Today, I recount my evolution from a tenacious mother into an international strength athlete and the founder of LK Strength Coach. Tune in to witness the raw power of passion that propels us towards greatness, and how my mentors — Walter, Miles Wydall, and Travis Mash — have been pivotal in sculpting my journey. Whether it's the finesse of Olympic weightlifting or the brute force of powerlifting, the art of mastering the barbell becomes a metaphor for life's challenges, where self-doubt is conquered by unwavering dedication to the basics.
Key Takeaways:
I peel back the layers of my career to reveal the pulsating heart of strength coaching and the relentless pursuit of self-worth
Relive the electrifying moments of my first powerlifting meet in Bowen and the ascent to the 2019 World Championships
I highlight how strength knows no age (...and how my own mother is shattering records in her seventies
Learn how despite the 2020 worldwide shutdown, my drive for coaching blossomed
Get ready for a sneak peek into our upcoming three-part series where I divulge my approach to nurturing physical prowess, and mental tenacity across a spectrum of clients and the importance of individualized training protocols.
Today, I recount my evolution from a tenacious mother into an international strength athlete and the founder of LK Strength Coach. Tune in to witness the raw power of passion that propels us towards greatness, and how my mentors — Walter, Miles Wydall, and Travis Mash — have been pivotal in sculpting my journey. Whether it's the finesse of Olympic weightlifting or the brute force of powerlifting, the art of mastering the barbell becomes a metaphor for life's challenges, where self-doubt is conquered by unwavering dedication to the basics.
Key Takeaways:
I peel back the layers of my career to reveal the pulsating heart of strength coaching and the relentless pursuit of self-worth
Relive the electrifying moments of my first powerlifting meet in Bowen and the ascent to the 2019 World Championships
I highlight how strength knows no age (...and how my own mother is shattering records in her seventies
Learn how despite the 2020 worldwide shutdown, my drive for coaching blossomed
Get ready for a sneak peek into our upcoming three-part series where I divulge my approach to nurturing physical prowess, and mental tenacity across a spectrum of clients and the importance of individualized training protocols.
Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox. Welcome to Episode 3 of my first three-part series, where I discuss my journey from mum of four under five to the world stage, to the birth of LK Strength Coach. To recap, the last episode, I discussed my first coaches and experience with Olympic weightlifting, from my very first snatch to the world stage. In this episode, I want to delve into that place where you find and I find that place where things light you up Like what are you doing right now? What are you endeavoring to do right now? That really is your passion. And when you find that thing as you would have heard in my last episode, when you find that thing, what do you need in order to empower you to become better at that thing? You're going to need help and guidance, and the fastest way to get to that thing, to be good at that thing, is to be able to ask for that help and guidance.
Speaker 1:
For me, having such wonderful mentors and coaches after my first year of learning on my own was an absolute game changer. My first coach, walter, taught me the basics of the snatch and clean and jerk. I then worked with Myles Weidel, the Australian coach, who really honed in my technique and taught me a lot about not only how to lift but the strategy behind lifting and, in saying that, helped me develop as a coach. I also discussed on my last podcast one of my greatest mentors back then and still today, of Travis Mash. From Travis I was able to round out my strength knowledge move from Olympic weightlifting into the powerlifting world, as Travis was a world champion powerlifter and learning that as an athlete I could empower myself by broadening my horizon in strength. But also I discovered that as a coach, many other people wanted this as well. So sticking to Olympic weightlifting was my first five years of my barbell journey.
Speaker 1:
At that time, if you'd asked me do you want to try powerlifting which, for those of you who aren't sure, is squat, bench and deadlift I would have said no way. I'm not going to the dark side, as it was commonly called back then. But as I grew as a strength coach and as an athlete, I could see that the barbell applied to nearly all the lifts. It didn't matter whether it was clean and jerk or snatch, it didn't matter if it was deadlift or sumo deadlift. The barbell was a challenge in all of those movements.
