Last weekend, July 25, 26 I had the opportunity to travel to Hamilton, Ontario for a power-lifting training weekend for women called Iron Sisters 2.0.

What a fabulous weekend! I stayed with a great couple from Newfoundland, Vicky is an accomplished power-lifter who just placed 5th at the World’s in Finland and I believe she broke a few records too.

We started the training Saturday morning, 40+ athletes and a group of world class coaches at Complete Fitness. The day started with Rhaea Stinn teaching us about squat technique, training frequency etc. then we were broken into groups to go station to station and learn everything from how to use knee wraps, to box squats, front squats, hi bar, low bar squats. The coaches were there to fine tune our skills, moving our hands, the bar or foot placement ever so slightly.  In the afternoon we learned from Jennifer Thompson about the bench press and off we went in our groups to learn from the best how to improve our bench set up, accessories for bench, board presses, band presses, pin presses and I even got to try a slingshot! It was a long and informative day ending with coaches panel to ask any questions we may have.

On to Sunday, dead-lift day. We learned from Kimberly Walford about dead-lifting and about her competitive background. We then proceeded to the stations again, sumo, conventional, deficit, block, rack pulls. So many little pointers to make the difference.

My take away…

Squat- narrow my grip and elbows more forward for hi bar, start learning low bar, use knee wraps and try heavy walk outs for overload

Bench-really tuck my shoulders under, pinky squeeze, leg drive, keep building lat strength with t-bar rows, pull ups, pull-downs, triceps. Explode off my chest

Dead-lift-keep working at getting my hips down and close to the bar, try slippers to get closer to the ground, every mm counts, be patient to finish the lift, get enough rest, post your goals and believe in yourself

Having the chance to learn from the best, one on one discussions on how to improve and hone my skills was truly memorable and motivating to get back home and start working on the fine tuning needed to be a better power-lifter. A huge thanks to Frances Manias for putting the weekend together along with the Dundas Power-lifting team. I learned, laughed, made friends and memories.