'Weightlifting Changed My Life!'

Helen Denton, 40, avoided the weights room at the gym... until she discovered she was just as strong as everyone else

- Frances Leate

 

Before

Jumping into the car to pick up my daughter, Jordan, 13, from her afterschool club I felt my hips ache. ‘Ouch!’ I cried. My son, Daniel, 11, who was with me, joked. ‘You’re getting old, Mum.’ It was October 2015 and I’d been getting a strange twinge in both hips for weeks, so I went to the doctor.

‘It’s normal aches and pains for someone of your size,’ my doctor explained. I couldn’t deny it, I had put on weight. As a busy mum of two, working full-time as a senior supervisor at a local school, I didn’t think much about the food I ate and I’d often skip meals, gorging on huge, stodgy dinners to make up for it. Now, I weighed just under 15st and was a dress size 18. ‘Why don’t you try the gym?’ my doctor suggested.