Member Inspiring Story – Jane Redgwell – From Deadlifting Novice to 85kg PB

We love hearing from members about their fitness goals and journeys, so we were very grateful to member Jane Redgwell for sharing her particularly inspiring story. Jane and her husband have been members with us for several years now, but she has recently been trying to up her fitness game as she was planning for a hip replacement and needed to be below the surgical BMI before the procedure.  Jane got in touch with our personal trainer Shanice in November 2022 to begin her fitness journey. After some months of training, focusing on correct technique and strengthening exercises Jane was really excelling and achieved her first target of a 60Kg deadlift early in 2023 and was up to 70Kg by May.

Shortly afterwards, Jane noticed that The Fitness Collective in Bedford were running a Deadlifting Competition, which was fundraising for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). This particularly resonated with Jane as they tragically lost their son Luke to a cardiac arrest at just 33 years old just over 12 months ago.  One of the charity’s main goals is to improve cardiac screening for 14–34 year-olds, which understandably Jane now feels extremely passionate about.  So, despite being a complete novice to competitions and in her words a “slightly older lady” she signed herself up and serious training commenced.  Sadly, Shanice picked up a shoulder injury prior to the competition and so PT Steve took over and helped with Jane’s preparation.

Fitness challenges can really help drive us and focus our efforts to achieve but we often need a little help along the way.  This is particularly the case with something like deadlifting, where getting things right is really important to ensure success and avoid injury. Jane had already been making great progress but having the competition in the diary really helped increase her motivation once more and channel her energy.

Steve and Jane spent a lot of time building upon the deadlifting technique, and really stepping up the strength and conditioning work.  With a relatively short time period left to prepare, Jane was focused and committed and she hit the agreed targets leading up to competition day. She also swam regularly when not in the gym to complement the training.

Jane was certainly nervous heading into her first competition, but all the months of training and dedication really paid off as she went on to achieve a personal best of 85kg at the competition in early October, which was absolutely brilliant.  Along with her personal success, the event also raised over £1,200 for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and created awareness for the charity too.  Jane wants to thank Steve and Shanice for their support and encouragement.

She now has, without doubt, the deadlifting and exercise bug and Steve has already tasked her with her next set of goals, which he has no doubt she will achieve. She is a real-life example to anybody looking to try a new form of training and exercise and we hope others can take inspiration from her achievements.

Deadlifting has lots of misconceptions around it, and many people fail to understand the benefits, so we asked Steve to share some information on it, which he has done below:

Deadlifting is an exercise that involves picking up a training tool from the floor by bending at the hips, whilst maintaining a braced neutral spine.  It is a compound exercise, meaning it recruits several large muscles in the lower and upper body, as well as the core.

Deadlifting is suitable and adaptable for all fitness levels.  Some of the key health benefits include:

– Increased metabolism

– Improved bone strength

– Reduced lower back pain

– Increased hip stability

– Improved posture 

If you’d like to find out more about deadlifting and how to incorporate that into your exercise routine, Steve and Shanice are available for personal training and can be contacted at www.clubtowers.com/personaltrainers.

Well done again to Jane and thank you so much for sharing your inspiring story with us!