A woman who ‘hated sport’ has transformed herself from a 7.5st weakling to world powerlifting champion in just 18 months.
Lucy Majury, of Aldershot, Hampshire, said the was the ‘laziest person you could ever meet’ at school, until climbing Mount Kilimanjaro triggered a love of the outdoors.
The 27-year-old decided to become a personal trainer, when a bout of deadly E.coli left her quarantined in hospital with extreme abdominal cramps.
She lost 1.5st, dropping to a meagre 7.5st, and struggling to put weight back on afterwards, could barely lift a 7kg (1st) barbell.
But in April 2013, she stumbled across CrossFit gym by chance, and found a whole new world of exercise that spurred her to get stronger and start weightlifting.
In just over a year and a half, she went from strength to strength, eventually winning international weightlifting championships, squatting more than 19st and lifting an astonishing 21st.
Miss Majury, who now weights 10.5st of lean muscle, said: ‘At school I was the laziest person you could ever meet.
‘I hated PE, and while I would go to the park with my friends, getting me to actually do sport was a nightmare.
‘I used to work for a leisure centre, too, and when I was given a free gym pass I actually turned my nose up at it.
She added: ‘Now, though, my entire life has been turned upside down in a very short space of time. I’m a completely different person.
‘I have no idea how far I can go in this sport but I’m determined to chase my dreams.’
Having graduated from Cardiff University, where she studied media and journalism, in 2009, Miss Majury still had little interest in hardcore fitness.
It wasn’t until she got a job working for a travel company in Mozambique that her career path took a different turn.
While in Africa she scaled the 19,341 ft Mount Kilimanjaro. And stepping-on to the summit of that Tanzanian peak kick-started a love affair with the outdoors.
Back in Britain, she went on to become a personal trainer after taking a fast-track, eight week course.
But even then she had little interest in extreme body workouts.
And in 2009, she suffered a crippling bout of E.Coli – a type of bacteria caught from contaminated food and water, and became so ill she was quarantined in hospital.
It also caused her to rapidly lose weight and then struggle to put it back on afterwards.
Wanting to become stronger, in August 2013, she paid a visit to a ‘CrossFit 1664’ gym, having driven past it for months wondering what was happening inside.
There, she discovered ‘a whole new world’, she said.
CrossFit is a franchised training school which bills itself as both a ‘physical exercise philosophy’ and ‘competitive fitness sport’.
It incorporates disciplines like metabolic conditioning, running, cycling, weightlifting and even gymnastics.
Miss Majury worked hard to gain muscle, and slowly became stronger and stronger.
By May 2014 she was placed 107th female in Europe in the CrossFit league, 24th in the UK, having competed in her second ‘open’ event. She was placed in the top 1000 the previous year.
And it was through her CrossFit colleagues that Miss Majury began powerlifting – a strength sport that sees competitors having three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts – the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Amazingly, she trained for just three weeks before scooping the British Records and just a few months before achieving the European and world powerlifting records.
She managed to bench press 65kg (10.2 stone), deadlift 135.5kg (21.3 stone) and squat 125kg (19.6 stone).
‘Nobody at the event could believe i’d only been lifting properly for around three weeks,’ she said.
‘I guess I was lucky that I had a good base strength from all the CrossFit training.
‘But I haven’t always been a budding athlete with rippling muscles and a strong physique – before starting CrossFit I couldn’t even lift a 7kg barbell.
‘Now my body pushes me on, even if my mind is telling me to stop.’
To maintain her frame Miss Majury eats three square meals a day, typically a chicken and vegetable dish served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
She snacks on bananas, apples and rice cakes.
She also credits her transformation on a natural blackcurrant supplement, called ‘CurraNZ’, which helped boost her performance and recovery.
She said: ‘I’d been able to increase my training and lifting workload significantly with the CurraNZ supplement – I’ve come to rely on its endurance and recovery actions, which made it possible to rapidly progress in powerlifting.’
Meanwhile her punishing weekly routine is not for the faint-hearted.
She said: ‘I’m up at 4.50am most mornings.
‘I’ll then do cardio training in the morning some days before seeing my first client as a personal trainer at 6am.
‘I’ll then eat breakfast before doing some Olympic lifting. I then teach a fitness class at 10am before training again.
‘I’ll then train again in the late afternoon before taking my evening clients. It’s only on a Sunday that I’ll take a complete rest.’
She says her muscular figure does attract ‘funny looks’ and people shout at her in the street – but she also receives compliments and requests for tips from people on social media.
‘I don’t really mind when people look. When I was super skinny people looked then, too, so you cant win either way,’ she said.
She added she constantly receives complimentary messages on social media, with women asking for training tips.
However, there is one downside to spending the majority of her time in the gym – finding Mr Right.
She said: ‘I’m single at the moment and It’s hard to find someone who understands my lifestyle.
‘I’m up at the crack of dawn, I go to bed early, I don’t drink at weekends, I’m strict with food and I work antisocial hours because of clients.
‘I’d rather put an extra 2.5kg of lifting on my tick list than go out and get hammered with my mates and waste the next day feeling hungover.
‘I did all that when I was at university, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
‘So, yes, it’s difficult to find a partner but I’m sure there’s someone out there who understands.’
THE BLACKCURRANT SUPPLEMENT THAT CLAIMS TO HELP BURN FAT
Miss Majury credits her success on a natural blackcurrant supplement called CurraNZ, which she says ‘keeps her ‘immune system ticking over’.
A recent study by the University of Chichester found that the supplement can help burn a third more fat than normal while exercising.
The tablets contain the extract of blackcurrants grown in unique conditions on New Zealand’s South Island.
CurraNZ claims the southern hemisphere’s intense UV light, stimulating them into producing unusually high levels of anthocyanins, pigments in the fruit’s skin responsible for their dark purple colouring.
Anthocyanins belong to group of flavonoids called ‘polyphenols’, which have previously been linked with prevention of cancer and heart disease.
Courtesy of: Daily Mail