Ashleigh Hoeta said her next goal is to compete in overseas powerlifting competitions. Photo / Supplied
A Taranaki mother bounced back to two break New Zealand powerlifting records just five months after suffering a stroke.
Ashleigh Hoeta has always been a sporty person, playing netball, rugby and many other sports since a young age.
However, after having both her children Hoeta says she gained "60-70kg" which drove her to get active again.
Instead of going down your typical gym class or going for a run, Hoeta decided to go to a local pole dancing studio.
"Before I started I was very close-minded about it because you see strippers and stuff doing it.
"It is the complete opposite to what I thought you have to have a lot of upper body strength, co-ordination to actually walk around a pole."
In that time Hoeta's cousin was competing in powerlifting, and she says she was weighing up giving it ago.
She then decided to choose powerlifting over pole dancing and give that a go full-time.
"I found out at a competition I was actually quite good at it."
In March Hoeta said she felt numbness in her leg and noticed her face drooping.
She was rushed to hospital which is when she learnt she had suffered a stroke, and spent a week in hospital.
The mother of two told the Herald how she had to learn how to complete simple tasks such as how to use her fingers and move her legs.
"I'm always doing something so to then take two steps back and then have to just sit and work out how my fingers work again and move my leg it was very hard on the mental health.
"Obviously we couldn't go anywhere so I just used it to my advantage to regain all that strength; it was really hard mentally."
Despite the multiple health setbacks, she was determined to complete at the powerlifting nationals, although she was hesitant at first.
"My coach was the only one after I had my stroke that was like 'no I think you can do this', that's one person ... that's the only thing I need to hear."
Her coach told her to stick with powerlifting, "we're going to get you back to being 100 per cent."
Physios told Hoeta not to compete but to slowly work her way back to her competing weight.
"I was told for nationals by my physio to do a 130kg squat but I ended up doing a 240," she told the Herald.
She was then struck with another health issue, while training she mis-loaded the bar and tore her right rotator cuff.
In mid-August, Hoeta broke the records at the International Powerlifting New Zealand Nationals.
She broke the squat record by 110kg and the bench record by 120kg.
Hoeta is now one of New Zealand's top female powerlifters and says this title is yet to sink in.
"I went in, I broke three NZ records and I won."
Alongside being a champion powerlifter, Hoeta is also a mother of two, 3-year-old Alaura-Jade and 2-year-old Elijah.
Her kids may be too young to realise what her mother has been through this year, but she hopes they will realise anything is possible
"No matter how far you get pushed down, you can get back up," she said.
Hoeta told the Herald her accomplishments this year hit her while competing in the nationals, which led her to tears.
"To think I was lying in a hospital bed in March and I'm standing in front of the people who pretty much helped me get back to where I am."
One of Hoeta's biggest supporter is her father, who is unwell.
"The reason I actually continued with powerlifting was because my family backed me a lot with my sports."
After competing and winning at nationals, she said the first thing she did was call her father.
"He was tearing up, he doesn't show his emotions that much, so it meant a lot."
Hoeta trains through video, sending her training videos to her coaches Daniel Rudolph and Daryl Toopi in Hamilton.
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