Callander powerlifter shares inspiring story after breaking records at 50
Mandy only took up the event ten months ago as she brought up the milestone, but has blazed a trail through the Scottish scene - including being crowned as the top powerlifter for her age group at a UK-wide championships in London at the end of last month.
The pocket powerhouse broke her own bench press record with a 50 kilogram lift, alongside a deadlift of 105 kilograms and a 67.5 kilogram squat.
All of that despite only weighing 45 kilograms - or just over seven stones - during the competition.
Mandy's journey to powerlifting prowess, however, has been far from a straight one, taking up the sport after time spent in mountain and long-distance running and then completing the gruelling 'Hyrox' training.
Mandy admits her progress in powerlifting has shocked many, but hopes she can offer inspiration to women in the middle phase of their lives to try new things and leave no regrets.
She told the Observer: 'It's been a bit of a shock considering I'm only ten months into doing this, but I seem to be really powerful and I'm pulling more than two times my body weight which is crazy.
'The powerlifting came about because I was a runner and then was competing in Hyrox for three years where I struggled with the sled pull aspect of it.
'I was turning 50 and it made sense to get into weights; I hired a coach to help me with my dead lift and fell in love, then it was off to enter a competition with Scottish Powerlifting around Christmas which I won in the 'Masters' category - for people 50 and older.
'When I was younger, I hated PE at school and I only got into running after I had my kids to get out of the house for a bit and then it just became an interest for me, I ran four marathons and was doing ultra-marathons as well.
'One of my biggest regrets would be not starting lifting and even the exercise side of things earlier.
'As women, we get hung up on how we look, but I'm caring more about strength than my appearance at the moment and it makes me happy.
'I think it's an important message that just because you reach 50, that you can start something new and where people think it all starts to go downhill at this age, that is far from my experience at all.'
Mandy - who trains with coach Kim Wilson at the Athena Personal Training gym in Edinburgh - will next compete at the European Masters powerlifting event in Finland next February, before a trip Stateside for the Worlds in Autumn 2026.
Her journey of self-discovery in the gym also led to a diagnosis of autism just over six years ago, with Mandy admitting it brings both positives and negatives to competing in high-level events.
'One of the elements it brings is it allows me to have an intense focus on something and even thought the training can be quite repetitive - it's only really three moves - I'm happy for things to be quite monotonous,' Mandy continued.
'I just find myself desperate to lift that weight off the ground and it gets the neurons in my brain really engaged so it makes the constant training enjoyable.
'But that has it's own issues as well, I used to get injured when running because I over-trained and because I don't have as much of a pain threshold, that desire to push through things can be dangerous. The lights and noise at the competitions can also be quite difficult for me, so that's where it's great to have Kim there as a coach who understands me and gets me to focus on the right things.
'The Europeans and then the Worlds coming up are just really exciting and I know I've got the chance to do something cool at 50.'
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