Ben is the final lifter for this series this week. Big, blond, looks a bit like Hunter from Gladiators. 
I know Ben through Charles. He was one of Charles's students in his martial arts class and was interested in powerlifting, and so the connection was made. 

Luckily, Ben hasn't had the injury issues that the other two guys have had. Which means that our training has basically been focused on just getting him stronger. 
So far, Ben has competed at the North West Bench Competition, where he got a 132.5kg bench press and a silver medal. Following this, he competed at the North West Novice and Masters with Charles and Karen where he got: a squat of 137.5kg, a bench of 132.5kg and a 200kg deadlift.
The video above shows Ben tripling 135kg on squat, 120kg on bench and 185kg and deadlift. All of this is positive and he's definitely on course for some personal bests this Sunday. 

I hope you've enjoyed the Lifter series of the client round up. I may return with some other clients. 

Now for the 'Girl' of '2 Guys, a Girl and a Gym' - we have Karen. While Karen is now a powerlifter she has come a long way. She came to me with bad pain in both of her knees and she's now on her way to doing her second powerlifting competition. So if you have an injury, or have had a few niggles over the years, this maybe a good one for you to read.

The problem that Karen had was that she had pain in the knees of both legs but was given next to no advice on how to improve it. This meant that she would struggle to deal with the pain from simple acts such as walking. One physio going as far as to tell her that she should "see walking as a leisure habit, rather than an every day thing." 
She decided to try the gym to see if that would help her, however, she did not have a good experience at first.  Her first experience with a personal trainer was one who didn't listen to her issues and only compounded the problem. - 

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We spent a long time working purely with machines so that we could strengthen her thighs without putting undue pressure on her knees. It was after doing this for a while that Karen enquired about starting powerlifting and she hasn't looked back since.
We still have the occasional issue with her being worried about her knees mid squat, but the improvement has been massive this far.  However, with some care, a lot of hard work (both from her and myself, at times) and some self belief she has improved massively and the knee issues are largely a thing of the past. 

If you want to know more about this or get into the team training sessions, why not send me a message at - coaching@dannyleeonline.co.uk. 

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Sunday the 19th of February is the North West Team Challenge. In which, I am competing along with my 3 clients who are in a team of their own, namely - '2 Guys, a Girl, and a Gym.' 
In the build up to it I decided to do a few clients profiles so that you could see who the lifters are and how far they've come in their training and in powerlifting in general. 

So, first up we have Charles Jupiter - 

I first met Charles in 2003 when we used to do Wing Tchun together in a small hall in Wavertree. We lost touch for years and then I started working in LA Fitness (later became Sports Direct Fitness) in 2013. It was only after he was telling me a story about when girls were first allowed into Blue Coat School that I realised I'd heard the story before, and it was him who had told me it a decade previous. 

Charles was already fairly strong at this point, squatting around 140kg, benching around 75kg and deadlifting 165kg. After the first few months of training he got upto a 205kg deadlift. 

He entered the Lancashire and Cheshire Powerlifting Competition in May of 2015 but then had to pull out due to injury. He was then set to enter the Novice Competition that year but ended up having to stay in Japan with his martial arts class.
It was October of this year that he succumbed to a severe back injury, which negatively affected his training for months. It wasn't until the June of 2016 that he tried his hand at lifting again where he managed a 140kg squat and a 160kg deadlift in one of my team sessions.  It was from this stage that we built up towards the Novice and Masters Competition of 2016. 

He managed to improve upon his comeback in June with a 165kg squat, 90kg bench press and a 200kg deadlift. His performance is part of this video here - 

In the buildup to this competition he has had another little injury which has affected his shoulder. So bench has had to take a little bit of a back burner but the squat and deadlift are coming a long really nicely! 

You can see his performance at today's team training below. He managed 160kg x 3 on squat, and 185kg  x 3 on deadlift. Both of these weights are around his second attempt at his previous competition, so he's in a fantastic position to get some personal bests! 

If you have any questions or coaching enquiries message me via email at coaching@dannyleeonline.co.uk. 

So, here we are in the early stages of 2017 and it has been busy.  What's happened to make me so busy you may wonder, well - 

• More regular 1:1 clients
• Regular articles are being written and shared (which you can find here and here)
• I have created another branch to the business - 'Daniel Lee Media', which will focus upon the content creation side of things - ie, articles, infographics, videos etc. 
• I, and some of my clients, and basically the whole gym, are competing at this month's Team Challenge. 

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​I want to expand a bit on that last point. I'm competing but I've spent the last year injured so I'm just looking forward to a return to the platform.  My clients are also competing, well 3 of them are. Their team '2 Guys, a Girl, and a Gym,' consists of Charles Jupiter, Karen Molden and Ben Cook, who are all looking to push on after their great performances in the North West Novice Competition in October of 2016. 

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The video above only shows examples of Charles' and Karen's squats but I can assure you Ben is doing well also. The three of them look as though they are on their way to some good competition personal bests. However, the Team competitions are always a good, relaxed day so they will at least enjoy the day immensely. 

Onwards and upwards from all here at 'Daniel Lee Online'! Thanks for reading.