Strength Odyssey

"Why do we fall? ......so we can learn to pick ourselves back up." Bruce Wayne's father in Batman Begins

Mouse - thanks for the support and encouragement, I'm way ahead of you though. I sent an email to the N Ireland Weightlifting site last night about the clubs and finding a good coach. I got a reply straight away. Gina told me that she'd be training near me today and that I should pop down and see her.

I turned up in jeans expecting to just get some info out of her, but she had me DLing and Squatting a bit to see my form. She and her husband Martin gave me some good pointers - and told me my form was terrible!! "Stop sticking your arse out!!" Haha. They also filled me in on the powerlifting scene here. Apparently it isn't great - everyone out for themselves, club members generally train on their own at different times and there isn't much sharing of information until you show good promise. Not what I wanted to hear.

She said though if I wanted to join the gym she uses then they'd sort me out anytime they happened to be in. Good as gold - Martin is an ex-Commonwealth Games cyclist, and Gina has been tearing up records over here in PL. I felt what I really needed though was a wizened old coach like Mickey from Rocky. When pressed Gina told me that I needed to see George Mcguinness, he'd helped her out when she first got started.

So I got in touch with George just after I left the gym. I told him that I'd be interested in lifting at a meet for the craic and he told me that he coached PL and Oly Lifting!! My ears pricked up - I thought no one here did Oly Lifting. I arranged to meet up with him earlier this evening and he put me through my paces.

The gym is falling to bits but has bags of character - two Oly Lifting platforms and everything else you need (with exception of the glute-ham machine that they don't have anymore). George has Parkinson's and talks a bit slow and quietly, but I didn't let that fool me. He stood with me for about 2 hours sorting out my form, flexibilty etc. I've spent money on books, DVDs, courses on all sorts of different subjects, but I can't remember the last time I learned so much. He didn't even want to take any money off me either!!!

After I'd been admonished by a couple of the instructors for "sticking my arse out" I started to do better. I managed to snatch 40kgs no worries, and C&J'd 60kgs. Then he started talking about throwing me into a meet in Scotland in a few months! We'll see.

I've spent my whole day training or talking about training. My back was never anything but solid, even my knees and shoulders were spot on. The only fly in the ointment is that the club is miles away. It would be a bit much for me to travel up and down x 3 per week. There is a guy who is a bit closer unbelievably, but failing that George suggested that I go up to see him 3-4 times a month to work on the technical stuff and he can give me a program then to work on assistance stuff by myself.

I'm starting to get sore now, my traps will ache tomorrow, wrists and legs from doing all manner of squats for flexibility and strength. But today was the best training day I think I've ever had. What a difference 24 hours can make.