Her Campus Leeds talks to Danny White as he introduces Leeds University Union’s first ever lifting society and attempts to remove the male orientated stigma associated with lifting heavy weights.
You’ve just got the go ahead from the union to make the LUU Powerlifting a legitimate society. But how did this idea come up to begin with?
It all started in early 2014 when my course mate / friend Osura Bangamuwa and I were talking about his powerlifting experiences in Sri Lanka. He was encouraging me to get into the sport and we thought it was a shame that there was no club around to get new people into the sport. So we thought it would be pretty cool if there were a powerlifting club, and we started talking about whether we could start one. At the time though, we had no idea how to form a club let alone know enough people to get it going. We eventually gave up after a couple of weeks of talking because we realized we just couldn’t afford the equipment or space needed. Around 18 months later, we ran into each other at the gym after not seeing one another for a year or so, and we just said we’ll give it a go and try to set it up now. Initially, we were focused on providing training for people who already powerlift, but I kept seeing people, mainly girls, walk into the weight room of the gym and do a U-turn out of the room when they saw people lifting heavy weights. You actually spoke about this in a Gryphon article I read quite a while ago. Generally speaking, a lot of girls didn’t like training in the weight room. So, we decided to try and attract more female members into the club to prove to them that everyone can and should lift heavy weights. From then on we focused on providing a welcoming environment to attract as many inexperienced members as we could.
How much planning went into the set up?
We decided to set up The Facebook group in February 2016, and we slowly gained members through word of mouth. The fact that I was leaving “Powerlifting Club” business cards in the locker room at The Edge helped too – though this meant we were getting far more male members than female. I do remember a few of the guys in the American Football Club, including my housemates at the time Josh Smith and Rupert Jackson, helping us get a few members just by talking about the club. We were aiming to reach the required 25 members (and signatures) to complete an LUU Society formation form – and we were really struggling right up until a few hours before the deadline in May. Thanks to the likes of Leanne Brumby and a few other people, we reached our goal just in time.
Then came the meeting in August with an LUU representative, who discussed our application where he addressedany concerns he had. We didn’t even have a full committee at that point due to lack of interest – I had to ask Leanne and Rupert to fill in as temporary committee members. After the meeting, things started to snowball, especially when Chris Baldwin offered to coach because we could finally provide proper training. We were given some space at the Fresher’s Sports Fair in September and allowed a ‘trial run’ as a club. After about five weeks of training we were given the green light as an official club.
Were there any challenges you came across when trying to start the society? If so, how did you overcome them?
Yes there were plenty. The main problem we had was finding a training location. We were looking at asking local gyms to see if they could allow us to train with them for a couple of hours per week, but they were just too far away from campus and too expensive. Also, since fresher’s have free access to The Edge when they live in halls, we knew it would be best to try and aquire space to train in there. When Chris Baldwin stepped in as coach he negotiated a weekly 2 hour slot for us to train in the upstairs weight room, until then we had no place to train. We’re actually the only club to be allowed to do this.
What do you think the main benefits for Powerlifters to train as a group?
Everyone who knows powerlifting knows that it’s an individual sport, but that doesn’t mean you have to train on your own. Encouragement from others can be so valuable, it really does help to get rid of your self-doubt and can push you to a limit you’ve not reached before. So mentally, it’s crucial on days you don’t feel great and you just want to go home. And there’s the more obvious benefits like the sharing of equipment, help when loading the bars and tips from coaches or other experienced lifters. There’s also an element of healthy competition that spurs you on to better yourself – but training is never about who can lift the heaviest weight (that’s reserved for competitions). The Edge can also get really busy, so you’ll find yourself sitting around for 10 minutes waiting for a squat rack. With our training, everyone shares, so there’s also space for powerlifters. Financially speaking, it’s also the cheapest way to go about coached training. You can pay up to £18 an hour to train in groups like ours, but our membership fee works out to £0.83 per hour – with no hidden costs.
What do you hope to achieve this year for the society?
We just want everyone to enjoy themselves – that’s the priority. We also hope that everyone is able to see their progression, so once they reach the end of the year they’ll look back and realize how much stronger they have become. Competition wise, we want to begin sending members to competitions representing the club, whether that’s regional or national.
There are some funding opportunities we are looking at applying for in order to get some equipment to make training more varied.
The members so far range from beginners to advance. In the up-coming weeks, how are you going to go about organising training so it suits different levels and individuals?
Generally speaking, most of our members that have been powerlifting for some time already have their own programs that they follow in order to improve their lifts and prepare for competitions. New members, once they are taught the basics, will be given basic programming from our coach. In the programs each person will be lifting weights dependent on their bodyweight and ability. That way, training is tailored to each individual.
Have you got anything exciting coming up in the near future?
We’re planning to host a powerlifting competition on 10th December at Five Towns Powerlifting Gym, just outside of Leeds. Here, we want everyone to put their training into practice – but some will be taking it more serious than others. For most, it will be an excellent opportunity to take part in a powerlifting competition and gain some valuable experience – not to mention hopefully make some personal records! We also plan to do this same competition in week 11 of semester 2. Besides this, there’s plenty going on. We have an Otley Run social on 11th. November to celebrate our formation as an official club. There will also be a social following our 10th Decemeber competition.
In terms of training, we are hoping to increase the number of training sessions from 2 hours to 4 hours a week. We are quite restricted to training on Wednesdays at midday because it is incredibly difficult to book a space in the gym due to its popularity. For this reason, we want to have something like a technique workshop on a Saturday where training will have emphasis on correcting form during the three lifts. This will mostly be useful for people new to the sport.
If you want to find out anymore about this society check out the Leeds Union page:https://www.luu.org.uk/groups/LiftSoc/ or head to Facebook and ask to join the Luu Powerlifting Soc group where a member will happily answer any questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LUULiftSoc/
Training is every Wednesday from 12pm to 2pm in The Edge in the upstairs weight room next to the fitness suit reception.
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