So here an example of how we use what we call ‘cluster sets’. This is a good way of getting the volume done.
Stay ROARSOME!
Jacked & Classy For Life
T x
Tag Archives: women who lift
Be Proud Of What You Do.
Dear GPC-GB Nodumbelles 2015 Lifters,
I would like to thank you all for joining us on platform on Saturday. I know that for many of you this was your first powerlifting competition and I feel honoured that you chose GPC-GB Nodumbelles Women’s Open 2015 to pop your powerlifting cherries.
I know you were nervous. In fact I know many of you were terrified. So many things were running through your heads even before you sent off the entry form. The thought of being up on platform in front of so many people made you feel sick. What if I make a fool of myself? What will people think? OMG I am just going to be a laughing stock. The other girls are going to be so good. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!
The times you thought of pulling out. The ‘reasons’ you could give yourself for not entering running through your mind as you lay in bed at night. No one would know it was just an excuse would they? No one but you.
How will I know what to do? What if I get it wrong? How do I pick my numbers? Where will I warm up? HOW will I warm up? What if I need to pee? What if I don’t get my lifts? What? What? Who? Where???? AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Jeeeeeeeeezzzz I am going to have to wear a singlet!!!!!! Why do I have to wear a singlet? I think I will actually DIE. This has to be the most unflattering garment known to mankind and I have to wear it IN FUCKING PUBLIC!!!!! SERIOUSLY?????? Yes I will ACTUALLY DIE of embarrassment.
But you didn’t die did you?
No. Far from it! You actually thrived and grew with each passing moment.
You felt the fear and you did it anyway. No one laughed. No one jeered. And you know what even if they had have done would you have cared on the day? I don’t think so. You see that is the thing about pushing outside of your comfort zone, you just can’t lose. Whatever happens you have won. You have put yourself in a place you have never been in so whatever the outcome you will walk away with something you didn’t have prior to it.
Every year I stand back and I watch as each one of you literally grows as the day goes on and it is AMAZING. I see the shy, body conscious women who come to weigh in become these powerful singlet clad Amazonians in a matter of hours. I see empowerment of self and of others. I see friendships made. I see coach athlete bonds that are truly unique. I see that fear turn to elation and I see trepidation turn into absolute determination. I see body language change from self-conscious wall flowers trying to hide in the crowd turn into absolute puffed out peacocks of pride with glorious tail feathers on show strutting their stuff and I FUCKING LOVE IT!!!!!!
I want to thank each and every one of you for giving your all on platform. You were incredible. Not one of you came to just make up the numbers. You came here to be powerlifters and powerlifters you are. From the first-timers right through to our seasoned lifters each one of you gave your all. You conducted yourselves in a fashion that make me proud to be on the same team as you. No tears or tantrums. No divas. Just solid athletes getting on with what they came to do. You lifted out of your socks. You supported each other with shouts, cheers, words of support and advice and when needed a good old kick up the arse.
There is no shame in being competitive. NON at all. The difficulty sometimes comes in making sure you don’t take it personal. You can be competitive and not be a bitch. You should want to beat your opponent but you should never want them to fail. The better they become the better you become. Do not compare yourself but push yourself and those around you. Leave the ‘fight’ on the platform and be gracious in victory and defeat.
For many of you this is just the start. You are on page one your powerlifting story. Turn each page and enjoy it. Sometimes you may have to reread a chapter but never be tempted to miss a page. Sometimes it is a hard read and you may want to put the book down because you just don’t get it. Please persevere, one word at a time….one training session at a time, one lift at a time, a day at a time. This book has no end.
On Saturday for many of you your lives will have changed forever in ways that yet remain to be seen. For me the memories are many but I want to leave you with one of the reasons that for as long as you and others like you keep wanting to lift I will keep providing a platform.
At the end of the lifting a lifter came to thank me for the day, as many of you did. As she hugged me she said
‘I am so proud of MYSELF.’
The power of these words are the reason I do what I do.
Be proud of what YOU do.
#JackedAndClassy
#Roarsome
#WomenWhoPowerlift
#ThisIsWhoIAm
#ThisIsWhatIDo
#NeverEVERGiveUp
Tania x
We All Start Somewhere.
