blog
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for being here.
I like to write a lot. Mostly about powerlifting, strength training, body image + women in sport. They’re kinda my things.
If you ever have questions or want to learn more, please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
Billie x
What Living On The Other Side of The World From My Brick and Mortar Business Has Taught Me About Business.
I’ve spoken reasonably openly about how much work was involved in setting up TSF for us to be able to step out for a year. It’s no exaggeration when I say it took us all of 2022. Now I’m not dumb and I’m not completely ignorant, but nothing could have prepared me for how hard I found those initial months away from TSF. I knew this year would be a huge year of growth, but I didn’t quite anticipate the growth I’d move through as a business owner, and as an employer too which is still a reasonably new role for me. So here’s a couple of key lessons in business that have been pretty fucking life changing for me this year.
Training & Long Term Travel
I received a message on Instagram the other day about navigating training and travel — specifically, navigating less predictable training set ups and the psychology around the fear of losing gains. Yes yes, hugely luxe problems. But certainly problems that can plague us when we have passions that are largely at odds.
I love training, I love routine, I love consistency, I love being in control. But I also like everything that opposes that — having no idea what I’m doing tomorrow, what hour I’ll get in tonight (tomorrow morning?), where I’ll sleep tonight. I’m willing to trade off on gains in order to enjoy this side of my personality, but certainly I am constantly engaged with ongoing problem solving to give me the best possible enjoyment of both of my loves.
In this article I talk about both the practical and the emotional aspects of training and long-term travel. I’ll offer personal experience and practical advice on how to best manage training while also letting your hair down af.
Average Days Happen On Average.
Nerves and anxiety on competition day are entirely normal. Wanting to PB your total on the platform — also entirely normal. While heading in to a competition with big goals and dreams and plenty of nerves to accompany those are almost entirely universal experiences, our ability manage and channel those emotions vary a stack. It can be the difference between a stellar performance and shitting the bed.
I talk about competition day psychology with my team a lot. And while each lifter experiences competition day differently and comes to sporting competition with their own lived experiences, many of the challenges they experience are much the same. Many I have lived before too.
Why I Compete in Powerlifting.
This year will be my eighth year competing in powerlifting. Eight years of this niche sport. I’m not elite, I don’t get paid, I compete entirely recreationally. And still, I see so much value in pouring a stack of my time, effort and energy in to participating. I derive a huge amount of enjoyment and fulfilment from powerlifting, which has only increased over my years of involvement.
So here are four reasons why I still compete in powerlifting after all these years (and admittedly after numerous claims of retirement).
Life Trade Offs
Trade offs need to be discussed more, particularly so at this time of year when we’re evaluating our lives, setting goals, making changes for the year ahead. Your time and energy is finite. In order to do more of something, you have to do less of something else.
When I’ve spoken about trade offs previously, and realistically when anyone in health and fitness talks about trade offs, they do so through the lens of achieving some sort of health/fitness goal. If you want to lose weight, you need to trade off some take out meals. If you want to get stronger, you need to pass on some time with friends to spend more time in the gym, etc etc.
I want to talk about trade offs through an alternate lens. This is where I’m at in my life right now.
Should I Cut Weight For My First Competition?
Anytime anyone considers their first powerlifting competition one of the questions they are most plagued with early on is which weight class to enter. At a local level (which is what your first competition will be), the weight class you register for literally does not matter. IE, if I register for the 67.5kg weight class, but on the day I weigh in at 68.0kg, it bears no implication. I will simply be entered in to the weight class above (75kg).
But Billie, won’t you be less competitive in that weight class? Well yeah, but also, not important. Or at least, this is much less important than a stack of other factors that I consider in the context of a first competition.
So should I cut weight for my first competition? My answer to this question will almost always be no. Here’s why.
What I’ve Learned and How I’ve Grown in 10 Years in the Fitness Industry
I completed my fitness certs in 2012. That’s 10 years ago. I remember back then reading the Fitness First personal trainer bios: “10 years industry experience” and thinking “man this guy is a veteran”. lol.
My career has evolved a lot in that time. As I’ve chased curiosities and interests; my work has reflected that. I’ve learned a lot in my time in fitness and I feel my biggest challenges and lessons are only coming now.
10 years in, I still have a very fulfilling career in a pretty brutal industry, I am still learning and I am still having fun. I think there’s something in that worth sharing. So here goes — lessons I’ve learned and lessons I’m still learning in my 10 years in the fitness industry.
Spanish Youth Mobility Visa / Spanish Working Holiday Visa for Aussies — What I Wish I Knew.
First of all, I do want to acknowledge how off topic this article is. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you can probably skip this one. But, if you have just stumbled on this article while googling Spanish working holiday visas, then hola, bienvenido, esto es para ti. The Spanish Youth Mobility visa was not easy to get and I would have killed for some help getting this across the line. Hopefully this is helpful for you.
What it’s taken to spend a year abroad.
We started assembling the pieces of the “year in Spain” puzzle in January of this year. Setting our lives up to permit us to step away for a year has been so hard.
I wanted to write this primarily for my own reflections. I’ve stared down unreasonably long to-do lists every day for the last eleven months. It’s easy to never look back and see that you’ve actually completed each item on them, so I did want to do that for myself. Secondly though, I love hearing insights from other business owners, the behind the scenes stuff that is rarely shared. I suspect that someone will enjoy or get something out of this, so why not make it public.
So here goes, what we’ve done in 2022 to permit us to spend 2023 in España.
Persevering in Powerlifting & Navigating Low Motivation
I’ll be the first person to tell you that my love for lifting has been tested at times; that showing up has gotten hard, many times over. But even so, I have consistently resistance trained for over ten years now. A few breaks for travel, but otherwise 3-4 days per week for the last ten years.
