Stay strong, super nan
A Northland grandmother has swapped the knitting for powerlifting, writes Lee Umbers.
TRISH Muldrock had not picked up a dumbbell until she was in her 40s. But now, the grandmother is arguably the strongest woman pound-for-pound for her age on the planet.
At just 1.5m and about 46kg, the 61-year-old grandmother from Kaikohe in Northland can lift three times her body weight and has 21 world masters powerlifting championship gold medals and seven current world records.
Four of those golds and one of those records came last Sunday while she was competing in Estonia.
Muldrock discovered the sport by accident aged 42 when she visited a gym to support a shy friend.
‘‘It wasn’t me, I wasn’t interested. I didn’t know what a dumbbell, or a barbell, or a rep, or a set was,’’ she says.
But, after her talent was spotted by the gym owner Nev Couchman and training for about six months, she entered a Northland competition, ‘‘got hooked’’, and qualified for an Oceania contest later that year.
‘‘They said you better go away and train properly now.’’
Her husband, Vern Muldrock, 63, built a bench and squat rack for her to practice at their home at Kaikohe and at that first international-level competition, she won her weight class.
Last week’s contest in Estonia was her 10th world masters powerlifting championships. She has won gold in her last six.
Muldrock says she has always been strong for her size, and relished the outdoors life growing up in rural Ohaeawai. ‘‘I always loved swimming, running. I hated being inside, hated reading, couldn’t keep still.’’
At 20, she and Vern opened a dairy before running a motorcycle shop for 20 years, and raising two children.
Muldrock was 39 before she started playing any competitive sport but she quickly caught the bug.
‘‘I got bullied into playing hockey by some cousins who were desperately short in their team – and that was it,’’ she says.
By the next year, she was also a try-scorer on the wing for an Ohaeawai women’s rugby team, played touch and had completed a couple of triathlons.
But it is in powerlifting Muldrock has risen to the top of the world. Powerlifting comprises three events. The squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Muldrock says she enjoys the physical and mental demands.
‘‘It’s all about strength. It’s all about accomplishment. That great rush of satisfaction when you achieve what you’re trying to get.
‘‘It’s definitely a head sport though. If your head’s not in it, you’ve lost it.’’
Concentrating on family helps. ‘‘I’ll visualise Vern’s face because he used to help me when I first started lifting, he used to come to the comps. Never used to have to say much, just look at me, which meant, ‘Switch on and focus’.’’
Despite word of her feats of strength spreading, she says people are still often surprised at how small she is. ‘‘They would have read about me and know what I’ve done but they’ll get a bit taken aback, and think, ‘I didn’t realise you were so little’.’’
One fellow lifter nicknamed her Tux, joking that she didn’t look like she weighed much more than a bag of dog biscuits.
Muldrock trains five days a week, for up to two hours a time. The closer to competition time, the heavier the weights, the less repetitions and the longer the rests between lifts – up to five minutes to allow her body to recover and reset, such is the intensity required.
She has six meals a day – ‘‘A lot of meat, chicken and fish. Not much rubbish’’ – but has no trouble keeping down to contest weight. ‘‘Once you’ve got muscle on board, muscle requires more fuel.’’
Muldrock doesn’t smoke, hasn’t touched alcohol since she was in her 30s, and doesn’t take supplements. ‘‘Occasionally I’ll have the odd protein shake. I think it’s just about eating good.’’
As a national and international athlete she is subject to ‘‘pretty regular’’ drug testing .
‘‘You accept that’s part of your sport and you be very careful with what you take. I find it quite difficult to understand how people accidentally take something. You look at everything. If you’re not sure, you don’t take it.’’
Muldrock says she has never and would never take steroids. She condemns the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport as ‘‘straight out cheating’’.
She says the thrill of winning gold for her country is priceless, and
her grandchildren are hugely proud of her being a world champion.
Her eldest, 12-year-old Harry, is ‘‘real keen to have a go’’ when he is old enough to compete.
She hopes the sport will one day make the Olympics and thinks that time might not be too far away. She certainly plans to keep competing.
‘‘When I got close to 60, I thought I’ll do a few more years and then I might back off and retire. But I’m still enjoying it.
‘‘There’s a 70-year-old age bracket now, and we’ve got a guy in his 80s lifting in New Zealand. So as long as I’m enjoying it, I’ll keep going.’’