This Is Who I am. This Is What I Do!

The run in to this world championship has been quite a smooth one. No major injuries except a couple of silly niggles which intelligent rehab and pre-hab have kept in check.  After the British Champs we started working with a coach for the first time. We only had about 8 weeks between the two so there were no major changes as there just wasn’t enough time so we focused on small manageable technical changes and a change in the approach to the competition with the long term plan of getting the results from this competition and then coming back assessing and then in the new year taking a whole new view point on training methods, applying them and then seeing what the results are.  So this competition was going to set a new base line performance.

The main thing we established was that we had to approach the competition with a clear set out plan for a World Championships. What our openers would be? What our 2^nd options would be in the eventuality of a good lift and no lift? What our ultimate end goal was? What jumps in weight we could manage that then dictated how to get from A to B to C? We looked at what would be the minimum that we would accept and what the best possible outcome would be and what we thought was realistically probable? How many white and red lights we expected? We set our plans in stone, packed them in our kit bag and they came with us to Prague. Our aim was to hit numbers but also to get as many white lights at an international competition as possible. To be strong and technically good was the ultimate goal.  We had a small group of four lifters (plus one handler & one camera man) travelling and this was the focus of all our performance discussion and it appears to have served us well.

The journey to Prague for the World Powerlifting Congress World Championships was nice and easy. We stayed in an apartment about a ten minute walk from the venue. Arriving in the evening we settled in deciding on rooms and then me and Mr G went to the restaurant and had something to eat. I had stopped water about 4pm after a few days loading, vit C & aqua ban and I only had a couple of pounds to drop to take me under 75kg so there was no real stress. I had some very tasty Carpaccio and tuna tartar with an espresso.  We chatted through our plans and then went and got some shut eye.  I woke up at stupid o’clock and couldn’t get back to sleep so just had a read and rested as well as I could.

We got up early and mooched down to the venue getting there early so that we were pretty much front of the queue and just sat and waited. Again weigh in was smooth and for us uneventful and I tipped the scales at 73.9kg and I was entered in the Raw Open & Master 1. We went and got our event t-shirts with the awesome slogans of Powerlifting Warrior and Lift or Die. Off we went to eat, have a little walk around, eat some more, snooze & eat. Over the course of this year we have tried a few things and have found that high carb, high salt foods work well for us rather than a majority sugary food intake.  We knew the next day would be a long one as Laresce and Cheryl would be the first ones lifting at 9am with Mr G following at around 9.30. I wasn’t due to lift until late afternoon. So an early night to bed after the last feed.

The morning was spent helping the girls for the initial warm ups and then handling Mr G, all of whom were fucking amazing and set a bloody high standard for me to follow.  I had to leave Mr G after his bench so that I could go and warm up for squats. He was however in good hands after making friends with the Portuguese and U.S team who were all roaring for each other. I got back to the warm up room and staked claim on a monolift along with the Sarah Edgar and we just ticked over nicely warming up to our openers. I felt surprisingly calm and this was throwing me a little mentally but I thought the adrenalin will kick in soon when we go to the auditorium. As I rounded the corner I could hear Disturbed playing Down with The Sickness which Dave the DJ puts on when Mr G lifts so I raced around just in time to see him get 3 whites for his last deadlift of 272.5kg which broke his own World Record.

To be honest the actual process of lifting becomes a little bit of a blur with just fragments of clarity. It is quite common knowledge that I am not the most confident squatter, in fact my ultimate aim is to be competent and technically good rather than beast strong. I had chosen a very reserved opener as I didn’t open well at the Worlds in Vegas the previous year and this was something I was conscious of. I knew if I got a nice simple opener in then this would set me up for the rest of the squats. My aim was to replicate my last lift from BPU British at international level which I did with –

120/132.5/145KG 3/3-9/9

Hardly a squat to write home about but I was in the running and had hit my first goal, surpassed my expected number of whites and attained a PB raw international. First job done!

