Injuries - The Sharon edition

Well they are a load of nonsense aren’t they?

Most people don’t care about powerlifting but those that do it often care about it passionately and an injury can feel like a devastating blow, but the reality is that when you push your body to its limits sometimes it breaks.

For a lot of us powerlifting has been a saviour in times when the noise in your head can be too much. A place you go where you set everything aside, the world goes quiet and it’s just you and the weight on the bar and suddenly that’s ripped away, your body isn’t cooperating. What a load of bollox. This is where the real test as a lifter starts. You can rebuild or you can quit.

My injuries -

I’ve had a few minor ones but the two biggest ones that have impacted me quite a lot are a broken humerus and a partial lateral pec tear both done benching.

When I broke my arm, there was signs that potentially things weren’t right, but I was coming up to a competition  and being the typical powerlifter, I assumed I had a bit of tendonitis and carried on as normal, admittedly with a few more pain killers and sports massages than normal.
Well as it turns out, I had a stress fracture already that I was unaware of. Probably caused by the fact I’m a clumsy cow who fell down the stairs a few weeks prior!

The day of the competition came. Everything was going beautifully, bench was feeling pretty damn good! Then I made the fateful decision to take a 4th at 140kg to extend a record further. This was the lift that my arm finally decided it had enough and it snapped, I’m glad it happened in competition. The speed of the spotters that day was unreal! All I knew is I heard a noise (which was my arm breaking) and suddenly the bar was being pulled off me within seconds and suddenly my arm was not working properly, just hanging there like a limp noodle.

This injury was mentally very tough, I can’t deny it. I questioned what I’d done wrong endlessly, why was I such a failure as a lifter to manage to do this to myself. As stupid as it sounds I felt like a failure and somehow I’d let everyone down. These thoughts plagued me for quite sometime.

Adam (Hindle, coach and fellow Elitefts Lifter) naturally sprang into action as he always does! Outlining a rehab plan for the coming months to get me back to my best again and he managed to keep my fire burning for powerlifting by making my rehab fun and challenging. (he’ll do a separate post explaining the rehab breakdown from his perspective).

Rehab commenced and in turn I realised I had developed a fair amount of fear with lifting, I’d lost trust in my body.
What if it broke again?
What if I’d need more surgery?

I knew I had to push through these thoughts if I wanted to get back to competing. So many times I went into sessions terrified, heart beating out of my chest and each session that went well I felt a little bit of confidence return each time. But it was at times exhausting fighting against my own thoughts. 

I competed before the Dr’s wanted me to. I needed to do it, I had to return to the platform to help me get over it. I was so lucky that I was surrounded by friends that day, I cried at the end of it with relief. Nikki’s hand probably went numb I was holding it so tight at some points. We’d done it! We’d made it back!

I competed again and hit my biggest total to date. Confidence was almost returned then I partially (luckily) blew out my pec in a training session. To say I was devastated was an understatement. I couldn’t even face telling anyone besides my very close friends about it because that feeling of failure was ever present again.

That was the time I actually discussed quitting powerlifting with my mum. That woman hates me being injured and doesn’t give two shits about powerlifting but supports my love of it.
She said - “Sharon, I support you, but I know you. If you quit now you’ll regret it, giving up when things get hard isn’t in your nature. You can get over this, quit when you’re ready to quit, not now.”

And if you follow me, you know I didn’t quit, along with Adam we got back to work chasing the 600kg total I’d been after for a while.

So we rehabbed again. We’re rebuilding again. Bench isn’t quite where I want it to be and that’s ok. With Adam at the helm coaching and some help from Emma Ylitalo-James around the mental aspect of lifting prep, we got ready for the WRPF pro.
Adam knew my struggles with my fear around lifting and at the beginning of prep he laid out how hard this one was going to be, I’d need to be brave but he was going to make sure we got to December in a good place. I just needed to trust him. The man has never steered me wrong so I got to work as we always do. It was mentally exhausting and honestly at times I didn’t enjoy it, but this was what I’d chosen to do. So we pushed on, we often auto regulated on bench when I was experiencing discomfort with my pec.
About two thirds of the way through prep I told Adam I was not enjoying prep and his response ”it’s going to be a good comp then”. I thought we’d be good for a respectable total of around 580/585kg but as always Hindle has his secret plans in place, I think he knew I had more.

The day of the comp rolls around, all of the noise that had been in my head during prep was suddenly gone, I was scared but I had my coach and my support gang there and I knew that all I needed to do was focus on my cues and deliver.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Of course I cried after bench lol. (Probably be a while before I stop doing that), suddenly I’m pulling a 245kg deadlift on my second and I’d hit the elusive 600kg total and a 625 dots, I opted not to take the 3rd due to pec discomfort and I just wandered around for about 5 minutes in the warm up area confused that we’d hit our goal and it wasn’t that hard. Like what! I was number 1… me?! Then it happened, Adam smiled for a photo! We’d finally made it happen, after multiple set backs. Naturally plans are now in place for bigger numbers.

Obviously I need to thank every single person who was there to pick me up. My coach, my friends and of course my family who pulled me through the darker days. They were invaluable and I am beyond grateful for them.

She was down, but she’s never out.

Sharon Eggleton
Instagram - @princess_of_iron

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