The Power of Strength Training for Women: Beating Burnout and Decision Fatigue with Natalie Hurdley

What if the real reason you’re stuck isn’t motivation, but decisions? Strength coach and Team GB powerlifter Natalie Hurdley joins us to unravel why busy women burn out on planning and how handing over the training blueprint creates room to breathe and room to grow. We talk about the transformation that happens when clear programming replaces guesswork: you show up, lift well, and leave stronger, physically and mentally.

Natalie traces her journey from a derailed football career to a coaching philosophy built for mums who want results without sacrificing family time, social life, or sanity. We dig into the power of heavy lifting for women (e.g improved confidence, muscle, bone density, and daily capability) while busting the old myths about “bulking.” She explains how mobility and flexibility amplify strength, why failing a lift is productive data, and how to train through life’s seasons. When sleep is scarce or stress is high, you maintain; when recovery returns, you progress. That adaptive mindset keeps consistency alive.

You’ll hear practical takeaways on programming simple strength sessions, reducing decision fatigue, pacing nutrition without extreme rules, and navigating pregnancy and postpartum training with care. From stepping into a first meet to surpassing pre-baby personal bests, Natalie shows that sustainable strength is less about grinding and more about smart choices, solid form, and honest feedback loops. If you’ve felt overwhelmed by conflicting fitness advice, this conversation offers a straight path forward: fewer choices, better lifts, stronger life.

Connect with Natalie in her free Facebook Group or on her YouTube channel.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow and share the show, leave a quick review, and tell us what strength goal you’re chasing next. Subscribe so you never miss what’s coming next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Intro
• 1:45 From Football Dream To Injury
• 5:20 Finding Coaching And The “Motivator” Role
• 9:30 Choosing PT To Help More People
• 12:40 Training Decision‑Fatigued Women
• 17:20 Overwhelm And Fitting Fitness In
• 22:40 Health As Foundation For Life
• 27:40 Don’t Wait For Motivation
• 30:20 Why Women Should Lift Heavy
• 36:00 Entering Competitive Powerlifting

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

Mel 0:39

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in.

Mel 0:58

Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Organised. I have Natalie Hurdy here from the UK. She is a strength and conditioning coach and she's had a business for nearly 20 years. Her mission is to get a barbell in the hands of every busy woman who wants to feel strong, capable, and confident. She is also a competitive power lifter for Team Great Britain. So I'm very excited to introduce you all and hopefully we can all learn something that will encourage us on our own health and fitness journey. So welcome, Natalie.

Natalie 1:32

Thank you for having me.

From Football Dream To Injury

Mel 1:33

You are so welcome. It's so good to have you here. We haven't had a lot of people that have talked on fitness in particular and all of that. So I'm very excited to hear what you have to say. And so I'm going to kick it off by saying what inspired you to do what you were doing.

Natalie 1:52

When I when I was young, my parents put me into sport just to kind of keep me off the streets, keep me out of trouble. You make sure, you know, make sure I was I was active and learned other skills that I wasn't necessarily going to learn at school. And um my mum's side of the family are very sporty, but not my mum. And my dad is very sporty, but not his side of the family. It's very odd. Well that's funny. So they put me in football really young, but they also put me into other things. Football became the thing that I wanted to do. And I grew up mainly playing that. And then when I was about to turn professional, I got a really bad injury, and that all sort of ended that. Nose dived. Oh no. And uh you know when they say you should have a plan B. Well, I was 15, I didn't have a plan B. I was still at school. I didn't understand what plan B meant. Yeah.

Mel 2:56

Yeah, you still had your whole future ahead of you. You were invincible at that age. And then this of course I was like, what? That's not a plan.

Natalie 3:03

Yeah, absolutely. I was like, yeah, I've I've got this far through hormonal changes, through school, through like the hardest part of my life.

Mel 3:13

I can take on anything in life.

Natalie 3:15

Right?

Mel 3:15

If I can get through this, I can get through anything.

