I'm a 4ft 8in female powerlifter and men hate that I can bench their bodyweight

UK powerlifter Peta Emery has left some of her male following enraged after she proved she can lift massive amounts of weight for her stature.

A self-confessed 'pocket rocket', Peta, 30, stands at 4ft 8in and is a national-level powerlifter who can deadlift three times her bodyweight.

She tells Daily Mail that many men abuse her online when she shares videos of herself often outlifting other males.  

'It makes me laugh because these men are clearly going out of their way to find something to be angry about,' she says. 

But she refuses to let the comments affect her, saying they are just 'keyboard warriors' who can't lift as much as she can.

'They're always faceless, nameless accounts. You can't lift yourself off the f***ing sofa, let alone get yourself to the gym.'

Some of the comments Peta has received include: 'Literally zero muscle.'

'You probably a 'roider [steroid user] and can't even lift,' said another.

'I can lift more than that with my little finger,' added a third.

'Head and body like a man. Definitely transforming,' someone else wrote.

'How it feels [sic]? Slowly stopping look [sic] like a woman every passing day, and starting look like a bulky man?' wrote one user.

'Are the muscles in the room with us?' someone else said.

One man wrote: 'Women stop doing this s*** for the love of god makes you look like a full blown guy ffs sort it out.'   

'Get back in the kitchen,' another troll wrote. 

Others took swipes at Peta's personal weight lifting records. 

Currently, the powerlifter can squat 137.5kg, bench press 82.5kg and deadlift a huge 155kg. 

'Always has to mention her weight to justify her low PRs,' one man commented.

'This isn't actually that impressive at all when we're going on body weight to weight lifted,' added another.

'That's not a lot of weight,' someone else commented.

Peta says male followers also regularly try to give her lifting advice online, despite many of them being weaker than her.

'I get quite a few comments from men trying to "mansplain" my lifting to me,' she says.

'My favourite thing is when I go on to their page and I see that pound-for-pound they're much weaker than me.'

One man commented on one of her videos: 'Do them the right way if you're going to brag about PRs.'  

'You're failing the most basic of squat form,' said another.

'Your knees are bending inwards and begging for an injury. Lower the weight, stop ego lifting and focus on form.'

Peta goes on to say that women tend to react very differently to her weightlifting posts, saying they are much more supportive than her male followers. 

'Women who follow and comment are generally just really impressed,' she says.

'I think they have more of an appreciation of how hard it is as a woman to reach the kind of weights that I am doing.'

Peta began powerlifting in 2020 and says she 'immediately loved it'.

'I love competing. It's so much fun and it turns out that I'm pretty good at it,' she adds.

'For someone so short, I have weird proportions. I have quite long femurs for a squat, which isn't very useful, and I'm not very flexible.

'There are some advantages to it though, like my deadlift - I don't have to lift it up as far.'

Peta, who will be competing again this month, says having such a small stature fuelled her desire to become stronger.

'I never wanted anyone to underestimate me because of my tiny size, so I always wanted to be strong,' she says.

'Women in general are better at pushing themselves in the gym more than men, especially when it comes to legs.

'I think every woman wants that whole big bum, big legs thing.'