From YOUR middle weight pro women's world champion, A little about me: I am a firm believer that hard work pays off and that is an attitude that I try to instill in others. If you want something bad enough, you will be willing to consistently devote your time and effort towards it. In doing that you will eventually be successful. It's important to realize that great things take time and generally a whole lot of hard work and effort. Not many people are willing to do everything it takes to be successful. I can say I am a very determined individual and I am willing to dedicate myself in doing whatever it takes to reach my goals. Lifting, competing, and choosing to live a fit life are my passion. I enjoy every part of it, including leading a fitness lifestyle, competing at shows, and sharing my knowledge with others interested in doing the same. I like helping people, especially to accomplish their health and fitness goals. I have done that with teaching junior high and high school physical education, being a personal trainer, and now with my fiancé, Adam Derks, we are doing a variety of online personalized programming.
Our team- #DerksStrong is continuing to grow and we are loving it. It really is an awesome feeling to be a part of a person's health, fitness, strength, and/or competition journey. We really enjoy what we do with our team from nutrition to training plans to competition prep to form critiques. The combination of our knowledge and experience is what makes our programming so unique. On top of that we continue to do research to educate ourselves and to make our custom programming the best it can be for each individual we work with. We value our team, their individual goals, and aiding them in reaching every goal they set. It's great to see others succeed and it's an awesome feeling to know that we, as coaches, are a part of it. It takes a lot of commitment and determination to be a successful athlete and I feel I possess both of those traits. Everyone has a different story/ a different journey that had brought them to this point. I won't go into detail, but my journey as a competitive athlete, aside from playing sports as a kid and in high school, began in 2010. I competed in strongwoman for almost 4 years, then began doing women's physique shows for 2 years, and now I am back in action competing in strongwoman again. The past six years of competing have been full of adventure. It is cool to look back and see how much I have grown, the accomplishments I have made, and the new goals I now have, that once seemed unattainable. I also love to see how much the sport has grown and the opportunities that are now available for women. I am grateful and it is definitely something I want to be a part of.
I decided to make my strongwoman "comeback" this year after training with Adam in my off season from bodybuilding . It was fun being able to share our passion, lift together, do event training together and try new things. I was super excited that I started hitting big numbers and excelling at each event more than ever before. Adam, my fiancé, is an outstanding athlete, especially when it comes to strongman. He has taught me so much. Between us training together, collaborating our strengths, and him coaching me to use my mechanics at an optimal level, I knew I would be able to come back better than ever. Together I feel we can accomplish anything. Adam is clearly my perfect match in life and my partner in gains. Haha. Now about the competition: I competed in one show to get myself qualified for the USS Pro Women's Worlds, it was in Michigan at the end of July. I won. I then prepared for Kentucky for about 2 and a half months. I knew this would be the biggest competition I ever had the privilege to be a part of and I knew the women I would be up against were going to come in prepared and ready to fight for the win. I made sure to leave no stone unturned when it came to my training. There were a few bumps in the road leading up to this show as far as injuries, but I did what I could to keep my body healthy and I managed to truck through. I was determined to succeed and I busted my butt, so I could have the best chance at winning. Pre-competition I was anxious, nervous, excited, and confident all at the same time. I was pumped to be the biggest class of that show (as a middle weight, 165). I was ready for fun and ready for war.
Day one was max deadlift, which I love. I was prepared to have to pull 500+ pounds, with 495 being my previous personal best at the gym which I pulled in August of this year. Adam had trained me extra hard on deadlifts to make sure I would be ready for that! I ended up only needing to pull two of my three allotted attempts. Ending with a solid 455lbs pull. It went up easy and felt great. Day two was Viking press, Keg Medley, Farmers, and Stones! I fought for every rep and every second in each event. With 28 reps on the 160lbs Viking press , I tied with Buffy Gordon. I then took 2nd on the keg medley to Caitlin Yuhas, then I won farmers, and won stones. It was a great day! Thanks to Buffy and Caitlin for giving me a challenge and making me work for that win!
The hardest part of this competition for me was making weight, my body was just not having it on my water cut this go around. Cutting less than 10lbs should have been no issue, but my body had another opinion on that. The best part of this competition was having Adam pushing me every step of the way leading up to the shows and even along side me every event at the competing. We train hard & when it comes to game time we play even harder. I genuinely appreciate all that Adam does for me and I know that together we have built the best athlete that I could possibly be going into this show. I really look forward to what the future holds for each of us in this sport. We make a great team! Ps. the cherry on top of winning worlds was earning that big ass champion belt to add to our trophy case at home. So cool! On a more serious note:
I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS to all the women who competed at the first ever United States Strongman Pro Women's Worlds! It was a great show, very well ran, and full of outstanding female athletes. I would also like to extend a special congrats to the ladies who won each class! Christina Bangma in LW, Mary Cain in HW, Samantha Coleman in SHW, and Lisa Kromer in Masters. Last but not least- A big thank you to Willie Wessles and John Albrecht along with the show promoters, judges, announcer Mike Johnston, score keepers, and everyone who made the competition run so smoothly. What a great first Women's Worlds! I cannot wait to be a part of this again in the years to come! U.S.S. Rocks! Until next time, Happy training everyone Kim Baum
What a fierce competitor! What a wonderful person! What a GREAT Champion! Thank you, Kim! All of us at USS are proud to have you onboard! ~ USS Team