Natalie 3:18

Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't, I wasn't the sort of person who got injured either. I I never had a serious injury through years and years of playing. And so when I got when I got badly injured, it was a bit bit of a shock. And my I remember my dad just saying, you need to go and get a job. You need you just need to go and get a job. So I thought, you know, what is it that I actually want to do? And I thought, well, my coach inspired me. And it was in it was in the days where coaches were allowed to tell you off.

Mel 3:58

Yeah.

Natalie 3:59

Quite quite brutally tell you off. Yeah. You know, we had an all-girls and a male coach, right? Yeah. And he would swear at you and point at you and embarrass you in front of everybody to get the best out of you. And I was like, he inspired me, he's helped me through a lot. The team, the community has helped me through a lot. So that's what I want to do. So I went scream and yell at other kids. Yep. Yeah. I went up, I was like, I was like, I'm gonna buy them. Yeah, I'm gonna go to college and I'm gonna do I'm gonna do coaching. And the the programme that I wanted to do, the course that I wanted to do, they wouldn't accept me because they wanted um 18-year-olds plus and I was only I was I was 16 when I was due to start college. So um I was talking to one of the lecturers, and this other lecturer overheard, and she was like, I do a personal training course, I know it's not what you want to do, but it can it can bridge a gap.

Mel 5:04

Bridge Yeah, yeah, and it just builds on that fair feeling.

Finding Coaching And The “Motivator” Role

Natalie 5:07

Yeah, I I spoke to my parents, and my parents were like, Look, you've got to do something. Um, and this is probably as close as what you're gonna get to what you want to do, and it'll also educate you further for your coaching. Yeah, yeah.

Mel 5:22

You'll have even more of a holistic approach, yeah.

Natalie 5:24

Yeah, so go and do that. So I did that, and I spoke to my lecturer about work at the same time. I was like, How is is it possible for me to work? And she said, Go and work in a gym. So I volunteered in a gym and it was really funny because the title they gave me was the motivator. That was my job. But so it was my my actual job in this gym, which was a volunteer position, was to go around or go around the gym, just be seen and encourage people, talk to people, start conversations, ask them questions, and if they needed something, bridge the gap between what they needed and the person they needed to speak to, who wasn't a member of staff essentially. And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. That actually sounds like fun. It was, and you know what? It was it took zero responsibility really but I absolutely loved it, and when it came to doing the coaching, I did do the coaching course, but coming out of it, I was like, if I coach, I am going to be pigeonholed into one sport, one team, and one way of helping people. And now I've done my personal training, I actually don't want that. What I want is I want to be able to help people get to the next level, no matter what that is. Yeah. Um so that's what I that's what I did. I went into coaching young athletes.

Mel 7:10

Awesome. What is it that you do now and and how is it you help people specifically?

Choosing PT To Help More People

Natalie 7:18

Um, so I I transitioned out of ha helping young athletes into helping busy mums quite early, simply because the gym I ended up in full time, that was kind of their or that was kind of their member base. It was busy mums who didn't want to think about it. They wanted to get in, get the job done, get out. Yeah, got too much. That's what they want to deal with in life. That's what they want to do. And I met I met a guy in the gym who was a business owner, and he was very self-motivated. I spoke to him a lot, but not didn't even think about training him. And then one day he came up to me and he said, I want training. I was like, Okay, great, let's go. Trained him for about training for about three months, and I said to him, You're really self-motivated, you sort of know what you're doing. Why do you want a personal trainer? Like, I'm really curious. And he said, I make every single decision everywhere. He said, I run a business, so I delegate, but I still have to make the final decision. He said, When I go home, my my wife, she's a stay-at-home mum. So even though she does make the decisions, I still have to sign off on everything because if this if the kids need something, she needs to pay for it, which obviously I'm the only earner, but I you know, I have to sign off pretty much everything. So um the only decision I don't make is what I have for my tea. Because my wife just cooks me tea and I eat whatever she puts in front of me. And he said, So when I come to the gym, what I want is I want to walk into the gym. I want you to make every decision for me and I want to leave. And I didn't understand it at the time. I was in my early 20s, didn't understand it. You know, carried on with my Yeah, and then I got to I got I got into my 30s and I started to meet more business women, international, more business women who were mums, more high-level women who were mums. And I was like sensitive with everything. There's something here. And then um during lockdown, I, you know, dove into it really deeply and I was like, right, this is it. Decision fatigued women who want results, but they just don't know how to do it. Yeah. Without sacrificing everything else. Yeah. And that's a really good niche. That's really good. That's where I am. That's where I am. So if if if you're overwhelmed with all the decisions and then the thought of going to the gym and going, where do I start? How do I warm up? What do I lift? What do I do? Do I do cardio? Do I do weights? Do I how long do I do it for? How do I Yeah, what's right for me? You know, walk into a busy gym and just be like, How do I how do I get where I want to go without giving up the foods I love, without giving up my family time, without doing this? And I'm like, hi. I can I can I can take I can either help you with that and I can guide you, or I can take it off you and just tell you.

