Emily Steel: British Championships - The Build-Up and Competition

Emily Steel smashed it at her recent weightlifting competition, the British Championships 2024. Here she details her training, how she prepared in the build-up to the event, and what happened on the day of the competition!

The build up to any weightlifting competition takes a lot of hard work and dedication, just like any sport. My training week consisted of 5 weightlifting sessions a week, of a 10-week block, in preparation to the British Championships 2024 which were held at the NEC in Birmingham. I competed in the open 71kg category with aims to hit competition PB’s. I ended up with just that, as well as beating the current U23 age group clean and jerk record also. This blog is going to take you through the journey I went through leading up to this.

Training 10-weeks out from British Championships

Just finishing University in early June I planned to take the time away and base in Bali for around a month. It was easy to stick to my training schedule staying at CrossFit Wanderlust (which I really recommend) as well as maintain a good diet to maintain fuelled for sessions. My training breakdown in Bali was:

Session 1 – Hang snatches, push press and jerks, back squats

Session 2 – Heavy split jerks, muscle snatches, snatch pulls

Session 3 – Heavy clean and jerks, front squats, clean pulls

Session 4 – Heavy snatches, pause jerks, lighter snatch and clean pulls

Session 5 – Slow power clean and jerks, front squats

All with accessory strength exercises to finish, varying each session, as well as some CrossFit training alongside to keep moving.

I really enjoyed training in Bali. I enjoyed the lifestyle and training in the heat made me really excited to get up and go train, finishing with time in the plunge pool/sauna helping recovery. I went to Bali with one of my best friends who also trained alongside me, and training is always made so much better with a training partner! I felt in good shape, moving up a weight category has been the right move for me and has allowed me to really focus on perfecting my lifts without having to worry about cutting weight at the same time. My lifting was feeling consistent. I was making most of my snatches in training, normally it’s a 50/50 chance I’ll miss a few lifts!

Training a week out from British Championships

After a good few weeks in Bali, I came back home, making sure I left myself enough time to get back into the home routine, dealing with jetlag etc. I arrived back home about 10-days before competition day with a taper week consisting of lighter, more technical lifts, to help my body deload and rest up. In the week leading up to the competition I only had three training sessions. One session consisted of hitting my snatch opener to make sure I had it feeling good in the bank, this was 72kg which I hit comfortably on the day. With the other two sessions consisting of some light power cleans and snatches to just keep moving.

The night before the British Championships

Sitting comfortably in my weight category it felt weird to me to be able to actually eat properly and fuel up the day before weigh in. Normally I’m on a water, salt, fibre and carbohydrate cut to get the body weight down… but not this time round!

I got in lots of carbs throughout the day to fuel up with a cheeky Nando’s the evening before which hit the spot. I also made sure I hydrated well throughout the day getting enough salt in. The day before a competition also consists of a snack shop of course! I got snacks for during my lifting in the back room in between platform lifts, which consisted of all the good stuff: tangfastics, squares bars, and rice cakes!

Just like the good athlete I am I had a little stretch and did some mobility before heading to bed for the big day!

British Championships 2024

THE DAY OF!

I arrived about an hour before weigh in which was about 9am. I ate my overnight oats that I prepped the night before after weigh in which were yum. I had 2-hours post-weigh in to have a bit of a chill and then warm up for my session time at around 11ish.

About 30 minutes before the presentation, I did some mobility and started getting warm. I don’t like waiting around so my coach is always there to make sure I don’t pick up the barbell until the time I need to haha! Mike (my coach) has all my lifts written out that I do in the back room before my opener, so we got through them and then went out for snatches. I hit my opener at 72, missed 75 but then went on to hit 76kg for my third attempt. I was happy with this, and this was a competition PB for snatches. The snatches always make me nervous as they’re so hit and miss so I was very happy to get a good result on them for once.

I had a bit of time between snatches and clean and jerk so chilled out for a bit, had some sweets and sat down to wait. The clean and jerk warm-up moved a bit quicker just because of how the board was moving and with the openers of all lifters being quite similar. I always make sure I have sugary treats or snacks with me during clean and jerks because I get quite lightheaded sometimes after snatching and then going on to lifting heavy. Clean and jerks felt solid in the warm-up, like the snatches did, so I was feeling quite confident. I opened up at 101 which I hit nicely, then did 105, and finished with an unexpected 109kg to get a new U23’s British Record, as well as competition and lifetime PB!

All round it was a successful British Championships with a PB total of 185kg! I really enjoyed myself competing amongst the best in the country and it’s really spurred me on for the next competition which is English Age Group Championships. It’s reassuring and nice to see that all the hard work I’ve been putting in has been paying off and I really can’t wait for what’s to come.

I’d like to thank British Weightlifting and my coaches Mike Webb, Emily Muskett, and Julie Morrish for helping me achieve these PBs, keeping my head in the right place to stay confident in my own abilities.