Elizabeth Smart is breaking down her “terrifying” journey to bodybuilding.
“I had been in marathon running for quite a long time, and my knee started hurting a little bit more,” Smart, 38, said during an interview on CBS Mornings on Monday, May 4. “I’d have to do a whole series of stretches every time before I’d go for a run, and it was taking up so much of my day, and especially on the weekend, when my kids were home, by the time I’d finished my long runs, I’d be useless for the rest of the day. And so, I kind of was taking all these things into account.”
Smart said she got in touch with her trainer and now-coach, Robyn Maher, about working out together, which led her to discover a passion for bodybuilding.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t vanity involved,” the child safety activist continued. “But I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to look amazing, and I need a goal, and I need a deadline.’ … I was like, ‘I think I’d like to try bodybuilding.’”
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Looking back on her first bodybuilding competition, Smart said, “It was absolutely terrifying.”
“I grew up always just being so modest. I don’t think I wore a bikini until I was on my honeymoon,” she admitted. “So, stepping up on stage in a bikini felt like the most vulnerable thing I could possibly do. I was shaking.”
Smart, who has been advocating for child safety since she was abducted from her home at age 14 in 2002 and rescued nine months later, went public with her bodybuilding journey on April 21.
“When I posted the pictures in my story of me standing on stage in a bikini it probably shocked many of you,” Smart wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of herself on stage in a bikini. “This is actually the fourth competition I’ve done, but I was too afraid to post it before. Worried that I would be judged, not taken seriously, somehow perceived as less than or now unworthy to continue work as an advocate for all survivors.”
Smart continued in her lengthy post, “My body has carried me through every worst day, every hellish grueling experience, it’s created and nurtured three beautiful children, my body has risen to every single challenge life has presented it with, and carried me through so I refuse to be ashamed of it.”
During her interview on Monday, Smart reflected on her initial thoughts about entering the world of bodybuilding.
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“I’m not sure if I was so much ashamed, but I think there were a lot of things I felt in my line of work. I’ve met so many victims of sexual abuse and violence who feel like their body betrayed them, and we see a lot of just self-harm, eating disorders, feelings of self-loathing, loathing their body,” she explained. “And for me, doing this, I feel like it has been a celebration of my body, because it has carried me through every worst day, every bad experience. … And I’m so grateful to my body for bringing me to where I am today, that I want to celebrate it, and I shouldn’t be ashamed of it, and I shouldn’t be ashamed that I have taken care of it and worked to build it strong, and I’m very proud of myself.”
Smart said sharing the photo from her bodybuilding competition made her feel “liberated” because she had always “wanted to be taken seriously” and be “respected,” which gave her a sense of restriction in what she could do with her life.
“I feel like, through doing this and like putting this post out there, I feel liberated, because I can be more than just one thing. I can be a bodybuilder,” she concluded. “I can feel beautiful or sexy, and I can still be an advocate for women and children against sexual violence.”
