Two Long Island women shoot for strength titles

At some point Sunday, Maureen Quinn will be asked for a lift, and it will involve her making a pick-up with a car. But not in the way one might assume.

No, this petite microbiologist will attempt to lift a Smart Car that is about 15 times her own weight.

That's right. Because the Rocky Point native is competing for a Strongwoman national championship in Reno, Nevada, and deadlifting a vehicle is par for that strenuous course. Patchogue's Amanda Ormanian also will participate in the Junior National weightlifting championships in February.

The two friends train together and qualified for their respective contests this summer. And both, perhaps, bend the common perception of power lifters.

Quinn, 23, is 5-4 and 115 pounds. Ormanian, a 19-year-old, is 5-5 and 124 pounds. Far from burly, but they are, in fact, championship-caliber iron-pumpers.

"When I tell people what I do, they look at me like, 'What? You?'" Quinn said with a chuckle. "I think people see weight training as a masculine activity and picture strong women as huge and muscle-bound. I'm not quite that."

Her background in the sport and the early success aren't quite typical, either. Quinn only began intense strength training six months ago. She is a scientist who works in the research lab at Estee Lauder. She was a distance runner at St. Joseph's College and a field hockey player at Rocky Point High School. Fast-forward a few years and she now lifts really heavy objects . . . and enjoys it.

"I get more fulfillment from this than running," she said. "My friends can't believe I made such a switch, and coworkers tease me all the time."

She does, after all, make a daily transition from beakers to barbells. Quinn awakes at 4:30 every morning to begin training -- squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts, etc. -- before heading to work at 7:30.

After graduating, Quinn said, she missed athletics and was eventually drawn to Grassfed Crossfit, which opened in Patchogue two years ago. Ormanian yearned for a new challenge after giving up basketball and martial arts. She joined Grassfed a year ago and began Olympic-style weightlifting only last February. But both women "progressed so rapidly," gym founder and trainer Chad Cochran said. "It was remarkable. At the rate they were going, I knew they could be successful with strength training, so I approached them with it."

There was some apprehension initially -- "I never would've envisioned myself doing this," Ormanian said -- but they quickly adapted and excelled. The two soon forged a friendship and, Ormanian said, they motivate each other. Both also draw inspiration from prominent Crossfit athletes like Danielle Sidell and Michelle Kinney. Quinn and Ormanian took on a Paleo diet, heavy in red meats. Still, both say they have lost about five pounds and built lean muscle.

"Seeing the results and having success made me want to keep going," said Ormanian, a business major at Suffolk Community College. "I want to keep going with this until I can't anymore."

In August, she took second in a junior national qualifier in Connecticut and Quinn, in her first tournament, won the featherweight title at the Hudson Valley Showdown to earn the berth in nationals. The Strongwoman competition this year established a 120-and-under weight class, which allowed Quinn to compete. Previously, 140 pounds was the minimum.

"It's kind of surreal," she said. "Being new to this and then getting to nationals, it's been a whirlwind."

The Smart Car deadlift will be one of several muscle- and mettle-measuring activities in the tournament, which includes circus dumbbell routines and a keg toss. The vehicle weighs about 1,700 pounds and will be placed atop a deadlifting apparatus with handles to aid in lifting it. The contestants will attempt to raise the handles waist-high and complete as many reps as possible within a minute. Not an easy feat, particularly for someone whose most comparative exercise was lifting a 400-pound tire.

"It would be awesome to place, but I know I'm new so I'll try not to get too frustrated if I don't do well," Quinn said. "I'll do my best, take in the experience and keep improving."

Crossfit is a fast-growing sport and Cochran said 75 of his 150 gym members are female. Quinn said it's "awesome to see women not afraid to build muscle." And not lost on her or Ormanian is an understanding that their success could inspire other women.

"I probably don't look like I'm capable of doing the things I can," Ormanian said. "It shocks a lot of people, and that's one of the reasons I fell in love with it."