It's not every day you get to witness a 1.55m-tall woman deadlift 110kg.On the day I visited her at the gym, Ms Siti Maryam Abdul Rahman, 33, broke out into a victory dance after completing the feat. "You should come more often," she said to me with a bright grin, as if my presence had given her an extra burst of energy.Her joy was understandable, given that the lift was a new personal best for her since recovering from a serious accident three years ago. In 2023, a bus collision had left Ms Maryam bedridden for months, unable to get out of bed without assistance. It happened when she was riding to her second job, and a double-decker bus mowed into the side of her motorcycle, flinging her onto the centre of the bus' windshield. She was then dragged a few metres by her bike before it jammed under the front of the bus – likely saving her from getting completely crushed.What followed was a four-day coma, 10 surgeries and months in a wheelchair. But, as Ms Maryam soon learnt, it could have been much worse.
Noting her fit physique, her doctor explained that her "substantial" muscle mass had likely enabled her to absorb the impact of the collision, rather than sustaining even more severe damage. She laughed, recalling her disbelief then and now: "I was, like, 'You mean I'm supposed to be dead now?'"That lit a fire under her to get back to exercising, even before she was discharged from hospital. Using small weights in the hospital, she started doing light bicep curls and other exercises while lying on the hospital bed.