Speaker 1:
So today I'd like to talk about what happens when you are learning something new and those feelings, that surface of self-doubt, those feelings of not being good enough, those feelings of what if I fail, those feelings of comparison when you walk into a competition and there's someone there who's been doing it for 10 years and is light years ahead of you in weight. So what happens when those feelings creep in and you wonder am I actually going to ever be good at this activity, no matter what it is? For me it was Olympic weightlifting. Was Olympic weightlifting the snatch and clean and jerk, the squat, the bench and the dead. And looking back at those formative years in both the sports of Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting, if I had one piece of advice for that 40 and 45 year old me, it would be this old me, it would be this Focus on the basics put in the reps, keep showing up and, as the famous and very popular powerlifting coach Louie Simmons says, master the mundane. Thinking about mastering the mundane, what actually does that mean for you and me? What is mastering the mundane. What it is is understanding the basics of what you're doing. What are the foundations of whatever you're trying to learn, and what are the very basics that you need to master in order to become a master? So for me, in Olympic weight lifting, it was the positions of your body. So are you over the bar enough? Is your back tight? Are your lats tight? Is your chest up? Are you holding the bar the correct way? Are your eyes in the right place? What are your feet doing? There's so many different components that until you master those basics, then numbers on the bar mean really not much at all. When you master the basics, when you master the basics, you can then build on that foundation to become a better lifter or better at anything that you're actually endeavoring to do.
Speaker 1:
So I look back and I think about the achievements of Olympic weightlifting. I'd made it to the world championships. I'd competed a couple of times. As I said in my last episode, I went to the Gold Coast, which was the highlight of my Olympic weightlifting career, when I won best lifter, and I'd gotten to that point in my life where I in my in my lifting life, where I thought, okay, I've gotten to the goal. I've gotten to the goal of winning the world championships. I've gotten the numbers that I'd set out to get in the beginning. I got my body weight snatch and more, and I thought what can I do now to keep challenging myself? So my choices were obviously to stay in the sport and keep growing. The one thing that I absolutely love about weightlifting is there is no ceiling on what you can achieve. So what do I mean by that? What I mean is one kilo more on your current PB is an absolute wonderful achievement. And if you keep showing up or when you keep showing up, you keep putting in the reps, you keep loving what you're doing and you get that extra kilo which may have taken you six months or a year to get, then the ceiling is then raised, so the bar is raised. So I'd gotten to the end of my Olympic weightlifting journey and I thought where can I go now where I can use the barbell and challenge myself, put myself out of my comfort zone, and I thought. I looked around me and I thought the closest sport to Olympic weightlifting was powerlifting. So my goal then became become. I wanted to be a dual barbell sport world champion.
Speaker 1:
So enter in the start of my powerlifting journey and my first competition in powerlifting was actually up in a small town above us, in Bowen. I went to a come and try powerlifting competition with a friend and when I got there I had no idea what I could lift in as far as the deadlift and the bench went. So the person running the competitions, who was actually doing the reffing, he said what would you like to lift? And I said I really have no idea. You choose the weight and I'll just lift it. So this very intuitive man, who'd only just met me, decided I'm pretty sure it was 130 kilos. He put on the bar and he said okay, the bar is loaded. Now when you hear that the bar is loaded, that is your cue, that it's your turn to go out on the platform. So off I went and I lifted 130 kilos on the deadlift.
Speaker 1:
I then went to bench, which I'd had very little experience in Olympic weightlifters don't do a lot of bench and I remember lifting 60 kilos and walking away from that my first try at an Olympic sorry, at a powerlifting competition thinking I have a lot to learn and this is a great opportunity for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and strive to create a new ceiling. So that was the start of my powerlifting journey, and that person that was reffing became my next coach, and his name was Damien. So Damien and I worked really hard together over the next five years, often with a few funny jokes along the way from other people saying things like you lift like an Olympic weightlifter, and when you're in the industry of the barbell sport world, you understand that most people will take a side. They'll either be an Olympic weightlifter or they'll be a powerlifter, and what I loved was that I could identify as both and I could use my skills from Olympic weightlifting to actually become a better powerlifter. So the next five years saw me take some the national stage and then the world stage, and in 2019, I went in my first world championships, which was over in America, and that was the time that I'd previously spoken about where I got to meet Travis Mash, and the powerlifting world was certainly a different world for me. There were a lot of strong ladies and there are a lot of strong ladies in the strength world, and for those of you that are wanting to get into the strength world, or those of you that are listening and thinking, what really is the difference here?