Mel 10:44

Yeah.

Natalie 10:45

Whether you do it or not is up to you. But I can actually take that from you and go, there you go. Yeah. And that is usually what people want. What what the women want. Yeah, they're like, Do you know what? I even though physically I've been pushed, mentally I feel like I've had an hour off. Yeah. And my to-do list has just disappeared for an hour. And that's been amazing. Absolutely amazing. You're a businesswoman, you're a mum, you understand the to-do list is just never ending.

Training Decision‑Fatigued Women

Mel 11:21

I'm picturing it now. And I had a personal trainer for years, loved her, and then she went off and had a baby, and I did too, and then that kind of ended that for a while. Um, but even just thinking back to that time and how, yeah, I even then I was sort of like, can you just tell me what to do? Because I just I'm so good at figuring out so many things in life, and I just can't expend any more brain power on this because I've struggled with weight and my hell's in that for my whole life, you know. I'm better now than I was even 10 years ago, but it's still an effort, and especially as you get older, you know, gotta put in a bit more effort, but it's more, it was nice to just not have to think. So as you're saying all of this, I'm going, I get it, because this every single person is different. Everybody's makeup is different. And so to have someone come in who's an expert in their field and go, yep, I understand you, your body type, what works for you, and that. And obviously, as time goes on, you're gonna understand even more. It's just it's kind of nice to just go, I don't have to think about this. And I'm moving forward. Like I'm I'm doing something for me that helps me, which then helps my family and helps my business and helps everything else because I'm looking after my health. I mean, it's a pretty important role what you're doing.

Natalie 12:47

Yeah, and I I love it, you know. I love that that clarity that women get of going, oh, I now I now get it. Oh, I I I now get it. Even though they've done programs or tried things years and years and years and years and years, they're like, oh, now it's clicked.

Mel 13:07

Yeah. Like, yes, that's what we've got. It's so funny because I actually had a missed call from my gym today on on something, and now you're talking about this, and like, oh, maybe I should get back into it. Maybe it's a sign.

Natalie 13:22

Oh, so if you believe in signs, then this is a sign. Yeah.

Mel 13:28

I do actually believe in signs. So too many things have happened to be that much of a coincidence. But anyway, it's another topic. So, what do you find holds women back in getting help just in the whole fitness area? What do you feel like holds them back?

Natalie 13:47

I think one of the biggest things is overwhelm. And there's different types of overwhelm. There's the whole social media maze of overwhelm of well, this coach says this, this coach says this, the media says this, the news says this, the government are trying to get me to do this. Like, I don't know what to do. Yeah. So you do nothing.

Mel 14:09

Yeah.

Natalie 14:10

Um, and then there's uh the other side of overwhelm where you're like, my life is so full, I don't know how or where I'm gonna fit this in. And what's gonna have to leave for me to do this.

Mel 14:25

Yeah.