Mr G had joined me to keep my head on track as I was still super calm and this was still worrying me slightly. Where the fuck was the adrenalin? How was I going to make it through if it didn’t kick in? Mr G told me to focus on what I needed to do and believe in the work we had done. Warm ups for bench were strong and controlled and I went to platform confident in my opener which went up a treat BUT there was a wobble at the top which was totally unnecessary and I am still unsure as to why. I must have relaxed for a split second so I was very mindful of this on my second lift and the mistake was not repeated. The second felt so good that I decided to go for my ‘option 2’ in my plan and go for the heavier choice on third lift which was hard but I got it. Again this gave me not only an international PB but also beat my national PB by 2.5kg and matched my push/pull PB.

100/105/110KG 3/3-9/9

I am fucking delighted at this. I at this point have absolutely no idea where I stand in the running. Tracey Draher of the US was putting in some incredible lifts in both squat and bench, only just missing out on an Open 75kg world record on bench. I nearly lost my fucking voice shouting for her. As far as I was concerned my second job was done!

Deadlifts are the lift I love above all else. Warm ups felt good even with some shitty bars in the warm up area.  Mr G said my last warm up looked tough but I was pretty confident that my opener was going to be good once we got onto platform with good bars. We train on a Texas Power Bar so when we get to comp and there are the lovely deadlift bars everything feels so small in the hand. From the beginning of this year when I decided to lift raw I have had the goal of a 200kg deadlift and have come close a couple of times but not quite had that last couple of KG on the day. This 200kg was my target but I knew I would have to lift it well for it to be passed. Opener of 180KG was fast and smooth and set Master 1 Raw new World Record. My next jump to 192.5kg was my stepping stone and I knew that my 200kg would depend on this. Now I was fucking nervous, I still had no adrenalin kick and was starting to fall apart and doubt in my head and this is where having someone with you who knows you is priceless. Mr G got me and said ‘Tania George. This is who you are! This is what you do! Remember LIFT OR DIE! And this is what I took to platform with me for the next two lifts. My walk to platform and bar I had on repeat’ This is who I am! This is what I do.’ Address the bar ‘ I am Tania George and I am powerlifter’. Grab the bar, set up….PULL and all that is running through my head is LIFT OR DIE! LIFT OR DIE! LIFT OR DIE!!!!! Now I know to an outsider this seems rather fucking melodramatic but at that point in those seconds of my insignificant life THAT was all that mattered to me. I cannot begin to describe how bad I wanted that 200KG last lift. These milestones are mine and I am damn fucking proud of them I am also aware that they mean jack shit to most people and I am so fine with that too. I have no desire to be the centre of anyone’s universe except my own and Tania’s Universe was having a damn fine day.

180KG(WR)/192.5KG(WR)/200KG(WR) and PB 3/3-9/9

Third and last job of the day well and truly fucking NAILED.

Now the thing I am most supremely delightedly proud of is 27 WHITE LIGHTS! This tells me more about how I lifted and you will have to trust me when I say I was giving it 100%. We have yet to sit down and evaluate what we did well and what we can improve on. The main difference for me was how I felt during the competition. There was no rush or surge of nerves and this is the first time this has happened. It was quite unnerving as I was expecting something totally different. The lead up to this competition was different as this is the first time we have had a coach run in the whole way with us that we have been able to use as a sounding board and advisor but also someone that would hold us accountable.  Each time I go and lift as a competitor I learn something new about myself physically, mentally and spiritually. Never have I walked away not having felt I had achieved something even if it wasn’t always what I set out to achieve. Time will tell exactly what I walked away with this time. But for now I will pat myself on the back for a goal set, attained and, in parts, surpassed. Always remember to pat yourself on the back when you do well.  Be humble, be successful, be proud…but don’t be a cock! :0)

Love & Light

T

Interview Part 1

I thought I would give your reading glasses a little rest by sharing and interview I did with Big Tom and Bigger Al from T & A Muscle. Feel free to be offended at any time :0)

Part 2 to follow.....

Did I Miss A Meeting?

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 exactly 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.

Me after my 5km 'run'...my love of running never improved and I know those that know me well will find the thought of me running funny as fuck.

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.

Some awesome women learning to lift and having fun!

 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!

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 with as many white lights as you can. 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.  

Winging It No More....HELP!

So I know there are all kinds of fancy pantsy powerlifting training programs and I get asked all the time what 'kind' of training we do. Well the simple answer is we consistently train for purpose with appropriate intensity within the parameters of our capabilities with the constant aim of achieving big lifts to the highest possible standard...but somehow that just doesn't have a marketable ring to it so we just call it 'winging it' training. And this is what we have been doing up until now and it has served us well.