Speaker 1:
The difference that I've found is that in Olympic weightlifting, as you age, the first thing that you lose is speed. Olympic weightlifting is very reliant on moving the barbell with speed in order to make a successful lift. Powerlifting, on the other hand, is a sport where we are focusing on pure raw strength and in saying that, you have the opportunity to squat, bench and deadlift and grind those lifts out just a little bit slower, and it is amazing how much strength you can build in your 40s, in your 50s, even in your 60s. I do remember when I was in America at that competition, the male that won best lifter was actually in his 60s and that, when you think about it, is phenomenal because he was competing against 20-year-olds and he won Best Lifter. So my message to age and you can get stronger and stronger, regardless of your background, regardless of what your abilities are. Your body can get stronger and does get stronger with the right loading as you age. And that's an exciting thing, right? Because when everything else seems to be going down your mind, your speed, as I alluded to before there's that one thing that can continue to go up and you can measure that, and that is your strength and you can measure that and that is your strength.
Speaker 1:
So, moving on from my powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting journey, it got to the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 when the world started to shut down. The world as we knew it started to shut down and up until then, I had been coaching with Sunday Weightlifting as an Olympic weightlifting coach. I'd also been coaching at my gym club as a gymnastics coach and I was doing this as my passion and my story was. I don't ever want to do this as a business. I'm doing this because I love doing it. This is my passion. I love coaching other people. I love empowering other people to become the best versions of themselves. I love seeing people challenge themselves and step out of their comfort zone and have all those self-doubts Will I be good enough? What if I fail? And yet step on that platform, walk away from a competition and, although they'd had those doubts and they were scared and then weren't sure whether they were going to get through a competition without tears, they come out the other side and said to me thank you, leanne. That was a fantastic experience and I loved it.
Speaker 1:
So enter in 2020,. I was PE teaching and history teaching and relief teaching at the local high school and I decided that I wanted to spend my time more productively. And I made a choice Am I going to continue teaching and coaching in my spare time or am I going to focus on my coaching and take that to the next level? So in comes the birth, and this was the moment. I said to myself at that moment Leanne, choose a side. If you want to be the very best at either one of those professions, choose a side. And I chose strength coaching. So the birth of LK Strength Coach at the beginning of 2020.
Speaker 1:
And during this time, over the next two years, it was a very different time in the world. As you know, there were a lot of people who were feeling isolated, a lot of people that really valued having that connection with a coach because they couldn't go to the gym or they'd lost their coach or they'd lost their motivation because they could no longer train in groups. So, looking back, it was actually a fantastic time for me to choose strength coaching as my profession, and here was my biggest challenge. My biggest challenge was having the ability to recognize my worth and ask people for what I was worth. So before that, I would have done everything for Whitsunday Weightlifting, done a lot of coaching for nothing, because it's what I love.
Speaker 1:
When I no longer had the income of teaching and the security of teaching, I changed my Leanne stop and think how many years experience have you had in coaching human movement? And I really thought about it and I thought I've had 35 years experience. I am worth the money that I ask for from my clients. I am worth it because I have the experience. I am worth it because I have the experience, I have the knowledge, and not only that. I really do care about people's progress and making them, allowing them to see the best version of who they can be. So my biggest change of mindset going into the LK strength coaching was recognizing my worth.