Natalie 14:25

Um, and that's one of the things I help people figure out. I I help people figure out how we can fit this into their life without sacrificing the things that they don't want to sacrifice, without sacrificing the time with your kids, with your partner, with your friends, without sacrificing the social life. Yeah, the sleep, the you know, the biggest one is food. You know, people don't want to sacrifice the they think they think they're gonna, you know, you're gonna tell them to give up chocolate and wine and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, look, that's that's not up to me. If you want to get from point A to point P faster, sure. But if you're happy for it to be sustainable over years, over the journey, then you go with it, you know what I mean.

Mel 15:10

You gotta live your life too.

Natalie 15:12

Yeah, and I think that's the thing, you know. This is this is a big thing for me and the women that I work with. It's you wanna be fitter and healthier to live a better quality of life. You don't wanna be fitter and healthier to give up your life. Yeah, yes. Like, yeah, why why do you want to do that?

Mel 15:34

Yeah, that you know it's pretty much the same thinking that I have when it comes to getting organized. You're not getting organized just for the sake of getting organized. It's like you're not getting fitter just for the sake of being fitter, it's to enjoy your life. It's then, you know, things are in order and in place, so you don't even need to think about it so much anymore, and you can go on and enjoy your life. It's sort of the same concept here. It's like you're fit and healthy, so you don't even really need to be thinking about your health so much because you can go off and enjoy your life. But when you're in poor health, well, everything stops. Everything slows down, and then you can't go on and enjoy your life.

Overwhelm And Fitting Fitness In

Natalie 16:13

Yeah, and I think I think you know, one of the biggest things out there that you've probably heard hundreds of times is especially if you're a mum and a business owner, if you're sick, what happens? Like it all stops all of it. I I like I know that if I was really sick and my husband had to take over, ignore my business, yeah, but if he had to just take over my what I do at home, we would already be in trouble. Right? And that's nothing against him. You know, he works really hard, he's got a highly stressful job, he's got a really like um really important job, and he does his part for us as a family, absolutely. Managing all of that until until my daughter goes into education, my job is to take pick up the slack while I'm at home and he isn't, you know. So it's nothing against him, nothing against him at all. But if if he was sick, he would get sick pay. Yeah. And in the nicest way possible, my life wouldn't actually change if he was sick. Yeah. Like, like I'm just talking about a virus, I'm not talking about anything major. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if if I was in bed with the flu for a week, yeah, you know, yeah, my income would stop. My my daughter would probably have to go and live with her grandparents, you know, it's a whole different whole different ball game. And if we can um, you know, we can just look after the the foundations of our health at the minimum and figure out how that fits into everything rather than thinking things need to go for us to do that, then then even better.

Mel 18:03

Yeah, no, I I definitely agree. I um I've had two sort of bigger health issues this year, myself, which came out of nowhere, and I was in hospital both times for multiple days. And my husband, bless him, really he did step up and dealt with the four kids, and he's got his own business and all of that that he's running to and was dealing with all of that. But it's hard because I also felt the pressure of just not being here to help with things and yes, okay, things are organized. I could get on top of the house again pretty quickly, but it's just not being there for the kids and just the daily life and everything else that's going on and having all of that pressure on him too. And it it's hard, but it certainly made me stop and think how I'm sustaining everything. Because even though these particular health issues, it's not so much because I'm, you know, working in the business a lot and dealing with, you know, got a lot on my plate. It was just these things that popped up and hopefully don't ever happen again. But it's just, it definitely makes you step back and think, okay, health is so important. More important than money. More important than anything, really. Like if you don't have your health, you don't have a life.

Natalie 19:20

Yeah, I mean, you know, if if you're if you're not healthy enough, you can't enjoy your money. You can't enjoy everything else, you know. Just before, just before we went into lockdown here. My my dad had a heart attack and he was in he was in hospital and he was in his early 60s. So he wasn't, you know, retired or anything. And um my mom doesn't do anything online. She she's a tech phob, right? And I remember like going to see him in the hospital, and it was like, right, tech wise, I need you to understand this because your mom doesn't, and your mom can't get it, you could pick it up really, really easy. And I was like, Dad, listen to me, right? I am not ready for you to go anywhere.

