Following on from my dismal performance at the weekend, I jumped straight back on the bike and have registered for bench only at the Northwest Powerlifting Championships competition at Manchester Grammar School on July 7th. I will enter at -93kg so there is no need to worry about cutting calories to make weight. I will just walk straight in as I am. However, the main purpose of this post is not about me (for a change), it is about helping others at the recent Club competition held at Fighting Fit, Manchester two days ago (17 June, 2018)! On this occasion I was not lifting, but had the pleasur ..read more

Plenty to report on over the past 8 weeks. This period started off well with new PBs on the squat: week 88 - 160kg for 5 singles @ 84.6kg bodyweight, week 89 - 162.5kg for 5 singles @ 85.4kg bodyweight, week 90 - 165kg for 5 singles @ 84.2kg bodyweight; and also a new PB on the bench: week 89 - 117.5kg @ 84.6kg bodyweight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRdOoTQtFyshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HuLnSIyJA8 Week 91 was a deload week, following a very tiring long weekend away in Skegness with two of my kids. At the end of this week I was a platform loader at the first ever Greater Manchester ..read more

Plenty of news to report on over the past 6 weeks. I enjoyed spotting at the British Women's Champions at Manchester Grammar School on 25 Feb. There was some great lifting going on and it gave me a feel for the venue, where I hope to be competing in July. My bodyweight seems to be sitting reasonably comfortably between 84 and 85kg despite treating myself to more crap than usual and feeling like I am actually consuming quite a few more calories (though it has been my birthday and Easter during this period). Did I mention my birthday? I turned 50-years-old on March 29, so no longer feel like a ..read more

Just when I thought I was getting back into regular training (weeks 79-80), up pops another competition in my local area. This was the first of a new initiative of NW Powerlifting concerning their affiliate league and was very ably organized by Jon Wilkinson and his team at Fighting Fit, Manchester (18 Feb, 2018, end of training week 81). Although I do not train with an affiliated club there were spaces available for independent lifters so I went along to help make up the numbers. As per ******* usual, the trains were problematic so I took the bus replacement service with my daughter and tea ..read more

All novice comp photos in this post by Takiyah Daly at LiftDaly.com My formal debut as a competitive powerlifter was at a novice competition in Liverpool in January 2018, two weeks ago, and just 10 weeks before my 50th birthday. It represented a significant milestone in my powerlifting journey and was what the previous six months of training and nutritional discipline had been about. My game plan all along had been to hit a qualifying total for the Masters 2 (-83kg) British Championships and I exceeded this by 10kg, though it did not all go as planned. I did not feel as nervous as I expected ..read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! This blog post covers the last four weeks, which includes the Christmas and New Year seasonal festivities. I overindulged a little bit here and there, but did no serious damage and am still on track for the under 83kg weight class at the comp next weekend. From a pre Christmas body weight of 81.5kg, I reached 83.8kg on 27th Dec, but weighed back in at 81.2kg this morning. I am also just getting over an unpleasant head cold that kicked in on 23rd Dec, so that has sapped my energy somewhat, but I am hoping I will be fully recovered by next weekend. My aim at the comp is ..read more

I have continued the gradual weight loss during this period (Fri 17 Nov: 83.4kg, Fri 24 Nov: 82.4kg, Fri 1 Dec: 81.2kg, Fri 8 Dec: 82.2kg, so that I am now happy I will be able to compete in the -83Kg category at the Novice powerlifting comp in Liverpool on 13 January 2018. I was extremely lucky to get a place in this comp as the registration filled up within 15 minutes! Whilst on the topic of competitions, I also helped out at the Christmas Extravaganza NW Powerlifting comp held at Fighting Fit, Manchester on Dec 3rd. I was a loader and spotter for the afternoon session. I enjoyed doing th ..read more

Plenty to report on since my last blog post, most notable of which is the formal release of my new book: Escape the Fat Trap: It's not rocket science! It is available as a paperback and ebook in both Kindle and epub formats. It got some nice media coverage which you can see by clicking here. I have been continuing my weight cut with the aim of competing in the -83kg class and this morning (13 Nov) I weighed in at 84.4kg. The photo below was taken on 20 October when I weighed in at 84.6kg. I hit my lowest weight to date, 83.6kg, on November 10th, so I am certainly heading in the right directio ..read more

WOW ... lots to report on over the last few weeks, most significantly was the gain of an extra 7lbs of bodyweight in the arrival of Dean, my son (and future spotter) on August 30th. My routine has altered significantly but I am still getting my training in, so I am very happy about that. My squats and deadlifts are increasing gradually following from the back pull several months ago and I am now around 66.6% on my squat (100kg) and 60% on my deadlift (115kg) nine weeks after reinstating them. This linear increase is set to continue and I am happy with progress to date. In addition to conventi ..read more

Body weight 91.0-90.0kg After 12 weeks of rest from deadlifts and squats (following tweaking my back) I am now back on them. I am doing each lift twice per week and increasing gradually, starting from 30kg squats and 40kg deadlifts, I am currently on 60kg squats and 75kg deadlifts and working my way back up. Concentrating so much on form for each rep makes them seem much harder to do, but I am happy to be back on it. During my 'time off' I have been back on some volume work and am due for a new bench press PB attempt of 112.5kg on Monday, followed by 115kg the week after. I also have a new ph ..read more