Paulina Janoszka: “I need opponents!” # Armwrestling # Armpower.net

But it looks like a great beginning. Read about how her career started – Paweł Gawenda’s interview with Paulina Janoszek.

armpower.net: A classic first – how did you stumble upon armwrestling?

Paulina: I’ve only been training for less than a year. My story started with my visit to the Cracow Championships 2022.

armpower.net: So it’s all thanks to Darek Groch!

Paulina: I still wasn’t competing back then, I was only helping with filming the competition. My boyfriend convinced me to try myself with one of the female athletes at a table on the side and it turned out I have a lot of strength despite being inexperienced. It really motivated me to train armwrestling and the competition allowed me to find some interest in the sport itself and understand it a little. I started training quite consistently in April with the help of Slava (my boyfriend) and Bohdana Blyzniuk’s motivation. She was the one that I wrestled with for the first time.

Armwrestling is not the first sport that I fell in love with. As a teenager, I was very into fitness and jogging, when I was 16 I started weight training and people kept nagging me to try powerlifting but I never did. When I was 18, I got into calisthenics and devoted my time to it completely. I still think it’s very underrated and it builds strength incredibly well. I got back to weight training at the beginning of last year – I love bench press!

In March, I stumbled upon armwrestling and a little later I also started attending boxing classes. These days I train not only armwrestling but also calisthenics and martial arts, and I do weight training, too. Sometimes it’s a little too much and I can’t find the time and strength for everything but I’m trying to combine it all logically. Armwrestling is now my top priority, though.

armpower.net: Tell us, how often a week do you train armwrestling? Maybe you can brag about some weight records?

Paulina: I currently train twice a week but they’re long and exhausting sessions. Sometimes my third training of the week is sparring with others but I have to admit there aren’t many armwrestling women in Wrocław so I mostly fight with guys. There’s a possibility that my armwrestling trainings will become more important to me than other disciplines in the future so I will have more trainings every week.

My personal record for the bench press is probably the most impressive, it’s 90 kg – I’ve managed to do it quite recently.

armpower.net: That’s really impressive! You’ll probably break a hundred soon.

Paulina: When it comes to armwrestling, last month I had the pleasure to be the guest in SNA – Sprawdzenie Na Armwrestlera – where my strength results were checked through armwrestling exercises.

The video is available on the Kuksa Armwrestling YouTube channel.

armpower.net: I’ve seen the video and I can tell you, your results are impressive! Congratulations! I think that getting such good results in some exercises would be hard even for me. Tell us, do you have a sports idol that inspires you and motivates you to train?

Paulina: Throughout the years there have been many people that inspired me in different areas for a longer or shorter periods of time but I never had just one idol. There’s one thing that inspires me more than anything, though:

I don’t want to improve as an athlete in just one sport but as an all-rounder. I think it’s the highest level of sports competence – not just being strong but also having great endurance, not only having big muscles but also being able to use them and stay mobile. Of course I understand that it’s impossible to be a master in all areas equally but I’m still trying to get there – that’s why I train more than one sport. I really wouldn’t like to be a very strong armwrestler but be unable to take two flights of stairs without getting out of breath.

Armpower.net: Do you see yourself as a future national champion or are your plans for the sport a little less ambitious?

Paulina: I believe that if I work hard with a good plan, systematically, I will be able to reach my goals. I got in this sport so deeply by now that it’s going to become a great part of my life for the upcoming years – this April, I want to try myself at the Polish Championships and then I will adjusts my further plans accordingly.

For now, I’m still learning a lot from every fight and my more experienced seniors – I really want to win a gold medal in the future, of course, but I’m taking it easy and I respect my rivals a lot, especially their hard work and experience in the sport.

Besides sports achievements, I would also like to simply invite more girls and women to train armwrestling. I can see and I know that many women with potential don’t get into the sport because they see it as generally male. I hate these kinds of stereotypes and divisions, I would love it if more women could appreciate their strength, work on it and show it to the world.

armpower.net: We hope you can continue promoting our sport and that it will give great results.

Paulina: Thank you for your kind words and for the interview, I hope I can show my best skills at the Polish Championships.