She had less than a month to get ready. A Strongman competition awaited, which meant she had to spend as much time as possible tossing kegs, lifting heavy stones, toting bags of sand and hoisting massive weights above her head. On other days she might flip giant tires or pull a full-size car. Through it all, she would sweat, cry, bleed — and be grateful for the pain.

“It’s saved my life,” the 30-year-old pre-kindergarten teacher said.

Strongman is a niche sport, populated for years by hulking men built like SUVs attempting daunting feats of strength, both the practical and the peculiar. In recent years, the number of female competitors has exploded, and while each turns to the sport for her own reasons, many women such as Plush have found a renewed sense of self lifting dreadfully heavy objects. They’ve overcome depression, recovered from bad relationships, improved their body image and somehow translated that sense of accomplishment to other facets of their lives.

“Strongman’s really redefining the narrative of what it means to be strong and what it means to be a woman,” said Candace Grand Pre, a 34-year-old heavyweight competitor. “I’ve noticed a lot of changes in how I carry myself, how I own my size and really own what my body can do. Sure, smaller women can do certain things with their bodies, but you know what, I can do things with mine that they can’t do.”