Vegan veteran lifter snatches more records

Competing in Brisbane at an all-women meet, Glenda would have been unopposed in her category as she was the oldest lifter of the twenty competing, although she did have records to aim for. The recently retired 62 year old entered the open category with no age restrictions instead.

In the eleven weeks since the last competition Glenda’s approach has been measured. “I had six weeks of light squats, bench and deadlifts but concentrated on heavy leg press, rows, bicep and tricep work that didn’t impact so much on my spine, shoulder and knee.

“The past five weeks I added rapidly increasing weight to my comp lifts and 2 weeks out had a mini strength test which was my 3 attempts in the squat and bench and less for the deadlift. The last two weeks I did only 60% of my One Rep Maximum. I have had two treatments of Plasma Rich Platelets injected into my knee and shoulder and fluid drawn off my knee twice since last Comp.”

Weighing in at 60.55kgs in the 64kg open class, Glenda started well, registering three good Squats and a new national record of 115kg, breaking her own record by 2kg.

Turning to Bench she lifted 52.5 and 55 kg before attempting 57 which would have been a new record, but was not given a good lift. “I locked it out but had a foot call…but that lift was much better than last Comp.”

Better was to come.

“Deadlifts were amazing!” she says. "I got 127.5/137.5/148.5 and a new National M3 record.”

“Also those lifts got me the new National M3 total record of 318”.

This also meant that Glenda won the Open 64 kg weight class, beating women much younger than her.

I increased my last total by 7kgs.

Taking the records

“I went in to get four records and got three – I nearly got that bench!” Glenda reflected later. “I was confident in squat, not sure of bench and pretty confident of deadlift. I wanted that deadlift so badly.”

"I'm so thrilled I was sobbing"

As well as training her lifts, Glenda has made sure she’s been eating well.

“My nutrition was mostly as normal as I had all my food at my disposal and we had cooking facilities with us. Just tofu, fresh veggies in the air fryer and steamer and some fruit with plant protein. Probably ate a bit more though. More coffees. We had to travel for 1600 kms to get to the destination with a new camper trailer and the two whippets. I trained on the way up at AnyTime fitness gyms that I joined prior to have access.”

Next for Glenda is a break – but not retirement.

“I’m not planning my next Comp until well into next year. Our Masters Championships are in Cairns in Queensland in June 2019 so 3000 kms or so from my home!

“I’d say that’s my next challenge so in the mean time will try get this knee and shoulder bit better.”

Glenda turned vegan in 2016. "I discovered PETA and I began to read about all aspects of animal agriculture and all the cruelty related to use of animals in entertainment, products, testing etc. I was horrified and began sharing these things. I was privately contacted by a vegan Powerlifting friend who reached out to me and gave me some information so I thought, I want to do this. I’m just being a hypocrite to continue being an omnivore now that I knew the facts.

“So I did 4 months of research and I stopped eggs and dairy then after I competed in USA I went vegan. I didn’t want to fail and going overseas I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be so I waited until I got back. It’s been easier than I ever imagined.”

Glenda’s Profile

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