Hampshire Life: February 2019 (^) 35
FITNESS
Back in 2012, at the age of 40,
Beverley (Bev) Rodgers from
Basingstoke was made redundant.
This pivotal moment made her re-
evaluate her life choices and face the
realisation that she was really quite
unhappy with her weight and lack of
fitness.
“I chose to invest some of my
redundancy pay-out into hiring a
Personal Trainer to whip me into
shape,” explains Bev, who was
quickly won over by the benefits of
lifting weights.
“When you first start weight
training, you have the ability to make
improvements very quickly as your
nervous system becomes more
adept at the movements involved
with your exercise. This provides a
feeling of huge achievement, which
for me, was very empowering as a
woman.”
After a few months of weight
training, her PT suggested that
Bev should consider competing in
Powerlifting. “Obviously I laughed
in his face!’ said Bev, “After all, why
would a 40-year-old woman want to
take up Powerlifting?”
Fortunately, it did pique Bev’s
interest and she set off to a
competition in Bournemouth to do
some research.
“It was a real eye opener for me as
I quickly realised that the numbers
I was hitting in the gym on my lifts
would have me placing quite high,
and even put me within reach of
some of the Divisional and National
records!
“Whilst I was always very sporty as
a kid, I just became lazy as an adult,
but this was enough to re-ignite that
competitive side in me and before
you knew it I had entered my first
competition.”
After winning the British Masters
title in 2014, Bev was invited to
represent Team GB at the World
Classic Powerlifting Championships
in South Africa.
“I had no idea what to expect, but
we had a great team of coaches to
support the lifters and with their
experience and guidance I managed
to achieve personal bests in all three
disciplines and to my amazement,
walk away with the Bronze for the
Benchpress.”
Since then, Bev has competed
in European, World and
Commonwealth Championships in
Luxembourg, Belarus, Finland and
Canada, winning further medals and
taking Commonwealth Gold and
the Commonwealth Benchpress
record in 2015 and European Gold
in 2018 at the Equipped Benchpress
Championships.
With benefits such as building
strength; losing body fat; increasing
bone density; creating a more
athletic body; lowering stress levels
and increasing confidence – it’s no
wonder women who lift wax lyrical
about it. The age-old fear of ‘bulking
up’ is also slowly shifting.
“I like to see the look on people’s
faces when I tell them I am a
powerlifter,” says Bev. “I think many
people still expect women who say
they lift to look big and bulky, but
in reality women just don’t naturally
have the hormonal makeup for
that to happen without assistance,
especially if they couple that with
good nutrition.”
WOMEN WHO LIFT
GIVE IT A GO
“The weights room can be very daunting for a woman who has not trained in
that way before. It is very easy to injure yourself if you don’t know how to lift
with good technique, so a coach will be able to teach you to perform the lifts
safely. There are also more and more weights based classes/group sessions
popping up that offer introductory offers/free sessions as a taster so you can
get the benefit of training with like-minded women in a safe and welcoming
environment.”
Bev currently trains clients out of Complete Performance gym in Basingstoke and
also runs a Ladies only Barbell class twice a week, with the first session free to
encourage more ladies to give it a go! Find her on Facebook at B-Fit with Bev
the BarreConcept Method says,
“Barre classes can often bring
a breath of fresh air to Pilates
studios, and attract new clients
searching for the next new
trend. Many celebrities in the US
are doing it, such as Madonna
and Kelly Osbourne, which
has increased the popularity
of barre training. But for me,
Barre workouts combine the
fun of working with music from
the Jane Fonda era with the
intelligence of today’s knowledge
of physiology and biomechanics.
“Yoga can often lack the core
strength of Pilates, whereas
Pilates is not as good as yoga
for stretching and flexibility
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