Mel 20:03

Yeah, I can't think like that.

Natalie 20:05

I might be in my th I'm in my mid-30s. I didn't have my daughter at this point. And I'm like, but you can't go anywhere yet. You know? No. Yeah. I'm not ready for that yet. And uh he went, Well, you know, we need to I said, I understand we need to be prepared. Do I, you know, I get that. And I'm not I'm not saying no to your request. I'm just saying.

Mel 20:26

Yeah. You can't you can't let go.

Natalie 20:28

You can't think that way.

Mel 20:29

You've got to get through this.

Natalie 20:31

You know, you're not bowing out, yeah. I'm not letting you go that easily. Do you know what I mean? No, no, forget it. Yeah. You know, so um, and it when, you know, when he got out, luckily he got out of hospital before lockdown kicked in. Uh, but it made him, you know, take care of his health. And then um his motivation decided started to dip a little bit. And then when he found that out that I was pregnant with our with our first is his first grandchild. He was like, oh, yeah. And now he's he's the fittest he's been in in years because he's running around after his granddaughter, you know, which is is fantastic. But the what I try and get get women to do is don't wait for that motivation.

Mel 21:13

Yeah.

Natalie 21:13

Do it so you're ready. Yeah. And it's so much easier and so much more seamless because you're already in it.

Mel 21:20

Yeah, that's true. So don't don't wait for that kick. Well, usually by then it's you you've got a much harder uphill battle. Yes, absolutely. So better better if you're still just cruising. Not not having to go so hard uphill. So what what's one thing that you wish more women knew in your field?

Health As Foundation For Life

Natalie 21:46

Oh, how to lift, how to lift weights, 100%. You know, don't be scared, don't be scared to lift. All this, yeah, there's a there's a running joke in my in my circle that um I am anti-cardio. And I'm not and I'm not anti-cardio. I personally I don't do a lot of cardio because I I played football for years and it completely put me off running. I'm like, I don't have to run anymore, it's great. Um I I just understand the benefits of lifting more than the benefits of cardio. And yes, there's a place for cardio, but for I would say 99% of people, it's not the answer to what they're looking for. And I think, you know, that's the thing. I get so many women come to me and they're like, well, I run and I do this and I do this, but it's not getting me anywhere. I'm like, because you're not lifting.

Mel 22:42

Yeah.

Natalie 22:43

And they're like, and then it comes, comes in the fear of lifting and the myths. Again, busy women, they're scared to get hurt. So they stay away from the weights. I'm like, right, none of this, none of these tiny little dumbbells. You know, we're gonna use them to warm up, and then we're gonna go, we're gonna go into the big stuff. And they'll go white and they're, you know, and they're like, no, I'm like, right, listen.

Mel 23:11

I'm tired just holding my toddler half the time.

Natalie 23:14

Yeah.

Mel 23:15

Like, how can I do that? Yeah.

Natalie 23:17

Your body is capable of so much more than you are giving it credit for. Let's just go. Yeah. Right? Let's just go. I know you're scared, that's okay, let's go. And what I find is that women who who do listen and who do lift, they'll go, Oh my god, this has been the missing piece. Why you what why haven't I been doing this for years?

Mel 23:44

Yeah.

Natalie 23:45

Um they just need to get over that first, that first step and understand that their body is more than capable of lifting heavy stuff.

Mel 23:53

Yeah. And you find that that works well, whether it's to lose weight, build strength, like whatever sort of the main reason is that they've come to you for.

