1) Who is Noorin Gulam? (where are you from, what do you do, a bit about yourself (hobbies, etc)
I’m an Olympic Weightlifter from London. I've been studying at Bournemouth University for what seems like a lifetime now haha. I started off studying Psychology in September 2014 and then left the course because it wasn't right for me and was fortunate enough to be invited on British Weightliftings (BWL) Golden Chance program. Once that had ended I went back to uni the following September to study Sport Psychology and Coaching Sciences. I'm currently in my placement year of the course working at Leaf Studio School as an assistant S&C coach. As far as hobbies go.. is eating one? Because aside from work and weightlifting thats pretty much all I do .. besides sleep, that stuff is important too!
2) How many years have you been training?
I have been participating in lifting weights for 7 years now .. it surprises me every time I say it! I actually started off at school taking up the sport for GCSE PE (I never had a sport/ was a talented sports person). I went to my first competition 6 weeks later and haven't looked back since.
3) Whats been the most challenging/hardest part of your journey so far? and how have you overcome them (set backs, rejections, injuries, basically anything difficult that you have had to overcome)
I would say the setback that has affected me greatly for the past few years has been my first ever injury, an MCL strain, picked it up in the most stupid way possible. During a warmup jumping in and out of lunges at Loughborough during the Golden Chance program, my back foot hits a plate and my knee caves in.. ouch. I knew immediately that something was
wrong, however I was well looked after by the BWL support staff. Little did I know once all was 'healed' up that it would change my lifting career. This injury along side with coming back too hard too soon for the British Seniors and continuing on to British U20s caused some tendinopathy in my right knee. Tendinopathy is a weird one because you can't just rest, you have to balance out loading the tendon and adequate rest. Long story short i've pretty much been suffering with chronic tendinopathy ever since and actually developed bone bruising too (took a year to go away), this means sometimes I can't squat and i've got to alter the training plan to keep my knees from being in too much pain!
4) What does your typical workout/diet routine look like?
Typically I train 5/6 times a week for roughly 2 hours, squat no more than 3 times a week and try to manage the loading of my knees so that my tendons can rest between heavy squat workouts, including the lifts. I add loads of eccentric and isometric work to load my tendons and strengthen them as well as loads of general strength stuff to help keep my body in one piece.
As far as my diet goes, I try to eat as clean as I can prioritising carbs around training and getting as much protein in as I can because I honestly don't get enough. Oh and I don't eat breakfast .. well my first meal is usually around 11, I am not a morning person!
5) What new knowledge have you learned over this past year regarding training, lifestyle and nutrition?
That I can be a 48kg weightlifter! For YEARS I had always joked about it and been like .. 'can you imagine me cutting to 48?!'
And I did it, in possibly the silliest way in terms of the amount of time I gave myself to do it.. which I am still suffering from now but I am happy I did it. It taught me that I am a bit tougher than I thought, I actually have abs in there somewhere! (they are still a bit shy) and that if you really stick to a nutrition plan you can achieve the results. You have to be disciplined, losing weight is SIMPLE.. you eat good, fresh, clean foods and make sure you are burning more calories than you eat, its the determination and ability to stick to the plan that is the hard bit.. long term.
6) Whats your favourite cheat/Treat meal?
Absolute sucker for a good burger and fries... I love fries.
7) Whats one supplement that you could not live without?
Most recently GLC2000, love that stuff it's kept me able to tolerate more volume and load over the past 6 months than I have been in the past couple of years.
8) If you had to start your Journey from scratch with your health & physique what would you do differently and why?
My younger self knew nothing about nutrition and fuelling the body correctly for training I was a kid, started at 15 and for the first 3 years of my lifting career I just skipped dinner and i'd make weight. I think knowing what I know now I would of paid more attention to eating right to fuel my training I would of progressed a lot faster.
9) Who do you look upto in the fitness industry and why?
I wouldn't say I look up to anyone in the 'fitness' industry, however in the Weightlifting world the recent performances of Emily Godley and Zoe Smith really has lit up some motivation inside me. The courage, hard work, grit, finesse, pure dedication from these humans just amazed me. It showed me that no matter what you are going through if you work hard and continue to fight adversity you can come out on top and I was absolutely inspired by these ladies after that event.
10) If you had to give one bit of advice to people starting out what would that be?
You will fail at some point, a lift, a competition, to even make it into the gym sometimes, and thats okay. Just keep giving it your all and the results will come.
11) What new goals do you have on the horizon?
Having recently qualified for the World University Championships and European U23 Championships they will be my next focus, If I get selected for the European U23's it would be my first and last so I am really looking forward to that competition in Spain.
12) Where can people find you? (website, social media accounts)
You can find me on instagram @noorinn
