About six months – that’s how long it took Davenport seventh grader Jimmie Rae Brownfield to go from beginning her training to breaking a national record.
She began training in May 2020 and set the national record for deadlifting in the 114-pound class in November 2020, lifting 215 pounds, at just 13 years old.
“Just because you’re a woman, you can still do it,” she said. “Not only men can do it.”
The deadlifting category in which she competed is determined by participants’ weight category, and is co-ed.
“I outlifted some of the boys,” Brownfield said.
She plans to drop weight to 105 for her next meet, Feb. 13 at Crane’s Muscle World in Shawnee, to break the American record and hopes to compete at teenage nationals and the Olympics in the future.
“I want to break glass barriers for women,” she said.
She also plans to attend the Junior Olympics world championships in Detroit, Michigan, June 29-July 4.
Brownfield trains in her front yard, under the supervision of her father – national and world record breaker Kim Brownfield.
“It’s better conditioning because we’ll lift out in the heat, we lifted out in the cold, and we’re tough country folks,” Kim Brownfield said. “So, we just lift outside. We don’t go to the gym. We’ve got all our stuff here.”
As she trains, Jimmie Rae Brownfield has to be careful not to push herself too hard, so she does benches and squats three times a week, along with presses and curls.
“We have to make sure she has plenty of recuperation time,” Kim Brownfield said. “So that’s why we only train three days a week and she plays basketball.”
She practices using a pyramid structure.
“I do a pyramid called ten, eight, six, four which means I do ten reps of lightweight and I go down to heavyweight until I do two reps,” Jimmie Rae Brownfield said. “And then, sometimes we have another bar that I do lightweight on.”
These exercises help build up the needed strength for her weekly deadlifting practices.
“She lifts what you call Sumo style, or modified Sumo, where she sets her legs just perfect on the bar, and you bring the bar to your legs, and you get set just perfectly,” Kim Brownfield said. “And you go down and you grab the bar, you squeeze the bar and you bring it up, and you have to lock it out at waist high.”
It’s important that only the athlete’s hands touch the bar during the lift.
“It’s on a platform,” Jimmie Rae Brownfield said, “and you have to brace, but you can’t hit anything with it, you can’t drag it across your legs to get it up.”
Proper technique and training are important.
“It takes a lot of leg and back strength,” Kim Brownfield said.
The strength she has gained has benefitted other areas of her life as well.
“I’m stronger on the court, on the basketball court,” Jimmie Rae Brownfield said.
Lifting runs in her family, and her father’s record-setting lifting was part of what inspired her to start lifting.
“She’s got the genetics and she’s got the willpower to do it,” Kim Brownfield said. “I’m so proud of her, you know, I’m her dad, I can’t help it, I’m proud of her.”