Efrat Lev - Crossfit Trainer - Finding strength and discovering a passion

Efrat Lev was born in Israel and immigrated to Australia at the age of 5. Her parents were Chabad shlichim in Sydney and my father was the Rabbi of the Israeli community there.  When she was 18.5 we moved back to Israel and settled in Efrat. She went to Midreshet Harova followed by Hebrew University where she got my degrees in International Relations and English Literature.  She also married my husband, who she had met in Australia and they have 3 children. 

Efrat had bad scoliosis and asthma growing up and wore a back brace throughout high school. She was very academic and sports was never her thing. She was always picked last for teams in school and always preferred to sit on the side and read a book during Physical Ed classes. 

Efrat's pregnancies were extremely difficult because she suffers from a condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), unrelenting vomiting throughout pregnancy.  Her last pregnancy six years ago was the most difficult. She was bed ridden, on IV medication and steroids and lost a lot of weight.  While many women focus on losing their baby weight after giving birth, she only wanted to get stronger. What started as just walking gave way to strength training with 2kg dumbbells and it was literally love at first sight. She was fortunate to have a home gym as her husband is an ironman,  as well as a doctor who has little time to get to a gym. 

In that home gym she taught myself to powerlift with a small gym bar,  a hell of a lot of YouTube tutorials and a real determination in my heart to never be weak again.  When Crossfit opened in Efrat, a good friend told her she must try it out and even though she was still generally clumsy and hadn't trained in a group setting,  she went. Crossfit truly skyrocketed my potential and within months she was lifting weight she never thought possible. 

The owner and head coach casually suggested she go to Wingate to get certified as a health and fitness coach and after 11 years of being a stay at home mum, Efrat embarked on a year of study. Upon receiving my certification,  she went on to get certified as a Crossfit Level 1 trainer and started working at Crossfit Gush. Along the way she also met her powerlifting coach who introduced me to the world of competitive lifting.

Although she trains men, women and children, her passion is to strength train women in all stages of life. There are so many myths and misconceptions regarding this field and it is her absolute passion to break the stereotypes and introduce women to the numerous benefits of strength training.

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