Finding weightlifting as an adult...part 1.

The first gym I worked in could now probably be described as ‘old school’. Back then it was where I liked to spend time even when not working. The area dedicated to free weights was really designed for body building although you could train really well for max strength too; they had a decent set up compared to any gym back then or indeed now. That gym was where I learned to squat, deadlift, pull up and so on but nobody performed the olympic lifts and there wasn’t the right set up for it anyway. As a setting for health, fitness and aesthetic training it was perfect and I loved working there but it was some 10 years after first setting foot in that gym that I found weightlifting - not just lifting weights.

I had messed around with weight training from around the age of 14 but back then I played football 3-4 times a week. I occasionally ran, infrequently swam and eventually did what I thought was boxing (it was really taking out teenage angst on a defenceless punchbag in my bedroom). Football stepped aside as I moved to London and random fitness training sat in place for a while before actual boxing became my main pastime. It surprises most people who know me that for a few short years I trained 8-12 hours a week almost all cardio, weighing a whopping 69kg.

I found weightlifting at the ripe old age of 26. I’d been exposed a little to the power clean and seen some snatches when studying strength and conditioning (and you learn a terrible version of a clean and press on a standard personal training course) and had now put on a little muscle through more structured strength training but it wasn’t until at St Mary’s University studying strength and conditioning science that I actually trained in weightlifting. It’s hard to describe the first time you hit a snatch and it actually feels like you did what you intended. It was addictive and I was hooked but something more than that, I wanted to learn everything I could possibly know about it, and beyond what the degree course demanded.

Since then (8+ years on) it’s pretty much the only training I do personally and it’s become the majority of what I spend time coaching (which also includes personal training & strength and conditioning for other sports).

I’ve seen the same thing in many of the people I coach. They stumble across weightlifting without looking for it and before they know what’s happened they’re training 5 days a week with a near obsessive drive to improve in just 2 lifts. It is pretty weird. I love it.

As with many other things that go undiscovered until into adulthood, it can make for a harder time learning and reaching full potential. It also means that your point of entry is immediately unconventional by the world standard, even though its now more common in the western world. Sports like Crossfit have increased the number of ‘older’ weightlifters dramatically. The countries that you may watch in awe of and see with dozens of top-level lifters usually have a system in place that begins at school age (regardless of their other ‘systems’).

If at 8-12years old someone looked at your squat, jump and sprint and said “yes I’ll take you into my sports academy where you will become a master of the sport of weightlifting” , assuming you wanted to, chances are you got pretty good at the sport and maybe made it to at least national level if not world level.

Even discovering lifting in your teens puts you at a hormonal and lifestyle advantage. You can benefit (more so as a male) from the surge of useful hormones in puberty to more rapidly gain muscle and strength but also simply have less in the way of commitments and drains on your time, allowing for greater recovery and more training.

When you start a sport as an adolescent you are far less encumbered by years of sitting at a desk, all those injuries you picked up skiing/playing another sport/when drunk…

So with this all against you how can you make the best progress in the shortest time possible, remain free of injury and reach your full potential in weightlifting?

Firstly ask yourself “what do I want from lifting?” For me, starting at 26 years old and without a huge strength reserve from other sports, I was realistic enough to know I wasn’t going to compete at a national level. It was and will always be a personal endeavour that while I enjoy I will keep striving for ever bigger lifts. It’s me against the bar and some days I get to win. Even when I’ve entered competitions my aim as someone who didn’t have a huge chance of winning anything based on the groups was always to hit my best numbers or try for PB’s.

What you want from the sport will determine what it requires of you. If you don’t enjoy competing then don’t compete. The training in and of itself can be fun, hugely satisfying and mildly frustrating. As a hobby there are far worse things you could be doing!

That said, if you find that coming into the sport competing is what you enjoy and having the goals allows you to focus and work harder in training, you may find you can do well at a regional and even national level.

The masters weightlifting on a world scene is still hugely competitive and arguably just as much fun and as rewarding as youth lifting and seniors. I’ll admit that seeing the senior lifters at major competitions is that little more exciting because of the weights lifted probably and the amazement of the crowds are infectious. But when you’ve got ‘skin in the game’ either as a lifter or a coach, this excitement and enjoyment comes from your drive to do well.

I would recommend that everyone who does any weightlifting should compete at least once. You may find it’s not for you but at least you’ll know. You may just find it gives you that little spark to do extra, lift that little bit more and you see just what we are all raving about.