“Absolutely not, that’s not for me” was what Laura Park said two years ago when she was first asked if she would ever train to be a powerlifter.
But two competitions, a gold medal and many personal bests later, she now “absolutely loves” the sport.
Laura (46), from Forres, now trains with Highland Powerlifting Club at Gym 300 in Inverness, having been talked into the sport by her now coach, Lewis Michie.
She said: “It’s quite a funny story actually, I competed in kettlebell sports, and then I had to get a hernia repaired in December (2024), and Lewis was training up at Life and Soul (Forres gym), and he was like, ‘oh. you should do powerlifting’, and I was like, ‘Oh absolutely not! That’s not for me!
“Then one day we were just chatting, and he says, ‘look, I’ll train you’.
“I gave him an ultimatum – make me stronger, and I’ll train with you.
“I always thought powerlifting was for really strong people, I never thought it was for me.”
Laura has competed twice since she started. Her first competition was Masters in 2025 and in February 2026 she competed in the Northern Open where she lifted 200kg in total.
But her journey through the sport has not been without its bumps in the road.
Just two weeks before she was due to compete in Masters she had to be rushed to hospital.
“I just thought it was a UTI, and I hadn’t trained for a week and then ended up having to be rushed through with an abscess, so I could have died,” she said.
She insists her gold in the competition a week later was down to her competition underperforming on the day but admitted winning at all was still “phenomenal”.
And when she took to the powerlifting platform again in February she described it as her best competition yet.
She said: “Lewis was like, right, we’re going to go for these numbers (weights to lift) and I was like, let’s just try it – I wanted a 200kg total, but I was like I’ll just go for it and see what happens.
“Honestly, each lift, I could have gone heavier. It just felt so easy, I wasn’t stressing though I was really nervous.”
Despite suffering a few training setbacks due to waiting for an operation, looking at how far she has already come is “unbelievable” she said.
“I couldn’t squat, I couldn’t deadlift, and I think at a push I could do the 20kg bar on bench,” she said of her beginnings.
“Now I’m doing (squatting) like 60, 62kg and a half at comp, in February at Northern, so I got a PB (personal best).
“Deadlifts, I just got 100kg last month. Before it would have been like 60kg at a push with poor form. I’ve come on so much.”
On the Highland Powerlifting Club she said: “Everybody’s just so nice. Even though people are just doing their own training people always take time out. ”
The club started in November 2025, but already has 50 members – making it one of the biggest powerlifting clubs in Scotland.
Laura added: “You know people there, they can cheer you on, whereas if you’re training in a gym there’s either nobody there or everybody’s got their headphones on, nobody pays attention to you.”
The club is always looking for new members and is open to anyone of any age from beginners to seasoned competitors. The best way to contact the club is through its social media channels.
