We were lucky to catch up with Teresa Espindola recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Teresa, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
About 15 years ago, 2 weeks after the birth of my 4th child, I bent over to pick up my shoes and herniated a disc and tore a back muscle. I could not hold my body upright. 4 pregnancies had done a number on my back, and I didn’t yet know why. As I sat in my doctor’s office in the most extreme pain of my life, he said “I am not sure exactly why your spine is compressing, and looks like that of an 80 year old, but you need to lose weight and become an athlete, or you will be in a wheelchair within 7 years”. I was angry and upset that he said those things, but it got me thinking. I was overweight and unable to walk or even sit in a chair and I had four kids. How was I going to raise them? How was I going to play with them? I was fitted for a brace with metal bars to hold me upright and started intense physical therapy. A few weeks later, I was able to get on my elliptical for a whole five minutes before it kicked me off because my heart rate went too high.
My good friend dragged me kicking and screaming to a weight loss group where we learned a low glycemic diet. There was a contest for the most weight lost, and I am competitive, so I followed the rules exactly! Over time, I lost 50 pounds. I won the contest! I was now able to do 40 minutes on my elliptical, and even tried running, but I stalled, and I was still having bouts of back pain, and I didn’t feel as fit as I wanted to be. The running was actually causing me more pain. Sleeping was torture and my hips were always in pain. Losing weight did not help my pain.
My oldest daughter and oldest son had many health problems and spent countless hours in the hospital. With my research over five years and a great genetic doctor we finally figured out what was wrong with all of us. We have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Our ligaments are too stretchy. Connective tissue all over our bodies is not normal, and it causes many, many problems from heart problems to joint problems, skin problems and digestive issues. Me and my four kids have it…and it can be debilitating. My spine could not be supported properly. I have all the back problems related to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome…early onset degenerative disc disease, SI joint dysfunction, scoliosis, bulging and herniated discs, narrowing of the spinal canal, sciatica, stenosis, arthritis…the list goes on and on. It explained why I have had pain my whole life. But I thought everyone had pain, how would I know? I like to research and found that with a good diet and muscle building exercise, we can improve our quality of life! I tightened up my family’s diet by switching to paleo and we all started a muscle building journey.
It was about 10 years ago that I started lifting weights. I could only squat the bar (kinda), I could only bench the bar (barely)…but I wanted more. My best friend became my workout partner and trainer, and we never looked back. Now I can bench 205, I can deadlift 408, and I can squat 295…. although squat is still my weakest lift because of my hips. I no longer have daily pain. I do have bouts of pain, but I recover quickly and am not bedridden like I was before during an attack. I compete one to two times a year and have a new outlook on life. I hold national records and am a top lifer in the country. My overall pain started to slowly ease. For the first time I could wake up in the morning and get out of bed without extreme pain. I have never been able to do that. Powerlifting saved me. My best friend/trainer also helped me to get out of a mentally, sexually and financially abusive marriage and later won my heart. He also convinced me to get back into art, and I am now a professional artist. He helped me save myself from the lowest part of my life. I have written a whole blog post on that journey. It is long and very emotional and can be found on my website. That will be shared later.
Although I still struggle with the effects of POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which is part of Ehlers Danlos syndrome, I know how to keep it pretty well controlled, and I know how to deal with attacks. I also have bouts of all over body pain, especially after a 3 day art show, but I am better at healing my aching body. I have injuries here and there related to EDS, but I have a great orthopedic doctor and together we get me healed quickly while still being able to train. And I have learned to train through pain.
All of my children have also gotten into fitness and are doing much better with their EDS symptoms. My daughter went from dislocating a joint every week to only a couple times a year. All of my kid’s skin rashes, digestive issues, joint pain and heart issues are well controlled. All of my kids are into weightlifting and sports. Fitness and health is a family affair!
So where do I get my resilience? When you are told you are doomed, and that your life will change forever if you don’t save yourself, you have two choices. You can give in to your disease, or you can fight with all you have. I did not want to give in, I wanted to live, and I wanted my kids to learn to live the fullest life possible! I did not want my disease to define me, and I did not want my kids to suffer as I had.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Today I focus on being a mother, training for competitions, and pursuing my art career. When my kids were younger, before we had a diagnosis, two of my kids had countless health problems. They had everything from heart problems to kidney stones to sudden blindness and daily hives. It was a battle to find doctors to try to figure out what the link to all these rare occurrences was. I spent much of my time trying to find answers. When we finally got an answer, my focus shifted to helping my kids lead normal lives. I did all this while I was experiencing my own suffering. I had severe back injuries that left me barely able to walk. I also had a very unsupportive spouse, and my life was in shambles.