The royal 'we' is me, Mr G & Rik and between us we have a quite competent little training group with great dynamics and wicked banter. At first it was pretty much just me and I was fortunate to get started in a knowledgeable environment but I am somewhat of a training whore and will go and find people who do what I want to do well and train with them. I did this with powerlifting. It was Emma James who first shouted TITSSSSS to me on the bench and let powerlifting steal my heart.

For my first comp I followed a very VERY basic and cobbled together (and probably wrong) Westside style training. Post first comp Mr G joined me to keep me company after he decided to hang up his spangly trunks. This worked great for me, always having someone to chase, pushing me, challenging me and keeping me safe. It soon became apparent that Mr G needed some young strong buck to lock horns with though as he thrives on challenge. It probably took us a good 12 months before we acquired Rik...seriously we put out powerlifting WLTM ads with zero success. Seems no fucker wanted to train with us until a former member came up trumps with a friend of his. So our trio became complete and we could started to really 'wing it' full power!

We have made continuous improvements which is great but me & Mr G, who is now a full on bodybuilding to powerlifting convert (praise be...it took 18 months), discussed that if we were to make the progress we wanted to make then we needed to bring someone in from the outside and have a bash at a more systematic approach. We narrowed it down to two choices and finally the most suitable option fell into our laps and being a believer in opportunities identified & acted upon approach we came to work with our very first full time, full control coach.

So the training logs that will now be posted on here are all new to me. I feel like I have two left feet for 80% of the time. I also for the first time EVER have a training diary and here I will share it with you...warts and all.

5/9/13
Coaching session with Nichola which was lots of technical work, corrections, goal setting, prodding, poking & headbutting.

6/9/13
OH Squats
Warm Ups
15kg x 5/5/5 to a low box 4/1/1/ free
*Left shoulder, bi & tri feel really tender and showing weakness

Deadlifts
Warm Ups
70kg x 5/5
110kg x 5
*Left arm from trap to middle finger have a toothache like pain so I put on some compression sleeves.
130kg x 3/3/3 - hurt like a bitch on left side but all I concentrated on was '3 broken ribs'. I knew it was nerve trapping rather than muscular so was sure I wasn't going to do any permanent damage.

Power Clean
40kg x 5/5/5/5

Squats - paused
40kg x 10/10/10/10
Lat Pull Downs 70lb x 10/10/10/10

Left arm and shoulder feel fucked yet all back to normal 2 hours post training. Indication that nerve is trapping C4/5 probably due to traps pinching on OH squats.

9/9/13
Bench
40/60/70/80kg x 5
90kg x 3/3/3

Spiders - 2 blues, 1 white
Bar x 6/6/6/5/4

Holds - 1 blue
+80kg x 6 seconds
+90kg x 6/6s

Tri Dips
6/6

10/09/13
OH Squats
15kg x 5/5/5/5 to box

Squats
65/80kg x 5
95kg x 3
100kg x 3

Box Squats - paused
75kg x 4/4/4/4

V Squat SS Glute Bridge x 3
50kgx 10 60kg x 10

12/09/13
Bench
60kg x 3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3
Wide Lat PD's
90 - 180lb x 10-8 - 4 sets
Wide Chest Supported Row
100kg x 8/8/8/8

13/9/13
OH Squats
19kg x 5/5/5 to box & 5 free
*changed grip

Deads
W/U
70kg x 5
110kg x 3
130kg x 3
150kg x 4/4/4

Powercleans
40kg x 8/5/5/5/5 - still not winging these.

40kg paused squats 10/10/10
Single let hypers 2 x 10

Well that's all folks. Expect more of the same.

Over sleeping! Kareoke! World Records and TITTTTTTSSSSSS!!!!!

Well that was quite a weekend. I always have to take a few days stepping outside of my competitive circle before I can really start to process the whole thing. With the age of the t’interweb videos and photos trickle through for the few days after a comp so even though the event is over the after tremors take a little longer to subside.

