For the month of October we recognize THREE of our Weightlifting Team athletes as our Members of The Month: Sarah Emmert, Tanya Watson and Barry Myers. The three members competed internationally at the Masters Weightlifting World Championships in Poland where Tanya finished 3rd and Sarah 6th.

You can read more about this special three below. You can also read about our previous members of the month here.

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Name: Sarah Emmert

What city were you born in? Baltimore, Maryland

What do you do when you’re not training at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc)? I am a stay-at-home mom to my three sons. I spend a lot of time hanging out with them and taking them to all of their sports practices and games. I love to go out on the weekends with my girlfriends. Traveling internationally with my husband is one of my favorite things to do. I also love reading.

What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite? My favorite lift is the snatch and I love doing my accessory work. I don’t really have a least favorite exercise since they are all necessary to help me reach my goals. Squats and pull ups always feel hard though.

What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training? I would say my greatest accomplishment since starting exclusively olympic lifting is completing the World Masters competition in Poland. I had a lot of setbacks during the week in Europe leading up to the competition: mentally and physically. I am glad I completed it because it was exponentially harder than I expected it to be.

What motivates you in your training? I have always been motivated to exercise and play sports because I want to live a long and healthy life for myself and my family. However, olympic lifting has been fun for me because completing super technical lifts adds mental stimulation along with the physical activity. I always want to try and be better in life in general and exercise is a very trackable way to do that. Plus, training and competing is just fun!

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Name: Tanya Watson

What city were you born in? Renton, WA – near Seattle

What do you do when you’re not training at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc)? I’m the President of a video game company called Bad Robot Games. I’m also the mom to two young kiddos named Penny and Henry. When I’m not training, working, or mom’ing, I like to play video games (shocker!), take my pups on long, meandering walks, go to see concerts with my husband, and travel. Our last trip was to Montreal to see the band ‘Jungle’ perform, and C’etait incroyable.

What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite? Favorite: High blocks snatch. The speed of getting into the bottom position without pulling off the floor is fun.
Least Favorite: High reps of any volume – Back squat 10s = BARF

What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training? As a masters athlete (I’m 41) who has been training in Crossfit or weightlifting since my late 20s, I never imagined that I could continue to see strength gains as I got into my 40s. My lifetime goals were a 70kg snatch, an 85kg clean and jerk, and a 120kg back squat. It turns out that lives are long! I hit those this past year, and new lifetime goals are needed.

My greatest accomplishment is to continue to get stronger as I get older [and staying (mostly) injury-free]. To be able to represent the USA at the Masters Weightlifting World Championships and place 3rd was icing on the cake.

What motivates you in your training? They may not realize this because I can only train with the team 1x/week, but my teammates motivate me the most. I *love* seeing them PR, get stronger, improve their technique, and grow as people. It’s my favorite part.

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Name: Barry Myers

What city were you born in? Scranton, PA

What do you do when you’re not training at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc)? I retired almost 2 years ago after 42 years as a Software Engineer. Since then, I’ve been doing about 30 years of neglected projects around the house. I like hanging out with friends and traveling (I can do this with a weightlifting event) as well as going to local and national competitions, and working as a technical official. Training takes a lot of energy, but for fun, I like doing outdoor stuff and still occasionally go rock climbing and ice climbing.

What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite? My favorite exercise is anything that just happens when you are doing something that is fun. My least favorite exercise is any exercise that is early in the morning.

What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training? I started weightlifting at age 16 in 1976, so I’ve been around for a long time. As a youth lifter, my biggest accomplishment was probably breaking the Teenage American snatch record at 120kg. I also placed 4th at the 1978 Sr. Nationals, made a Jr. USA team, and briefly trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. As a Master Lifter, I was inducted into the Masters weightlifting Hall of Fame in 2022. That represented 8 years of training and competing at a high level (USA, Pan-Ams, and Worlds), but I have a few more goals, so I’m not done yet.

What motivates you in your training? When it comes to weightlifting, I like it when my competition is really good. It makes me train harder.