Natalie 24:04

Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't matter what their goal is, the majority of the time, but the missing link, the missing link is is heavy lifting. Um, you know, we build more muscle. We're not gonna bulk up, so you can get rid of that fear straight away, right? Yeah. It's not it's not not a thing for women. It's not natural, right? Like, no, yeah, it's really not. So get rid of that straight away. But if you heavy lift, your body can do so much more in every aspect of your life, whether it's your home life, whether it's your social life, whether it's kids or or whatever, it translates just over to everything. And even, you know, I I train a lot of triathletes and marathon runners and people who do um high rocks and CrossFit. I still train them with my same foundations and principles. I just change the details a little bit because they still need to lift heavy and condition their body in that way. And that's usually the missing link for everybody, regardless to what their goal is.

Mel 25:13

Yeah. That's that's so cool. And it in the beginning, I mentioned how you're a competitive power lifter. Can you touch on that before you're up up?

Don’t Wait For Motivation

Natalie 25:24

Yeah, sure. Uh so uh as I mentioned, I was in uh I played football for um a professional team and um I swam for my county, I cycled, I did a lot as a kid, and then I got I got injured pretty badly, and then I was I was in the camp of well now I've got a physical job. I need to worry about getting injured myself. And I was like, well, if I can't play the sport at the highest level, then I'm not gonna do it. So I kind of just didn't do sport. I trained in the gym, looked after myself, kept active. And then I think I was 29, 29 years old, and I was training myself in a gym, and this guy came up to me and he said, I'm the I'm a coach for Team GB, powerlifting team, and I would really like you to come and train with us. And I was like, you've got the wrong person, right? I was like, I'm I'm not strong, I'm not powerful, I am not that person. I lift weights, but I don't lift heavy, heavy. Yeah and he was like, he was like, you've got the foundations, we can we can get you strong. And I was like, no, no. Then every couple of months he'd see me in the gym and he'd come up and he'd be like, come on, and I'm like, oh no. And then there was no escaping. It was it was my 30th birthday coming up, and he said to me, He was like, Come on, we're starting a new training cycle in September, come on. I was like, right, I am on the last two weeks of this current training cycle, and then I'm gonna have two weeks to just have a break, work on my flexibility, my mobility, and give my central nervous system a proper rest. Rest after that, I will come and I will train with the team for one session. If I don't hate it, I will train with you for a week and then you need to leave me alone. Yeah. Like I I will I will talk to you and I will have banter with you, but you need to stop asking me after that. And he was like, and he was like, deal. So September comes, I go into the gym, and they're all there, and I'm like, right, this is gonna be extremely embarrassing and awful. Yeah, but I've I've laid with the bed now, so I'm up allying it. Um we went in, warmed up, trained with them. He really coached me. He was like, Your squat, this, try this, do this, your bench, da da da. Um, and even though I lifted and I did train my chest, I never benched pressed. It wasn't part of what I did. Um, and then deadlift, he was like, Okay, your deadlift is this, let's look at this, let's tweak this, let's turn this, da-da. And I was like, right, okay, great. So did that, spent a week with them, and then he was like, Come on. You gotta stay now. Come on. And I was like, Do you know what? I've really enjoyed it. I love training on my own, but training with the team gave me something different that I didn't know that I was missing. Yeah, and I was like, and I was like, Yeah, okay, like right now I don't have any personal fitness goals, so you know, maybe increasing my my weights is is is one. And and then we got to, so that was the beginning of September, then we got to the end of September, and he said, Right, I know that you do things for charity, and I'm like, mmm, what? And he said, We have got a charity competition coming up, and it's in Birmingham, so it's quite local. I think you should enter. And I laughed. I was like, Don't be silly, and he went, Listen, it's for charity, all the money goes to charity. Just come and have a go. That's it. He said, I also know that you love Christmas, and the competition is a Christmas competition, which means that you can dress up in a stupid Christmas outfit at the same time. And I was like, Oh, okay.

Mel 29:36

That's so ridiculously great.