A few years ago in the days when the heaviest thing I lifted was a pint of Guinness and ‘sport’ of choice was pool I decided that I would enter Race For Life. I did a pitiful amount of preparation for it. I probably started doing a bit of running 4 weeks before the race and when I say run it would have been more a walk-jog-blow out of my arse kind of interval cycle. Still I had sent in my entry, collected money at the pub I was lodging in. The hairy Glass Barrel rocking patrons believed saving tits was a good cause and so generous donations were chucked in a pint pot that was passed around whilst the bands took a piss break on Friday & Saturday nights.
The day came and off I toddled with Mr G and two friends who waited for me at the end with an ice cold can of the black stuff as a reward. The sun was shining as I ran a bit, and walked most of the 5km, with an additional flurry of speed up to and across the finish line. I, along with hundreds of other women, that day took on a challenge as had thousands before us and have thousands after.
I am sure many reading this have done the exact same or similar race. I will also presume that, for some, the preparation was a shit as mine. I can’t even remember how long it took me but I do know I wasn’t in the front ‘serious runner’ group. Nope, I was like most, in the serious plodder group and gave no thought at all to who would be the fastest.
I hadn’t researched what an average time was for 5km and certainly not what the British, World, European records were over that distance…or how fast I would have to be to get on the next British Athletic team for the next Olympics. I just turned up. I plodded round. I finished. Just like everyone else. I enjoyed the atmosphere which was a nice collective of personal achievement, individual survival, elation and sadness.
At no point did I know that Paula Radcliffe could run this distance in 14:29:11. I didn’t know that Tirunesh Dibaba holds the World Record of 14:11:15. Why would I? That would be silly right? Me, a complete novice compare myself to some world class athlete or even the ones in the ‘serious’ runner front group. That would be like telling five year old primary school child to compare their reading abilities to a university graduate. Stupid right? So why then do ‘primary school’ lifters compare their abilities to lifting graduates? It’s just nuts.
There is an amazing buzz at the moment in strength training with ever increasing numbers of women getting bitten by the lifting bug. Not for aesthetics but because they like feeling fucking strong. They enjoy the focus of the training, the grunt & grit that comes with lifting heavy shit. They go to the gym, do all the training, watch all the videos on You Tube, follow and interact with other female lifters on social media.
They do searches for other lifters who they perceive to be at their own level. Searches for women at the same weight, same age and then watch video after video and they will often leave jaws dropping with the weights that some incredible female lifters are doing and then the niggling thought ‘I can never do that!’ rears its’ ugly head. And here in lies the problem.
Why the fuck are you comparing what you are doing in the gym with no or little competition time to lifters who have more experience, training, coaching, AND who have put in thousands of hours of training? Athletes who have tried and tested training methods, some with success and some not so successful, to get to the point in a competition that you are now seeing in a 2 minute clip?
By all means use these great strong women as inspiration, use them to kick the glass ceiling royally in the bollocks so that you can really see what is within the realms of possibilities when it comes to strength. BUT DO NOT compare yourself! DO NOT clip your lifting wings before you have even hatched out of the egg with these unfair comparisons. We all have a starting point so ask these lifters what theirs was, I can guarantee it won’t be anywhere near the numbers they are lifting now.
The amount of times I hear that someone would love to compete but then say they aren’t lifting enough or they will look for a competition when they are strong enough. Compared to whom? Where is this lifting measuring stick? I must have missed that meeting. I can honestly say I had no idea what anyone was lifting when I turned up to my first comp.
What I do know is, as a new lifter everyone took care of me, encouraged me, advised, people shouted my name and cheered when I lifted well. I saw some awesome strong women like Hanne Bingle, Angie McNamara, Monique Newton & Emma James who really opened my eyes to what strong can be. I made some great friends of these women and their support is invaluable as is their brilliant competitive spirit. Best of all I have no idea who won on that day or can recall what my lifts were!
So I guess the whole point of this ramble is if you want to compete the just bloody do it. Don’t wait for the day you are breaking World Records. Just do it. Get a total on platform. Get 27 white lights. That will be YOUR starting point and from there you can only improve. With your own personal results you will have your own lifting measuring stick and not someone else’s.