Speaker 1:
So, in looking back at my Olympic weightlifting journey, my powerlifting journey, my world titles, the birth and development of LK strength coach, and taking on that new identity as a professional coach who is worth the remuneration, if that's what you want to call it, but I am worth the money that I'm asking. What are the three most important things that I identified with that kept me going through those 10 years of barbell training, barbell achievements, developing my new strength coaching business, taking myself seriously as a worthy coach, alongside all of those other coaches that I had worked with and looked up to, and I'm going to list those three things right now that you can use in your journey, in either training fitness, strength or whatever it is that you're striving to be your best at, or whatever it is that you're striving to be your best at. And my number one piece of advice to me, and, of course, the number one thing that I encourage everyone else to do, is to step back and remember why you started what you're doing. What do you actually love doing? Is it something that you would do without being paid? And I have the blessing of being in that industry for my entire life, from the age of 14 until now. I have had the opportunity and the privilege of being able to coach people in human movement, because that is what I love doing. So, love what you do, recognize what it is that you love about what you're doing, and taking out the word I have to do this and put in the word I get to do this, I have to coach or I get to coach. Which one sounds better to you? I have to coach four hours today or I have the opportunity to coach someone today and make their life better. So number one is remember your why and choose something that you truly do love doing.
Speaker 1:
My second piece of advice would be to focus on your wins. For so many years so many years of my barbell journey I would set a goal. I'd achieve the goal, I'd move to the next goal. Now, what's the problem with that? The problem with that whole process was I was not focusing on my wins. I didn't celebrate my wins. I'd achieve the goal and move to the next goal. I achieved the goal and moved to the next goal Instead of stopping, looking back where I started, recognizing where I was and taking the time to celebrate those wins. And in doing so, when you are celebrating your wins, you are not only recognizing your worth, recognizing your achievement, but it's giving you that inner strength and confidence in order to create that story that you are capable of anything that you set your mind to. And you're gathering that evidence by celebrating the wins. Here's the evidence I set this goal, I achieved this goal and I gave myself the time and the space to be happy for myself. And my number three way to continue to put in the reps and reach your goals would be to persist, keep turning up Day after day, keep putting in those reps, even when you feel as if you're not making any progress. You're not making any progress because the effort of turning up for yourself, believing your own story, creating that identity that you are worthy and you do deserve what you're working towards, is all contained within that word persistence. If you continue to persist and put in the reps, you're proving to yourself because that's the most important to prove anything to the most important person is to prove it to yourself that this is who you are. This is really important to you, really important to you, and remembering your why so persistence would be my third piece of advice Love what you do, focus on your wins, celebrate your wins and persist in putting in the reps.
Speaker 1:
So, moving along to the end of my three-part series, I'd like to discuss one more thing, and that is how have I shaped my coaching in my LK Strength coaching business? When you look at what I do and for those of you that haven't gotten to know what I do yet I actually coach two to 10-year-olds gymnastics. I coach 10-year-old and up Olympic weightlifting, strength and powerlifting. So I am coaching a lot of different populations of people. There's young, there's old. I even coach my mum, who started at the age of 70 and broke national records at the age of 72. Since then, my mum has had a shoulder replacement. She is now 76 and she's still going strong in the powerlifting world. In fact, she's going in her first competition since she's had her shoulder replacement in three weeks time.
Speaker 1:
So in coaching such a wide variety of populations, how do I cater to each of those? Because each of those niches have their own special challenges, their own needs, and some maybe they want to get stronger, some may want to do it just for the fun, some may be coming to me for weight loss, the younger children are developing their motor skills and they just want to play. So in saying that and recognizing the different elements of LK Strength Coach, I'm setting the scene for my next three-part series where I will let you in on my secrets on the different populations and how you obviously would fit into one of those populations. What are your specific needs in learning to be strong in body and mind? What have I found to be the most valuable for each of those populations? What have I found to be the most valuable for each of those populations and until then, stay strong and remember strong body, strong mind, until the day we meet the ground again. Bye.
