Watt is Lifting?

Heriot Watt Lifting Club is one of the newest HW sports union clubs brought to Oriam. Whether you’re just getting into fitness or you’ve had a lot of experience training, the HW Lifting Club has something for you. The club is comprised of two training disciplines. These are Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting.

Olympic Weightlifting

Olympic weightlifting is a sport whereby an athlete lifts a loaded barbell from the floor to an overhead position. The two competing lifts for the sport are the snatch and the clean and jerk. This sport is very technical and has a lot of room for growth.

Last year we had two members of the club go on to compete at ‘Scottish Universities’, one of whom joined the club not having tried the sport before.

Powerlifting

Similar to Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting is a strength sport in which an athlete commits maximal effort to each lift. The three lifts are squat, bench and deadlift. Last year we had 8 members who represented the club in competitions. These comps included Scottish Powerlifting Novice Comp, Scottish Universities and British Powerlifting Nationals.

Competitions

In competition for each sport, a lifter will have 3 attempts to gain as high of a total as possible over all lifts.  Both sports have amazing, supportive communities and all abilities are welcome! They’re a great way to introduce people to strength training, whether or not they want to compete. The lifting club is for anyone who wants to compete, wants to get stronger or just wants to try something new.

Coaches

Our coaches will assist both casual members and also competitive members.

Allen Brindley – Weightlifting Coach

“Hi, I’m Allen the Olympic Weightlifting Coach for the club. I will be the guy who will be teaching you the technique of the snatch and the clean and jerk. For those of you who are interested and have the competitive edge, I will be there to help you achieve your potential on the competition stage.
 
A little about myself, I have been weightlifting since I was 14 years old. Over the years I have had a number of high-level coaches whom I can draw experience from to help you the best way. All of which has led to two British records, and multiple Scottish records across both U23 and senior level over multiple weight classes. I am also on the Weightlifting Scotland Committee as the Director of PVGs. I have also represented Scotland at 2 Celtic Nations Championships.
 
At the end of the day, I will make sure you have fun smashing bars and crushing PRs.”

Mairi Scobie- Powerlifting Coach

“I first got involved in fitness back in 2015 where I joined a gym purely to lose weight and get fit. I lost 8/9 stone over 3.5 years and through that I was introduced to strength training. I absolutely loved it from the get-go!! One of my friends in the gym at the time competed in powerlifting and suggested I try a local open powerlifting comp. I competed for the first time in December 2018, then a further 4 times in 2019 including the British Junior Championships and have never looked back. I recently gained my qualifications in Personal Training and I’m still gaining qualifications in Exercise Referral and Level 4 Advanced Nutrition too. I work full-time in Content Marketing and do online coaching on the side too.”

Committee 23/24

Our committee is comprised of 8 key roles which help the club run smoothly. The roles include:

President – Sam Gibson (sg2028@hw.ac.uk)

Vice President – Fiona Macdonald (fm2030@hw.ac.uk)

Weightlifting Captain – Ethyn Smith (es137@hw.ac.uk)

Powerlifting Captain – Alex Raez (ar250@hw.ac.uk)

Socials Secretary – William Walker (ww2022@hw.ac.uk)

Social Media Secretary – Chloe Harris (ch2019@hw.ac.uk)

Treasurer – Jess Young (jy2008@hw.ac.uk)

Wellbeing Officer – (faea2000@hw.ac.uk)

Feel free to contact any member of our committee if you have any queries.

Socials

Along with our training, we also have a very active social side to the club. We have a range of socials from fun, interactive socials to more relaxed social events. We try and find something for everyone to enjoy and love hearing the ideas of our club members and incorporating them into our socials. We aim to help build friendships and trust and create a strong community in our club sessions, which extends out to our socials.

Our club email is also:

sl2095@hw.ac.uk

Instagram:

@Hwuliftingclub