Disabled Strongwoman Hopes To Tackle Gym Stigmas

A personal trainer (PT) who is the country’s strongest disabled woman is calling for more people with disabilities to lift weights to tackle stigmas.

Louise Greer, who is a PT in Gloucester, said the assumptions she faced discouraged her when she first started lifting weights, but in September won Britain’s Strongest Disabled Man & Woman for the third consecutive year.

Ms Greer had meningitis and sepsis at two years old, resulting in her legs, left arm and her most of the fingers on her right hand being amputated.

The 28-year-old said: “When I started lifting there were no disabled PTs I knew of, especially not in the South West. So I said ‘you know what, I’m going to change that’. So I did.”

Strongman is a sport which sees athletes use raw strength and endurance to lifting, carrying and pulling awkward objects such as logs and stones.

Ms Greer said she discovered her love for the gym while at Hartpury University, but able-bodied PTs would “wrap me up in cotton wool”, telling her to “stay away from weights and stick to cardio-based machines”.

“When I started in the gym scene it was like ‘awh, the disabled kid is trying to get fitter’. I’m like ‘no, I want to bash records’,” she told BBC’s Extra Time programme .

“They said ‘are you ever going to get your PT qualification? Can you?’.”

She has also qualified for the World’s Strongest Disabled Woman, which takes place in Texas in November, and is raising money via a crowdfunder for her trip as she does not receive funding.

Ms Greer, who is originally from Northern Ireland, hopes to inspire more people with disabilities to try lifting weights in the gym.

“Go for it, you’re never going to know. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I went in saying ‘I will make this work’,” she said.

‘Do your own thing’

“If you want it, there’s going to be a way around it. If you know there’s a sport on and there’s a disabled person, go watch it. You’ll get ideas from it.

“There’s always ways around, If there’s a will there’s a way.”

Gary Clarke, who is the Britain’s first disabled strongman and is a key organiser in the event Ms Greer won, said he’s been training for 32 years after “biting the bullet and not worry what anybody else thought”.

“I knew I had a goal in mind to get bigger and stronger. To to be honest it’s the best thing I’ve done,” the 48-year-old from Chard, Somerset, said.

“Get out and do it, don’t worry about what other people think and do your own thing.”