I’ve not always trained extremely hard, I’ve not always trained for a heap of hours at a time, and lifting has not always been overly salient in my life, but I’ve always showed up. And because of that fact I have continued to improve — improve my skill, improve my strength and improve my toughness in persevering through those harder periods.
There are a few tools, strategies and trains of thought that I’ve adopted over the years to stop me from losing my mind when I feel like I’m falling out of love with lifting. Right now I’m feeling pretty disenchanted with training. That’s been the case for a few months now. But never do I catastrophise and think that my powerlifting career is coming to an end; and never do I throw in the towel and stop training altogether. Here is what helps me with that.
Intangible gains - reflections from and about my more resilient brain.
I am an anxious person. Dreading things I enjoy because I expect the worst case scenario to play out is a special skill of mine. Getting in my own head to derail my performance on important days, also something I’m really good at.
I’ve gotten a heap better at this though which I am extremely proud of. I’ve never been more excited for a comp as I was for this one, and every time I compete I have more fun than the time before. That has not been by accident. I’ve worked really hard on this.
So, here’s some lessons that I’ve learned to manage my brain that I think are really valuable.
It took me five years to add 2.5kg to my total. Here’s what I learned.
In 2015, I put up a 347.5kg total. It was my first year of powerlifting and my second competition. Five years later in 2020, I finally registered a new PB total of 350kg. There were significant ups and downs across that five year period: great training blocks, horrendous ones, weight gain and loss, success in some lifts, major regression in others, injury and recovery, breaks from competition and breaks from structured powerlifting training altogether.
I am in hindsight appreciative of this experience: I’ve matured considerably as a lifter and just in general; powerlifting has taken up a really nice spot in my life among numerous other activities and pursuits that are meaningful to me; I’m a more compassionate coach and training partner. I’ve learned a number of lessons that I believe are immensely valuable for anyone experiencing their own seemingly endless training plateau.
So, on top of that whopping 2.5kg that I slapped on my total, here are some valuable insights I gained over this recent five year period.
Your Fear Of Weight Gain Is Holding You Back
You want bigger glutes, you want more muscle tone, you want a bigger squat and you want to look like the fit girls and guys on the gram? There’s definitely a few factors feeding into why you haven’t yet achieved these things and one of those factors is very likely your intense aversion to weight gain.
Powerlifting, Plant-Based Diets & Macro-Tracking: Tips for Women Who Want to Lift Heavy & Eat Less Meat!
I was recently invited for a virtual interview with The Strength Dietitian, Valentina Duong — someone whom I admire immensely. We spoke about (as the name suggests) powerlifting, plant-based diets and macro tracking. She and I share many similar views on the role of nutrition in strength sports, recreational sports and maintaining a high quality of life. With her thought provoking questions, I really enjoyed this interview.
How To Get The Most Out Of A Coach
The relationship between coach and client can be a pretty damn special one. I’m fortunate to work with some damn wonderful people among my team with whom I have really beautiful connections and achieve some pretty awesome outcomes. I also have a wonderful relationship with my own coach. He is a great friend to me and has and continues to play a huge role in shuttling me towards my own goals. But none of this has happened by accident or without significant effort from both parties. It takes a lot from both coach and client to move towards the desired outcome in a way that is enjoyable and at a rate that is deemed acceptable.
Which raises the question — as a client, how do you get the most out of a coach?
Post-Competition Reflection
Despite that fact that I compete in powerlifting very recreationally, I do take my preparation and performance quite (very) seriously. I really love powerlifting as an avenue of self improvement. While the objective goal is more weight on the bar, to me the more meaningful goal is becoming a better person in the pursuit of that — and that comes from self reflection and holding myself to a consistently high standard.
After each comp, I send my coach a debrief on everything I thought I did well, could do better, what went well, ideas I have, things I want to do for fun, etc. It’s positive for me personally in getting some closure on the day and identifying areas and means for improvement, but it also gives coachy guidance too. He knows where I want to go, what I’m willing and not willing to do to get there and demonstrates that I want to collaborate with him.
In this article I share here how I personally reflect on my competition preparation and performance in the hope that it may prompt some thought in you on how to get more out of your training and competition experiences.
10 Things I've Learned In Five Years Of Vegetarianism
It’s five years this month since I started removing meat from my diet. Mind blowing to me. I do get asked a lot about my diet — how to go about cooking, socialising, training, getting enough protein, supplementing, etc. They are all great and important questions. In this article, I’ll go through some of the most valuable things I’ve learned in the last five years, relating to training, performance, body composition, health, creating change and not burdening everyone around you with god-forbid your ethics.
Quit Majoring in the Minors. What Actually Matters for Strength Development?
If there is one thing that gym-goers do really well, it’s major in the minors. You know, have a $500 supplement stack but squat high. Have carbs and protein within 15 minutes of every training session but eat nothing more than a tall latte and a sushi roll outside of that. Wear blue light glasses before bed every night because #recovery but also take a week off training every month for the same reason.
So much time, money and effort is wasted on misguided training and nutrition interventions.
I Want To Build Muscle Without Gaining Fat...
Attempting to build muscle and drop fat at the same time is a pretty inefficient pursuit. So then, if you can’t do both at the same time, how can you at least build muscle without gaining fat?
In short, it’s still gonna be a damn inefficient pursuit, probably not worth pursuing.
Plant Based Diet Hacks
I went grocery shopping with my best friend the other day. She watched the new David Attenborough documentary “A Life On Our Planet” recently and has since been reducing her meat consumption. I was talking her through each product as I threw it in my trolley, commenting on how much protein is in each and how I cook them or work them in to my day. She made the comment of “damn, you know all the hacks.” And on reflection, I fucking do. So here they are.