When I got into weightlifting, I felt I finally found something that made me feel good. I felt better from my pain, and I felt empowered. The more I did it, the better I felt. I made it my mission to spread the message to others facing an Ehlers Danlos Diagnosis that there is a way to improve quality of life. I wanted to let people know that they could help themselves feel better, so I decided to start a blog. My website is https://teresalifts.com/ and here I try to give people hope. I also compete to spread awareness. It just so happens that I have earned the top spot as one of the strongest female lifters in NASA (Natural Athlete Strength Association), one of the only 100% drug free powerlifting organizations. I have earned 3 championship belts, and countless 1st place spots. The website to this amazing organization is https://nasa-sports.com/ .
I also got back into doing art, which I have loved since I was a child. To my surprise, I successfully juried into many prestigious art shows. I paint my emotions into my art. Every painting has a flower, and every painting depicts human emotion and attributes. Every painting has a story, and sometimes when someone enters my booth, they see a painting that tells their story. I have had many people cry looking at my art. It warms my heart that I can connect with people through my art. My business is appropriately called The Powerlifter Who Paints, https://teresalifts.com/paintings/ is where my art can be viewed.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Tenacity – This one is big and is one of the things my partner loves about me. It was very hard for me to get started in fitness as I started while I had a severe back injury. I couldn’t even walk, stand or sit without pain. Getting out of bed literally took me 20 minutes and drove me to tears. My journey started with physical therapy and 5 minutes on my elliptical. To this day, I train trough injuries and pain. I have trained through torn soft tissue in my wrists, numerous injured joints, broken ribs, herniated discs, a broken finger, sciatica, POTS attacks, you name it. The list is long. I actually put together a diagram showing what my body has been through. I have learned that I heal faster, and I have less pain when I keep going. If I stop, my body literally falls apart and the pain spirals out of control. This also applied to helping me find a diagnosis for my kids when they were sick. I battled many doctors who seemed to just throw their hands up in the air. I don’t give up and I keep going until I find a solution. And of course, this applies to my art. Getting into big art shows is not easy, and sometimes it can take years of applying to get in, but I didn’t stop.
Dedication – I have learned that nothing comes easy. There is no quick fix, no magic pill to get you to where you want to be. It took years to get unhealthy, it takes years to get healthy. I have learned to do my training whether I want to or not. I go on days when I am an emotional wreck. I go on days when I am having an attack of pain. I train at home when I am feeling under the weather. And you know what happens? The training always makes me feel better. It boosts my dopamine and my immune system. I also have a very strict, clean diet. My body cannot handle gluten, sugar, dairy, processed food, and unfortunately red meat. I live on plenty of eggs, vegetables, and fish. I don’t eat junk food, I don’t drink alcohol, and I treat my food merely as fuel for my goals. In the world of art, you have to work hard to get into the big shows. There is no easy way to get accepted to those shows. It took time, learning the ropes, and persistence.
Environment and mindset- I have learned that putting yourself in the correct environment is crucial for the lifestyle you wish to achieve. I surround myself with likeminded people who have similar goals. I have many friends who compete in powerlifting or body building and understand the amount of training and dedication it requires. I don’t hang out at places like bars where I feel bad habits are created. My happy places are coffee shops with local friends for good conversation. I also love the environment of the artist community I have become a part of. These are all people supporting themselves with their creativity, and that is the motivation I need. I don’t spend time with negative people who bring me down. I don’t hang out with people who try to shame me for my clean eating lifestyle or dedication to my training. This has included me distancing myself from negative family who seemed to suck the life out of me every time I was around them. I would be mentally exhausted even talking to them on the phone. You can love your family, but you may not like all of them. I have friends that have become like family. I try to keep my home clean and tidy as clutter in the home clutters the mind. Your environment also helps you have the right mindset, and mindset will make or break you when you are a top athlete. What you tell yourself matters, and if your environment is negative, you may have a negative mindset. If I tell myself I will not make a lift, guess what, I won’t. If I tell myself I will not have a good art show, guess what, I won’t. I am trying really hard to actually verbally tell myself that I can and will accomplish my goals.
