Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Women can power way forward now
MORE women are taking up weights training as the benefits become better known, Lucille Rowan said.
The Commonwealth medal-winner said 14 were on the Northern Ireland powerlifting team and many were recent converts.
She added: “The day that I lifted 95 kilos, on the first day, I knew I liked it and I knew I would not ever be doing much more cardio after that, I got the bug that day and just have been lifting since.
“It empowers you.”
Conor Gelston who runs her gym in Annacloy, near Downpatrick, Co Down, added: “Years ago women were intimidated to go into a weights room because there was nothing but fellas.
“Now people are coaching in private studios there are a lot more.” A POWERLIFTING teacher from Northern Ireland has conquered the world just a year after first picking up a weight.
Lucille Rowan celebrated after winning three Commonwealth medals in South Africa earlier this year.
The 50-year-old teaches maths at St Malachy’s High School in rural Co Down and trains in a small, no-frills gym in an industrial estate.
She said: “I did not actually know I was strong until I came in here and the weights just went up and up.”
She took up the sport aged almost 49 after feeling she was losing a bit of her strength and wanting to get toned up.
She had practised yoga so knew she had good flexibility.
Lucille added: “The weights just went up and up until Conor [her coach] decided, seven weeks after I lifted my first weight in here in the powerlifting, I was in a competition – after seven sessions.”
In her first competition she broke her personal bests and the following February set Northern Ireland records.
By September this year
ON HER WEIGHTLIFTING SUCCESS