WILTON – Shelby Downing, owner and operator of Stand Strong Sports Performance, has dedicated her entire life to the strength and conditioning industry, and she uses her extensive knowledge and skill in the field to help train people of all shapes, sizes, and ages.
Stand Strong opened in October of 2021, and Downing explained that she wanted to create a facility where she could be in control of her own philosophy and coaching style.
“We teach movement, not machines,” Downing said. Unlike many gyms, she focuses on the use of free weights rather than machines. With weights, people can learn more about form and technique than they can from sitting down and using a machine.
Downing also offers a variety of coaching programs for gym members, and they are all tailored to fit the needs of the individual. The programs are dependent on what the individual wants to accomplish, along with how much time they have, and what their financial commitments are.
“One of the key tenants of our philosophy is that anyone can train like an athlete,” Downing said. “You can use the same process that kids use to be varsity football players or basketball players in your training regardless of who you are and what you are trying to achieve.”
Downing began her career as a competitive powerlifter and she held the world record for the squat and the bench press for many years. On the walls of the gym are flags from many different countries which represent all of the places Downing either competed in or coached in. She competed in powerlifting for more than a decade, and near the end of her career, she started to get into coaching.
She was the first woman to ever be officially named to the coaching staff of a men’s world championship powerlifting team. Her role was as a handler, which is someone who spends time one on one with the athlete, and she handled what today is considered to be some of the greatest of all-time male powerlifters in the world.
She continued to be a strength coach throughout the 90s, and in the early 2000s, she took a step back from coaching to focus on raising her kids. She then came back into the industry, and she worked as the Human Performance Director at Carrabassett Valley Academy for six years.
“I have such a hard time putting my accomplishments out there because the list of accomplishments you usually see on a piece of paper isn’t what means much to me,” Downing said. “It’s the places that I saw, the people I met, the friendships that I built, and the obstacles I overcame. Today, those are the things that matter.”
She works closely with Mt. Blue Football Coach Sean Moore, and they are currently working with and training upwards of thirty high school students. They provide high schoolers with college-level strength and conditioning training, as well as a space that is set up similarly to a varsity training room at a small Division I college.
“I’m really blessed in the relationship I have with Sean Moore,” Downing said. “Our coaching philosophies are similar enough that we work great together but different enough so that we can still learn from each other.”
Downing enjoys working with and training high school students, and she considers it to be a huge responsibility.
“Coaching kids is an honor that you have to strive to be worthy of daily. When you’re coaching kids, it is such a responsibility to do it right,” Downing said.“I see this when twenty and thirty-year-olds come back to tell me the impact that it had on their lives.”
Downing has coached strength and conditioning from sixth graders to some of the best athletes in the world, and she continues to use her skills to help others achieve their goals.
“The athletic process can be used to accomplish any goal, in and out of the gym,” Downing said.
