For a lift, nothing like setting a world record

Who: Pat Robey, a 59-year-old grandmother and world-class weightlifter from Issaquah.

Fast start: Two-and-a-half years ago, Robey walked into a Seattle gym eager to get into shape. She wanted to get stronger but had low expectations. She picked her gym partly because it had tanning beds.

"I'm not a naturally balanced person," she said. "I'd never be a ballerina. It'd be like a bull in the china shop."

Just nine months later she broke a world record for the bench press in her age and weight class. There she was, pushing 121 pounds above her chest at a Pasco tournament, and she had just her personal motto as her guide.

"I didn't know what the numbers were," she said. "I go up there and I said, 'Just pick it up.' "

Higher and higher: Over the next year, Robey broke her own World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters (WABDL) record six times, pushing the mark to 170 pounds.

She socialized with her friends from the gym, Headquarters Health & Fitness, and stayed close to the regimen outlined by the gym's owner. The members traveled together to tournaments in Boise, Idaho, and as far away as Reno, Nev.

She went down four pants sizes in the first few months of training and improved her confidence and self-esteem.

Breaking a world record has a way of making you feel good.

"It's a real ego trip to say you're the best in the world, whether it's for five minutes or five days," she said.

A new lifestyle: Robey works out six days a week. Even her husband, Bob, comes by to exercise every couple of days, though "it's more to support me," she said. Her three children and eight grandchildren also support her new passion.

She had knee surgery in February but missed only a week of workouts. She still is planning to compete in the annual Pasco tournament May 1-2 and will do both bench press and dead lift in a Tacoma tourney on June 19, her 60th birthday.

Her ultimate goal in the bench press is 200 pounds ("I want to lift like the big boys"). And she wants to reclaim her world record, which she lost by a nose to a California woman late last year.

"I never thought I was competitive," she said. "I don't know where this creature came from, but I'm ready."

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com