Kat “Mighty Kat” Ricker

Writer, bodybuilder, and Renaissance woman Kat Ricker (a.k.a. The Mighty Kat) has been training since 1990. Here, she shares some of her writing.

Reader mail 7

First off I want to thank you for creating this site.  You have no idea how much it has changed me and my life (actually you probably do have some idea since I am sure I am not the first person to tell you this). I guess my story starts out like a lot of […]

Reader mail 6

“I feel compelled to write you and tell you how fantastic your site is! Here is my life story. I am a 30 year old woman who is classed as medically disabled. I have many many medical illnesses working against me, and I have since I was 13 years old. This includes Parkinson’s, Crohn’s, migraines, and heart disease… my highest weight was 270 pounds…”

Reader mail 5

“My story isn’t unique. I was the heavy girl never picked for teams, yada yada, until lack of a car in college/”the real world” forced me to walk everywhere in rural Maine, then I took to biking, then hiking, and then the gym. I weighed in at 157 lbs here, but I am a size 6/8 on a frame 5′11″ tall!

Right before this meet, my best friend of 7 years told me that I was getting too muscular. That hurt, but I ditched the friendship and went to your site for some female support. I love the sensation of getting stronger, I love the calluses I’m getting at the base of my fingers, I love outlifting a few men even… now my strength is ‘cute’ but I can’t wait till I’m pulling some serious weight around the gym.”

Reader mail 4

“Now I’m in fire school. In the United States today only 2% of all paid firefighters are female. This kicks my ass. BTW, that cursed hose (and I’m cursing it in this picture believe me) gets pulled for 100 feet and it gets progressively heavier until the last ten feet it’s 220 lbs. The water is pressurized inside and its horribly stiff and unforgiving. All my gear, helmet and air tank, weigh about 50 lbs. This kicks the ass of 18 year old boys! But I’m doing it and in fact just two days before Christmas landed a job as a firemedic in a suburb of Orlando. I still have a lot of pulling and sweating to do before graduation but I’m going to do it. It would not have been possible without a lot of inspiration, so I say thank you again.”

Reader mail 3

“That first day when I was reading through all of your info, I didn’t think I could actually do it. I was so out of shape I was sure that I would hurt myself if I tried to lift, but I got hooked when reading your section on squats. I was sure that if I tried to do one, even with just body weight, my knee caps would go flying across the room! But I wanted to try, so I stood up in front of my computer, and carefully following the instructions, went all the way down and came all the way back up! Then I did it again, and about ten more times”…

Reader mail 2

“In 1996 I broke my back in a construction accident. I had to do something in order to show the male dominated world that I could still pull my weight! In order to do this I had to start to lift weights. And so my training started…”

Reader mail 1

These are real women who wrote me, prompted by reading the site, to tell their story and share their ideas. Who needs superheroes when you have such inspiration!?