‘Yeah – one side of my face won’t move’
Ashleigh Hoeta recovers from stroke to break records
When Ashleigh Hoeta says she emerged from lockdown last year stronger than she was at the beginning, she means it on many levels.
Hoeta recently set a string of powerlifting records – including a new world-best mark within her federation – just over a year after suffering a stroke.
The 24-year-old recorded a 255kg squat at the Anzac International Cup in Rotorua – the heaviest by a New Zealand female powerlifter, while also setting new national records in the deadlift (237kg) and bench (125kg) categories.
For someone still relatively new to the sport, it was a remarkable achievement. For someone who had a major health scare just days after competing in her first strength event, it was difficult to fathom.
‘‘In March last year I entered a Strongman-Strongwoman competition,’’ Hoeta said. ‘‘I’d never trained for it, but I thought I’d go in and have fun. Two days later I was travelling home from the comp and I had numbness in my leg. I thought,
‘ah, it’s just pins and needles’.
‘‘But over a threehour drive it just got worse, and I thought I’d ring Healthline to see what I could do about it. She asked me if my face was drooping, and I looked in the mirror and said ‘yeah – one side of my face won’t move’.
‘‘So they called an ambulance, rushed me into the hospital, and I was kept in there for a week.’’
A week later, the country went into level four lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19, leaving Hoeta facing her health battles on her own. ‘‘It wasn’t good with my mental health at all, I wasn’t able to see anyone.’’
But the motivation for the mother of Alaura-Jade and Elijah has always been family.
‘‘My dad is really sick – there is nothing we can do,’’ she said of her father Ashley, who has emphysema. ‘‘He encouraged me to try it [powerlifting] – at first I was quite hesitant, I was like ‘no, this is a male sport’. But I won my very first competition and as he was walking back he was tearing up.
‘‘And my dad’s a very old school, doesn’t cry type of guy.
‘‘So I said to myself in that moment – I’m going to do everything I can to get to the top while my dad is still alive. I rang during lockdown and said ‘I’m still going to try’. I just did the bare minimum – to make the effort to get up each morning, to walk around the house, try to do a press-up. And then because there’s nothing else to do in a lockdown, I came out of the lockdown six weeks later stronger than what I was before I had the stroke.’’
Approaching the event in Rotorua, Hoeta suspected she was ready to make an impact, despite the setback.
‘‘It was the first time that I’ve gone in thinking that I could actually achieve what I wanted to.
‘‘I knew the numbers I needed to do to become the best in New Zealand. So I just worked with my coach between each lift in order for that to happen.’’
Hoeta competes in the super heavyweight [over 90s] category and doesn’t have any legitimate competition throughout the country. So her drive to succeed continues to come from close quarters.
‘‘My dad wasn’t there at the weekend, one of his friends passed away,’’ she said the week after her successes in Rotorua. ‘‘I caught up with him last night with a big trophy, and it was a very emotional moment – and a good one.’’
Hoeta said she still feels the effects of her stroke when lifting. ‘‘I noticed that I was favouring my right side with everything – especially with bench. I’d push up more with my right side and the left side would just kinda glide up with it. So I’d have to take two steps back and try and master basic movements with my arms and legs before anything else.’’
From Waitara in Taranaki, she currently lives in Hamilton and trains with coach Daniel Rudolph, the owner of Kiwi-Strength.
Mondays are dedicated to squats, Tuesdays to bench presses, Wednesday for a small cardio session and Thursdays for deadlifts, before the body is given the rest of the week to recover.
Injuries are also difficult to avoid – something Hoeta didn’t escape in Rotorua, despite her record-setting efforts.
‘‘On my second squat, I set it up wrong and tore my rotator cuff. ‘‘So I’m currently in a sling.
‘‘But I have nationals in five months – I’ll probably rest if for a few weeks and get back into it.
‘‘Because there was so much adrenaline running through my body and I really wanted to do this, I pushed through.’’
‘‘I’m going to do everything I can to get to the top while my dad is still alive.’’ Ashleigh Hoeta