite feelings ever.”