Folkestone is a looooooooonnnggggggg drive from Manchester. Our little team consisted of me, Mr G, our training partner Rik, and joining us from Olympic Sports Gym in Ashton were Cheryl Kelsall & chief coach Gaz Boulton. After having to wake us up because we over slept (DOH) we guzzled a coffee and then shoehorned ourselves in the car. Of course much was made of the fact that we over slept as I had been a mini time keeping Gestapo Commandant in the days prior with texts, pm's and face to face orders of not to be late. Poor Cheryl had to take the kiddie middle seat for the entire journey there and back and if that isn’t incentive to go up at least TWO weight classes then I don’t know what is. AND she forgot Pedro!!!! FFS Woman don't ever have children unless you marry a politician as only then is it OK to absently forget your offspring. Listening to Radio 2 with some ‘interesting’ music choices it was a good atmosphere and new karaoke songs were found.

The British Powerlifting Union (BPU) /World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) Folkestone International Open Grand Prix 2013 was a qualifier for the WPC World Championships which takes place in Prague in Oct/Nov of this year for which I had already qualified by winning my class last year. I felt that I needed more platform time before the Worlds as last year I was totally over awed AND under prepared.  Even though we were convinced we had taken all variables into account, we so hadn’t and that was a great learning curve. I think choosing do this comp was a very good move in hindsight as I made mistakes that I can now work on for the next 8 weeks and they were the type of silly mistakes that can only be made on platform. In powerlifting to really put into practice what we train in the gym you have to have you lifts up to be judged AND be prepared to accept the decisions made, learn from them and move on. What you THINK you are doing and what you are ACTUALLY doing can be worlds apart. Gym lifts just don’t cut it!

Weigh in went pretty smooth as I had decided to lift in 82.5kg instead of 75kg yet I wanted to make sure I was at the lower end of the weight class so weighed in at 75.5kg exactly to plan, perfect skinny fat burd. A little water manipulation meant I wasn’t on my arse. So some good food and rehydration would bring everything back to where it needed to be. This time I took in more salty foods than I have previously done and I think it worked really well. No sugar hangover. BONUS!

As this is my blog I will focus on how my day went. The comp was being run slightly differently in that there were 3 groups of two flights and each group would perform all 3 lifts before moving onto the next group. Me, being a bit of a numbnuts and a giddy kipper,  didn’t quite get this concept so I started my warm up for squats wayyyyyyyyyy too early. I had planned to get in early to ensure that I didn’t get left behind once the big boys started as I was in the 2^nd group and 3^rd lifter on but seriously not THAT early ! Due to this total knobhead error I decided to drop my opener very slightly as the time between my last warm up and my bar being loaded was just too long. Gaz had his work cut out with me and Cheryl on the day but as he always does he listened, hugged, growled and  then took suitable action which in this case was bitch slapping my legs before I went on. He did this with way to much of a pleasurable smile on his face and I am sure it was payback for me digging my elbow in his traps the previous week. It worked though, opening squat was sweet and the game was now on! My love of squats is non-existent and without knee wraps they are just plain wrong and fucking dirty as far as I am concerned yet this was the only lift that I got 9/9 for whites….go figure!

Bench warm ups felt sweet & strong in fact, better than they had done in training the week before. So opener was nice and easy and we took a jump to a weight I had failed twice in the last comp where I just couldn’t lock out. This time up went up a dream and I really thought I had it until I saw 2 reds from side refs which meant somewhere along the lift my ass came up. Now this is where platform time is so important. I was totally convinced my arse was planted like a big ass planted thing, it was actually the main focus during the lift but I must have lost it for a split second and BAM reds. OK this wasn’t going to happen again. I put the same lift in as this would still be a full power personal best for me. Went out and had it nailed – 3 whites.

