Want to be like or learn how to lift like your favourite fitness instagrammer? There are some great coaches and athletes working out of and training at SYNERGI! We thought we would give you a little dose of inspiration, by sharing a bit about one such weightlifter and coach, who has been on the road to the championships.
Balancing coaching and competition
Rhodri is no ordinary gym-goer. It was quite clear when our team met up with him at SYNERGI as he interacted with the youth lifters during the 4:30pm Youth Weightlifting session on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Cardiff Metropolitan University student is also a coach at SYNERGI Weightlifting Club, where he started training and coaching over a year ago. SYNERGI gave him the supportive environment he felt was necessary to achieve his goals of becoming stronger both physically and mentally as an athlete and coach.
Rhodri has competed in the 2016 European Under 17 championships, The World Youth Championships in Malaysia, Welsh Championships and British Championships – amassing over 20 medals in his competitive career spanning just over 4 years.
Rhod’s Advice
These are Rhod’s top three tips for anyone with that burning desire to get into competition:
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Don’t ever give up. It will be tough and there will be times when you feel like quitting but remember why you got into it [weightlifting] in the first place. No great achievement ever comes easy.
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Set yourself goals – long, medium-term and short term ones and work towards achieving them
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Don’t feel pressured with a timeline. Making ‘personal bests’ take hours of training, trying and failing but just keep at it.
Rhodri is working towards competing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. His best lifts are a 125kg Snatch and 145kg Clean & Jerk. Rhodri reminds us that it’s all in the mind:
‘Being Strong is having the correct mind-set and attitude towards your training, not taking it too seriously but having a bit of fun as well, to achieve the targets and goals that you want’.
A word on mental health in tough times
Being a champion will require you to fight many battles on and off the competitive stage. No amount of training could prepare Rhodri for the news he received just before going into the British University Championships on the weekend of April 13, 2019. He received news that his Dad was very ill. This was a very stressful time for the athlete but he channelled his feelings into doing his best for his Dad;
“I still insisted on competing on the weekend…the main goal was just doing my dad proud…whenever I was walking out to the bar and onto the stage, it was seeing my dad and lifting the bar and celebrating with him and hopefully doing him proud”.
No matter what your challenge is on or off the stage, you can overcome it. If writing a message to yourself on your weightlifting shoes is what you need to do as Rhodri did (collecting a bronze medal), then do it! But always remember that the road to the championships is no walk over. Stay the course!