Why Women Should Lift Heavy

Natalie 29:39

So I was like, I was like planning on having like elf leggings and and dressing up as an elf and everything, and and I was like getting ready for this, and we got to the middle of November and I think I think, and you know, I was really enjoying it. I was having a lot of banter with the team, and I was saying, oh my god, I'm gonna this weekend I'm gonna order my elf outfit for the comp. And they started laughing at me, and I was like, What? What are you got are you guys not gonna dress up? Come on, and they were like, nah, this is this is this is not what it seems this is not what it seems, and I was like, what? And they were like, Have you paid your entry fee? I'm like, yes, and they went, it it is, it is a charity competition, it is a Christmas competition, but he's not gonna let you dress up. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And he was like, no. So I went and spoke to him. I was like, I'm gonna go and get my outfit this weekend, and he went, Okay, good. I was like, what?

Mel 30:35

And he went, Okay resistance, okay.

Natalie 30:38

And I was like, don't make me buy an outfit that I'm not allowed to wear, and he went, Don't buy it then. And we had a good laugh about it, and I was like, You're kidding me? Anyway, we we got to we got to the competition and he gave me like some team GB kit to wear, and he and I was like, Well, what is this? And he went, we're gonna get you qualified for a proper comp. And I was like, no, no. And he went, seriously, we're gonna get you qualified for proper comp. The next competition's in Birmingham, it's in February, today we're gonna get you qualified. All I want you to do today is just get your nerves out of the way. Understand how the day works how the day works, okay. And I was like, Well, I'm here now, I've paid the money, it is for charity, just do it. Did it, yeah, just do it. And my only goal so we get out the whole day, we only get nine chances to lift. That's it. We get three squats, three benches, and three deadlifts. That's it. My only goal was to not fail any any lift. All I wanted, didn't care what the weight was, all I wanted was nine for nine. I failed one lift. I failed my last bench. No. Um, by then because that's okay because I was like, do you know what? Now I know what it's like to fail. And now I know how to deal with it because I've experienced it for real. Yeah. Which helped me to not only carry that over into the gym, but carry that into my clients' experiences as well when they failed a lift. Because when you do lift properly, failing lifts, it's gonna happen. It's gonna be part of the process, right? Just like in business, getting rejected is gonna be part of the process, and it's a part of the process that you don't like, but you've got just gotta get used to it. And uh so yeah, I did this competition, really enjoyed it, and he was like, please, please enter the one for February. And I was like, Yeah, okay then. Did the one for February, got really good numbers, really enjoyed the experience, and then locked down hit. Ah, yeah. So I was like, right, I'm gonna focus on my flexibility, my mobility, um, I'm just gonna do bodyweight work. That's all I'm not gonna, you know, go and buy any equipment or anything like that because I've got no intention of training at home when the gyms are open. None. Yeah, like I'm not gonna kid myself, it's not gonna happen. So I'm not gonna spend the money and do it. It's fine. So did that, and then when I when I went back to training um after the restrictions were lifted, he was like, you know, what have you been doing? How you been getting on? I was like that. Let's just strength wise, let's just start from scratch because this is what I've been working on. But I found that my mobility and my flexibility increased my strength so much. It made such a difference to my lifting when I went back. My my numbers went up so much faster. Wow. Um, and there's a lot of science behind that, so I do a lot of mobility and stretching in my in my work as well because I know how important it is, especially for like aches, just general aches and pains and things like that. Um and then from there it's just gone crazy. I went to Poland and won won a gold medal. Wow, well done. I went I went to um the Czech Republic and broke the world squat record for my category. Wow. I ended up on the ended up on the radio talking about it, which came out of nowhere. That's great. Um, and then then I got pregnant and was like, right, I'm gonna obviously I'm not gonna compete. I am gonna um train all the way through my pregnancy, which is what I did. I trained until I was eight and a half months pregnant. And the only reason I stopped was because we had a heat wave. Oh. And the gym I go to does not have aircon. Yeah, yeah, not safe. So I was like, it's probably a bad idea. Um, and then I had my daughter six weeks later, I was back in the gym. Oh. Taking it easy and just didn't take any time off. And then she was seven months old and I did my first competition after she was born. And then when she was 13 months, I did the British Championships. And then the beginning of this year, I did another competition and I broke all of my pre-baby personal bests. Well done. Well cool. Wow and then since that was May this year, and then since then I've not competed, I've had a break, I've toned everything down a little bit, just because she's not sleeping, so I need to respect my recovery, it's not gonna be great. Um, so I'm I'm I'm kind of maintaining and ticking along at the moment, but I know it's just a season, you know. This is a season. She's gonna grow out of the not sleeping phase, that's gonna be fine.

