How my body works

Lauren Gray, curling

Lungs

We do conditioning twice a week, which is normally an hour of aerobic circuit training and it’s really intense. We do hard, short intervals because sweeping is like a sprint – it’s maximum 30 seconds and it’s a full-body exercise.

Shoes

The shoes are black leather, round-toed shoes that look a bit like a heavy-duty work shoe. They have a half-inch thick plastic sole to slide on one shoe and a rubber grip sole on the other. We have one slidey foot and one grippy foot.

Stone

The stones are the same in all competitions but some do have natural variation. It’s the role of the fifth member of the team to test the stones, throwing all the stones up the same line multiple times to see if there is any difference between them.

Brain

Our team works on the basis that we are four heads so we all bring our knowledge of different scenarios that we’ve been in and all contribute to tactical plays. Curling is likened to chess in that we are always thinking two or three steps ahead.

Legs

General strength and control is important for both the curling slide and sweeping so we need flexibility and strength. You need strength in your legs to hold the sliding pose and slide at the right pace. Curling is extremely taxing on the body.

Arms

You need to have strong arms and shoulders to sweep. When I’m in the sweeping position most of my bodyweight is over the brush head and I’m braced through my right shoulder. We lift weights three times a week and do pull-ups and bench presses.

Diet

Diet is important because of the amount of competing and training we do so we need to fuel. The one staple across the team is porridge – all of us constantly eat it no matter what the time of day. Morning, noon and night we eat it.

Stopwatch

We always have a stopwatch attached to our waist to time the speed of the stone. So if I’m sweeping, I’ll time the stone between two lines. It’s not an exact science but it will indicate to me what speed it’s travelling at rather than just my eye.

Broom

The broom gets more advanced every year and ours is now so light that you can balance it on one finger, but it’s made of carbon fibre so it doesn’t break. Each brush is standardised across all the teams, but each team member has their own.