STAY ROARSOME!!!!!!!
First Powerlifting Competition – What do I need?
I had the pleasure this year to put on the very first GPC-GB Nodumbelles Women’s Open Powerlifting competition. It is the 2nd Nodumbelles competition I have run but this is the first 3 lift and federation affiliated comp. Both competitions were hosted (as will future ones) to encourage new and novices female lifters onto platform. I just love organising stuff. If I wasn’t in the business of big and strong my next choice of career would be event organising, so I am a pretty happy chump whenever I get to combine the two.
Deadliftng at my first ever powerlifting competition Feb 2011
I am also kind of a list keeper because I am forgetful. This apparently is because I am strong, and a scientist told me that, so I am taking it as my excuse for being a tad dim sometimes (Thanks Polley!) I remember not really knowing what to take to my first competition and just kind of winging it, which I do A LOT! I basically took everything! And then some more! And didn’t take other stuff that I never knew I would need. As I did more comps I managed to refine what I need to take to cover all eventualities. We actually managed to go to the WPC Worlds in Prague last year with only hand luggage for 2 lifters. I am still a tad unsure how this happened.
There was also a ton of stuff that I didn’t know about the whole procedure of entering a powerlifting competition. I was pretty lucky to have some really experienced lifter friends who helped me muddle through. To be honest, though, I was in blissful ignorance. I am pretty sure this is the case for most first time lifters. So I thought I would share a little list that I compiled for the lifters at the Women’s Open. I hope you found it as useful as they did (I think lol).
Now not all items will apply to everyone and you can of course add in your own personal stuff but I think it is a pretty could starting point for any level of lifter.
POWERLIFTING COMPETITION CHECKLIST
1. Athlete Responsibility
| ☐ | Send of entry forms with correct payment. |
| ☐ | Ensure all membership subscriptions are up to date. |
| ☐ | Obtain a current copy of the federation rules. AND READ THEM |
| ☐ | Book time off work if necessary. |
| ☐ | Confirm weigh-in times & location. |
| ☐ | Make all necessary travel & accommodation arrangements. |
| ☐ | Confirm arrangements for coach or handler. |
| ☐ | Locate venue. |
| ☐ | Check qualifying totals/records if necessary. |
2. KIT BAG
| ☐ | Leotard |
| ☐ | 2 T-shirts |
| ☐ | Knee socks |
| ☐ | Squat Shoes |
| ☐ | Deadlift Shoes |
| ☐ | Belt |
| ☐ | Wrist Wraps |
| ☐ | Knee Wraps |
| ☐ | Knee Sleeves |
| ☐ | Squat Suit |
| ☐ | Bench Shirt |
| ☐ | Briefs |
| ☐ | Chalk |
| ☐ | Nose Torque/Smelling Salts |
| ☐ | Talc |
| ☐ | Towel |
| ☐ | Slip On or plastic bags for squat suit & bench shirt |
| ☐ | Baggy sweat pants |
| ☐ | Zip fronted hoodie. |
3. Support Bag
| ☐ | Food |
| ☐ | Water |
| ☐ | Membership Card |
| ☐ | Plasters & tape |
| ☐ | Painkillers |
| ☐ | Muscle Rub |
| ☐ | Cold Spray |
| ☐ | Electrolytes |
| ☐ | Scissors |
| ☐ | Copy of Federation Rules |
| ☐ | Copy of Qualifying Totals/Records |
| ☐ | MP3 Player & earphones |
4. ON THE DAY
| ☐ | Turn up on time for weigh in |
| ☐ | Have you openers to give in at weigh in |
| ☐ | Have your kit ready to be checked if there is a kit check |
| ☐ | Check your flight and flight schedule. |
| ☐ | Locate where you will be lifting and the warm up areas. |
| ☐ | Set any rack heights that you will be requiring. |
| ☐ | Locate toilets and changing rooms |
| ☐ | Find an area to leave your kit etc |
| ☐ | Talk through your plan with you coach/handler |
| ☐ | HAVE FUN |
Peace Out
T x