My advice to those getting started in the fitness journey is that you just have to take that first step. We all start somewhere. Some of us have a bigger hole to climb out of than others, but if you don’t make the decision to start, you will just stay in that deep dark hole. And don’t start just to quickly give up. Get help if you need to. Invest in yourself and hire a trainer. It really is worth it to have someone guide you in your journey. Be tenacious, keep going no matter what. Dedication begins where motivation ends. Motivation to work out is very short lived, so dedication is necessary to succeed. This is why most New Years resolutioners give up within the first few months. You need to treat your gym time like a job, and you need to go even when you don’t want to. Take a look around you, evaluate your environment. Who are you hanging out with. Do your friends have bad habits? Are they negative? Do they treat you badly? Is your home a cluttered mess? Is your car a mess? Are you hanging out at fast food joints or bars? Are your kitchen cabinets full of junk food? If so, change those things. And start telling yourself that you can and will achieve your goals. Mindset matters!
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I talked previously about his one, but it is very important. I am going to discuss mindset. About 3 and a half years ago, I fractured two ribs. I am not positive how it happened as I frequently do not feel an injury the moment it happens. It can take days for me to feel an injury as my body does not always respond appropriately to injury. I believe it happened when I had a fall on the stairs in my home. When it started hurting, it really started hurting. But I am used to pain, so I will go at least a month with pain before I seek my doctor’s help. I do this because there are frequently no detectible reasons for my pain. That is the joy of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. So, when I finally went to my doctor, she did x-rays, which showed nothing. She then decided to do an MRI fearing my pain was a herniated disc. To her surprise, there was no herniation, but there were two fractured ribs that could only be seen on MRI. We were in a dilemma. If I stopped lifting to let the ribs heal, then my spine would compress from lack of muscle, and we would have bigger problems. My spine needs me to lift weights to keep my spinal cord from being compressed. Muscle is what keeps my spine protected and keeps me out of a wheelchair. The fractures were very small, and were located in my back, near my spine. Ribs do just fine healing with movement, so the decision was made to push through and continue training, for the sake of the health of the rest of my body. The ribs were sacrificial. I pushed through, having pain every time I deadlifted, or coughed, or sneezed, or turned in bed. I set a national record with those broken ribs. But there is a twist, Ehlers Danlos comes with other complications, which we knew was a possibility because it has happened before. My nervous system got trained to the pain, and even though the ribs eventually healed, my body continued to have the pain with deadlifting. This is called complex regional pain syndrome. My doctor told me that the pain may be permanent, and the treatment, believe it or not, is exercising the area, or worst case, killing nerves in the area, which is risky. I was feeling devastated, as the one thing I excelled at, the one thing I was top in the country for, my deadlift, was being threatened by persistent, unnecessary pain. I was finding that I was losing my ability to get the big lifts. Lighter weight was becoming heavier. I was failing myself. I had to really start working on my mindset to get me through the 3.5 years that the pain persisted. I had to tell myself that I could get through those lifts. I had to tell myself that the pain was going to go away. For 3 and a half years I had to learn, through the pain, to be positive regardless of the pain. It wasn’t easy, as I frequently let my mind go negative. My pain was brief, only lasted a about 10 seconds after a lift, but it could be severe enough to take my breath away. But I persisted to work on my mindset, telling myself I could do it, trying not to doubt myself. I had to learn to brace myself for the pain. And one day, out of the blue, the pain completely stopped. It was like magic. My positive mindset finally won. And really it was in the last year that I kicked myself in the pants and vowed to keep the negative thinking about my abilities out of my head. I made myself realize I was strong enough to get back my heavy deadlift, and I deserved to get back to my top spot! I trained my body to rid itself of that persistent pain! On February 22, 2025, I beat my own national record and achieved a 408 pound deadlift, pain free!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://teresalifts.com/
- Instagram: @teresa.lifts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teresalifts/
- Other: @powerlifter_who_paints
Image Credits
Pictures were taken by myself or my partner Tim Cordova. The one close up head shot was taken by All Things Boudoir.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