Mel 35:29

I can't missing that too, so I get it.

Natalie 35:31

Yeah. And you know, this is another part of of of life that I help the women that I train deal with. I'm like, listen, the reason you're not getting this result right now is because the season of life that you're in is you've got a child that does not sleep.

Mel 35:48

Yeah. It's too much stress on the body.

Entering Competitive Powerlifting

Natalie 35:51

Not your body's not coping with it. We just need to maintain right now. And your body will respond really well once you start getting your sleep back. But if we don't maintain it and we don't just push that way, it's not gonna respond as well. It's gonna be a lot harder. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, and obviously you've got your your body's just different after you've had a baby, isn't it? So we've got to deal with all of that stuff. Yeah.

Mel 36:18

Oh, and I've had four, so it's just I mean, I've only I've only had one. So look, I've got to say my first one raked my body, and the other three just kept it that way.

Natalie 36:28

Yeah.

Mel 36:30

Oh yeah.

Natalie 36:31

Yeah, there's there's a girl on the on the Team GB team, and she said she's she's had two, and she's quite a bit younger than me. And she went, I swear, after I've had the second one, every week there is a part of my body that just decides to break.

Mel 36:50

Yeah. Yeah, there's things that are creaking that weren't creaking before. What's it gonna be like when I'm old?

Natalie 36:57

But again, as part of my coaching, this is what I help women navigate. You know, I'll get a message in, I'll do I'll get a message one day and go, um, I woke up this morning, this hurts. And I'm like, right, let's deal with it before it gets worse. And then I can send them voice notes or I can send them videos and go and go, do this stretch, try this. How does this feel? Or does you know, when you go to the gym today, try this. If it hurts, stop. We'll switch to this, and we can we can navigate through that together. Um, you don't have to think about it. All you have to think about is communicating with me. That the the more you communicate with me, uh, the more regular and the more honest you are, the better coach I can be for you. Um, and you know, again, that's the same with everything, isn't it?

Mel 37:46

Yeah, definitely. Well, we could probably keep talking for quite a while. I knew this would happen. Yeah, always does, right? That's always the way, isn't it? Especially when we're talking about the things that we enjoy. It's very easy to keep going, isn't it? It is. How can people find you if they want to connect with you, especially if they're around the UK or maybe even Wales, because they're not you're not far from there. Where can they find you?

Natalie 38:13

Well, funnily enough, the majority of my business is actually in America. So uh I don't I don't have a big percentage of of British people that I train. Um you can find me pretty much anywhere online, but the place I hang out the most is YouTube. And I have got a whole playlist of free exercises on YouTube as well. Fantastic. We'll pop the details in the in the notes. Yeah. So but you can you can connect with me pretty much anywhere online. It's just again, after having a baby, being, you know, part-time business owner and a full-time mum, I've had to kind of go, well, maybe running every social media platform is not a good idea.

Mel 38:53

No, yeah, I've given up on that myself. It's I don't enjoy it, so why keep pushing it?

Natalie 39:00

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there's it's it's just one of those things, and that's fine. But yeah, YouTube is where I hang out the most. I do have a private Facebook group which is completely free for for people who want to, you know, go a little bit deeper but not quite into coaching necessarily. Um so we'll put the details in the chat and you can connect with me wherever.

Mel 39:22

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Natalie, for joining us today. And I really appreciate you sharing all your insight.

Natalie 39:29

Thank you for having me in the beat.

Mel 39:31

You're very welcome. If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram @shes.organised or for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised.com/ toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life beyond it. See you next time.