Champion powerlifter Cass Pickard looks like the picture of health, but the Emerald mother-of-two says just a few short years ago that was not the case.
Pickard recently returned from the Commonwealth Powerlifting and Benchpress Championships in Canada, where she collected three gold medals and a bronze.
The achievement is made even more impressive when you consider that she only discovered powerlifting by accident after her two young children were born.
[I felt] the buzz, the sense of achievement, and I thought ‘I think I like this sport’.
Pickard said she gained a lot of weight after having her children, deciding to join the local gym to try and rebuild her self-confidence.
“Before kids I was a smoker. When I had the kids I gave up smoking and found a new love for food,” she said.
“I think with my son I hit 105 kilograms, and I’m five-foot-four, so I was nearly as wide as I was tall.
“[I thought] I don’t want to be unhappy and self-conscious about my body, so I made a decision [to go to the gym],” she said.
Pickard began working out regularly and after 12 months was approached by a woman at the gym.
“This strong looking lady walked past and came back and said to me, ‘You look like a powerlifter’ and I said ‘What’s a power lifter?’,” Pickard said.
The woman was former World Powerlifting champion Katrina Robertson, who explained that powerlifting involved three different lifts — a squat, a bench and a dead lift.
Robertson agreed to coach her and Pickard said she quickly found a love for the sport.
Five weeks after beginning training, Pickard took part in her first powerlifting competition in Townsville.
“[I felt] the buzz, the sense of achievement, and I thought ‘I think I like this sport’,” she said.
Unique training method a success
After Robertson moved away from central Queensland, Pickard began training on her own but found it difficult.
“I felt lost,” she said.
“I went from having this coach, this big figure sheltering me at competitions, to nothing.”
Sometimes, you’re like ‘I can’t be bothered going to the gym tonight, I’ve had a big day’ or whatever, but you’ve got to make yourself do it. I want to see results.
During a competition in Newcastle, she met Canberra-based trainer Joe Matthews who agreed to be her long-distance coach.
She said their unique arrangement worked well.
“Joe emails me my programs and so when I’m training I usually take my tripod and my iPad with me, and I tape all my big lifts and I email them to him.”
She said her coach would then critique her lifts and send her feedback.
“Anything I’m not sure of he’ll tape himself [doing it] and he’ll email it to me,” she said.
“I do work hard in the gym because it’s like he’s here, he’s seeing these lifts, you can’t cheat. At the end of the day you’re just cheating yourself.”
Pickard said it was difficult to fit training in around her children, her husband and her night-time job driving trucks in the mines, but the payoff was worth it.
“The kids do come first but I think you have to be happy with where you’re at … you have to have that time out from the children,” she said.
“Sometimes, you’re like ‘I can’t be bothered going to the gym tonight, I’ve had a big day’ or whatever, but you’ve got to make yourself do it. I want to see results.
“I want to be fit and strong for the children.”
Courtesy of: ABC News AU