Only deads to go.  I fucking LOVE deadlifting. I love deadlifting in front of a crowd. Actually I just love lifting in front of a crowd. I am a born show off. Gaz says I am a Peacock Lifter in that I always perform better in front of an audience and it’s true, I do which is such a relief.  I had put in a nice easy opener that I can get all day every day. Ahhhhh but can you really? Here we are again back to platform experience with your lifts being scrutinised and judged. Are you REALLY doing what you think you are doing? The bar flew up, I looked the ref in the eye ready for the down command…and waited…and waited…(internal dialogue) Put you fucking hard down! Ok…what have I missed? Oh KNEES locked them out even more…still no??? And shaking his head WTF??? Locking knees are going to snap…head still shaking. Down command given – 3 reds??? Now I KNOW I have missed something and when I left platform Mr G was waiting for me and said it can only be your shoulders, they want them pulled right back, so next time stick your tits out! Got to love that husband of mine. Next lift went in and I locked out like Dolly Parton on a fucking windshield! 3 whites. In reality this was a small movement of correction of sternum UP shoulder blades back & down. This will make the women I coach piss as I am ALWAYS banging on about shoulders back AND down. We picked 3^rd and it went up faster than I thought it would, weight stalled and shifted onto my toes so pulled back on my heels locked out and thought TITS!!!!! It wasn’t smooth and I knew centre ref wasn’t happy but I got a fortunate 2-1 which I will take just as I will take 1-2 when I failed the bench. 

So the final results –

Squat 145KG (319LBS)   Bench 107.5KG(236.5LBS)  Deadlift 197.5KG (434.5LBS)                              TOTAL 450KG (990LBS)

As an added Bonus ALL the lifts are M1 82.5KG WPC Raw World & European Records as well as setting the standard for this class within the UK with the new BPU British Powerlifting Records.

The referees were duly thanked for being firm but fair as the red lights were probably the most positive thing from the whole day. The strength & power is there but it needs to be refined to technical perfection if I truly want to be GREAT at powerlifting. There is so much to be worked on before October and we are working with a new performance coach who will be taking no prisoners. I love meeting people who have forgotten more than you will ever know…the thing is I don’t think she actually forgets anything.

Please feel free to join me on this mad cap journey so I can prove a point that no one gives a flying fuck about!

So I have actually ventured into the world of blogging. Ah well better late than never I suppose. I have kept training journals on various forums before now which has been fun, it just seemed about time I got in with the cool kids and had something a little more personal.

It's hard to know where to start with things like this. It's almost like writing an application for a very bizarre job. It will take a few posts/blogs/additions (I don't even know what the correct term is ffs) so hang in there if you can and I will try to keep things interesting...well interesting to me I suppose.

I am a powerlifter and I am proud of it. I love powerlifting, I love being strong, I love being around strong people. I am opinionated, passionate & very straight talking. I have a low bullshit tolerance and this doesn't sit well with many people and this bothers me not a jot. It is obviously not all I am but powerlifting and related topics will be the main aspect of my life that will be shared in this blog.

No doubt I will rant about other shit too. I mean what would the point of having such an outlet be if we didn't have the occasional rant. I am also sure to offend people should they choose to let themselves be offended. Don't choose to let my rants become personal to you because they will never be personal unless I actually name you. So if you are ever unsure as to whether I am having a go at YOU then the most likely answer is no because if I am having a go at someone in particular then I really do want that person to know. Quite simple. That said I do not ever do my wash dirty laundry in public & believe that I do not need to attend every argument I am invited to. Now we have that sorted let's get on with the interesting stuff.
On Sunday I have my next comp the British powerlifting Union (BPU) British Champs which is also a qualifier for the World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) World Championships in Prague in Oct/Nov. I have already qualified for Prague by winning my class last year in Vegas but I wanted to get more platform time to really hone in on what I need to work on for Prague. It's all well and good doing stuff in the gym but it's what happens when the pressure is on that counts, in fact for me it's all that counts when it comes to powerlifting. Talk is cheap as they say.

I won't be cutting any weight for this one as I had originally planned. I don't see the point of putting myself or my body under more stress than is necessary. I have been competing every 6-8 weeks this year and if I am not wise it will backfire. This will be my first time squatting in comp without knee wraps so this gives me an indication of what I will need to do for Prague.

The last week before comp I always get nervous. My internal dialogue is on overdrive. Thankfully I have a good support team around me that are used to my head-fucks and jitters and they keep me from going crackers. On the day I usually come up trumps and rise to the occasion yet I never quite believe this will happen again in the run up.

After this comp I will be working with a new coach along with my husband and this will be closely tracked in this here ploggy thing. It's the first time we be coached by someone on a regular basis which will be interesting to say the least. Nicola Vaughn-Ellis has a resume that few men and probably no women strength coaches can come close to yet she remains an unknown in most lifting circles. I think it will be a working relationship that will be delightfully messy at times :0)

So that is it. First plog.

Love, Light & Lifting!
TRG