In June, 72-year-old powerlifter Melanie Lester won gold at the Masters British National Powerlifting Championships 2026, squatting 100kg, bench pressing 45kg and deadlifting 135kg – an incredible 280kg total.
She also took home the award for second-best lifter across the entire Masters 4 class, the age division for athletes aged 70 and over.
Perhaps even more impressive, though, is the fact that Melanie only set foot in a gym for the first time just over seven years ago.
‘My mother died very suddenly, and I realised I had to do something to sort the head out,’ she tells WH.
‘At that point I had done absolutely no fitness or gone to a gym or anything. I was not a fit person and never did sports of any sort, even at school. I started doing HIIT and exercise classes, and it did make me feel a bit better,’ she continues.
Fast forward several years and Melanie now competes internationally. In March, she won silver and team gold at the European Championships with a 275kg total. In 2024, she was crowned European powerlifting champion and earned a bronze medal at the world championships.
‘I can’t believe how this has really changed my life for the better. I never, ever would’ve thought that this would be me,’ Melanie says. ‘It would make my day if I could make somebody else think about doing this themselves.’
7 things Melanie has learnt since taking up powerlifting
1. Combine exercise and diet for lasting change
Melanie’s reasons for becoming more active were health-related, too.
‘I had to get fitter to try and lose some weight, as I was very overweight. I was on a diet but they never seemed to work because I couldn’t sustain them. I thought if I added some exercise, it might be a more sustainable process. I’ve lost probably about five stone over the years,’ she says.
Alongside improving her fitness, she also started making small changes to her diet.
‘They were so tiny I almost didn’t notice – not putting butter in my sandwiches and swapping full-fat milk for semi-skimmed. I found after maybe a month, there was a slight difference in weight,’ she recalls.
2. Follow a structured training routine
‘I train five days a week, and Wednesdays and Sundays are my rest days,’ she says. ‘On three of those days, I do one-to-one sessions with a personal trainer. And the other two days, he sets me a programme of what to follow.’
Her one-to-one sessions usually last around an hour.
‘However, when I’m by myself, they tend to take longer, because I’m putting the plates on and taking them off, so they roughly are about an hour and a half,’ she continues.
3. Train for specific goals
As a competitive lifter, Melanie’s workouts are centred around the three powerlifting disciplines: the squat, bench press and deadlift.
‘Instead of doing a legs or pull day, I will concentrate primarily on [one of the big three power lifts] – the squat, deadlift and bench press – each day,’ she explains. ‘I’ll also do accessories, such as hip thrusts or other leg-based exercises for the deadlift.’
A bench-focused day involves upper-body accessory movements such as chest-supported rows, cable rows and dumbbell presses.
‘My bench press is my weakest lift so the lat pull down, cable row and dumbbell fly help your upper body and back,’ she says.
And the work is paying off.
‘My bench press is improving, though slowly,’ she says. ‘I thought I was never going to get past 40kg, but now I have got up to 48kg.’
Currently, she’s building towards a competition in October.
‘So I’m slowly progressing up the weights,’ she says. ‘This morning, I started off doing Romanian deadlifts because it was a deadlift day, and at the top set I did 4 x 5 deadlifts at 95kg. But I started off with 60kg, then went up to 80kg, then 90kg, then 95kg.
‘My reps and sets are sort of in a pyramid: at the programme’s beginning, you’ll be doing far more repetitions at a lower weight. But then as the weight goes up, the repetitions come down.
‘When I did a squat session on Monday, my top set was just one set of three at 90kg, because it was so heavy,’ she explains.
4. Step outside your comfort zone
A desire to supplement her initial HIIT classes with more training led Melanie to start one-to-one sessions with a coach. After a Covid-enforced break, she found trainer Ben Tracey – and eventually discovered powerlifting.
‘As soon as [gyms opened back up], I found a new trainer, Ben Tracey, and he’s whom I’m still with,’ she says.
It was then that she began lifting weights more seriously and stopped attending HIIT classes.
‘He got me into powerlifting. Squats and deadlifts were part of my training because they’re good compound movementsthat work multiple muscle groups,’ she says.
‘He persuaded me to start competing. My first was a local regional one soon after Covid. I was so scared but it felt good to give myself a challenge.’
5. Use doubt as motivation
Not everyone has been quite as encouraging about Melanie’s ambitions.
‘An elderly person into weightlifting came up to me after a competition and said, “When you get to a certain age, you may have to realise that enough is enough and you have to give up,”‘ she recalls.
‘That was like a red rag to a bull and an incentive to make me fight harder. I wish I could see him now because my numbers have gone up and I am never giving up.’
6. Find the type of exercise you enjoy
For Melanie, lifting weights proved a much better fit than cardio.
‘I found cardio does not work for me,’ she says.
‘Just before Covid, I used to go running in a group and it absolutely crucified my knees.’
She found that strength training suited her better and helped her build the muscles supporting her joints.
‘I now don’t do any impact stuff at all. Powerlifting is slow and steady so it’s perfect for people with joint problems, because there’s no stress on them, but you’re slowly building up the muscles that will support those joints,’ she explains.
7. Pass on what you’ve learnt
Melanie has now been teaching resistance training for just over a year.
‘I was reading about the dangers of osteoporosis and the weakening of bones – research shows women aged 65 and older who suffered a hip fracture were twice as likely to die within the first year than women who didn’t break a hip. That scared the living daylights out of me,’ she says.
‘I already had a Level 2 fitness instructing certificate, which enables me to teach groups. I also belong to this nationwide organisation, the U3A, in Sudbury where I live, where people can start groups about their interests,’ she continues.
But there wasn’t a resistance-training group.
‘The only fitness ones were either going for walks, rambling or ping pong,’ she says.
So Melanie proposed starting one herself.
‘I had a list the length of your arm within a short while,’ she says.
‘I now run groups twice a week. I have just six people in each group for safety reasons, but I’ve got people up to the age of 87. I ensure they do everything properly, safely and with the correct form.’
And Melanie is already inspiring others to take their strength further.
‘One of my group in her mid-70s has entered a competition as well, which I was over the moon about.’
One of our most frequently asked questions here at Women’s Health? How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. So, we asked superstar trainer Oyinda Okunowo exactly how to do it. In this 4-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to help you on your way to better body composition. Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to Oyinda’s plan and start training today.
