Cathy Millen's Mighty Figure, Video. September 2012

After her competition days, Cathy (now 46) took a long break from exercise to concentrate on her Personal Training business where she's currently she's working as PT at Les Mills City.

But Cathy's passion for training started to return after doing yoga of all things! For the past 6-8 months Cathy has been back training regularly and now has a mini goal of competing in a local bench press comp at the end of September.  Does this mean a comeback for the former World Champ? read on to find out.                   

Height:    154 cms         Weight:    80kgs       

What age did you start powerlifting and why did you get into it in the first place?  Did you do any other sports/exercise at the time?

I started weight training at 14 and competed in my 1st powerlifting comp aged 15.
The reason for starting weight training was to improve my strength as a tennis player as I competed in regional & national events at that time.
I was involved in Hockey, Tennis Athletics.
Approx a year into Powerlifting they all took a back seat as I wanted to concentrate on my lifting!

Can you give us a brief background of your success in powerlifting and how long you competed internationally?   What kind of weight were you lifting?

National Powerlifting Champion, National & Commonwealth records – sorry can’t remember how many! A few!

5 x World Powerlifting Champion 1990-1994.
Multi World Record Holder, over 20 I think!
2 World Champion of Champions titles, Strongest Woman in the World title based on the combined total of all 3 lifts ,it was the highest in the world in the federation I competed in. That should do it!!

My personal bests were Squat 255kgs,Bench Press 175kgs Deadlift 260 kgs Total 687kgs

   

You are making a mini comeback and competing at the Coast Barbell Club Capo NZ Cash for K-os Bench Press comp on 29 Sept, why are you doing the comp?

I had a long break from any sort of exercise regime for about 9 years, then 2 ½ years ago I began to exercise and took up yoga which I have to say I loved even though I wasn’t too flash at it.
Yoga has a strength component to it, that resonated with me which to cut a long story short got me interested in weights again.

6-8 months ago after playing with weights for about a year I decided to train heavy again with an open mind to competing  but only in the Bench.

So I set my sights on this Bench Press Competition in September, it is purely for the enjoyment of lifting again, I’m not interested in records or titles for that matter.
My body is in good shape for my age so it is a positive challenge for me.

Have you looked beyond the local comp?

There is an exhibition at the Olympia each year in September, I was considering preparing for that if my weights were reasonable but to be honest I don’t know if that’s the way I want to go. There are other challenges physically I would like to pursue.

Do you feel any pressure to do amazing lifts at the comp?

Only the pressure I put on myself, yes I want to lift a respectable weight but I’m realistic to what that might be.
I’m older, I don’t have the training behind me and I don’t have the same mindset I used to have when I was younger. Back then records, world titles were everything now they’re just not important.

Is your body behaving like it ‘back in the day’, what changes in training plan, recovery have you had to do to accommodate?

My body takes longer to recovery between the heavy workouts; I can still reach the intensity in training, my mind is still strong and focused.

I feel my approach to training is holistic & balanced.Flexibilty is as bigger part of my preparation as the training side.

I plan my training 3 months at a time, the outline of it not the details such as the exercises etc but the different phases I will be working within such as control & stability, hypertrophy, maximal.The Speed of movement,rest periods in each stage,the muscle groups etc etc.

But there is always flexibility within the plan there has to be, one never knows what can change from week to week!!

  
                                        Tom Wojcik and Cathy


Can you give us an overview of your current week’s training and perhaps the weight you’re doing for the exercises.

Right now I am in Stage 4 (there were 3 other stages prior to this, each stage was approx 3 weeks) which is specializing in the core lifts; this is based on Ian Kings methods.

Classic Neural training.
Wave loading methods used.. a Bench Workout looks like this
Bench Press Competition lift, feet down, back arched, wrist wraps only, no bench shirt
Bench Press   Speed of movement 211, 4-5 mins rest period supersetted with EZ Bar Curls same rep range as bench press

Warm ups 8 reps x 60kgs, 5 reps 80kgs, 3 reps x 100kgs 1 x 107.5kgs
Working sets 3 reps x 112.5kgs, 2 reps x 115kgs, 1rep x 122.5kgs 3reps x 110kgs,
Warm down set 10 reps x 80kgs

The other 2 lifts are performed the same way in the rep range; rest periods are longer 5-7 mins

Considering the time that has lapsed, not too bad really but still significantly less that when I was in my prime. That was 20 years ago. I’m am more balanced in my physique and I would say my technique,muscle imbalances has improved.

We see you stretching quite a lot and you’re also a big believer in yoga, why should gym goers do more of this?

I think flexibility is just as an important physical quality as strengthis,one that is under rated.
I static stretch 40 mins and do 3-5 mins of control drills before I even start my weight training.

I’m not going to get into the debate of whether static stretching is better or not than dynamic stretching or whether it makes you weaker!! Or I will say is that it greatly impacts on lengthening my muscles that I’m about to train and it helps maintain a specific relationship between my joints. Believe me if it made me weaker I wouldn’t be doing it.
Try it for 12 weeks, and then decide for yourself!!

Regarding yoga, find a good teacher, one that has the background to take you through the movements safely and within your ability, no different to training with weights really.

You’re also working as a Personal Trainer, how long have you been a PT and do you specialize in any particular fields of training?

Hypertrophy, general weight training, powerlifting training, comp preparation, weight training programming are my areas, with Flexibility (not yoga) becoming an area that I am interested in. Then of course body building. My total time in the industry is 20 years.

Wonder if we can entice Cathy back to Bodybuilding for one more show!?


When we look at you, we probably assume you’re primarily a PT with focus on power lifting, what other types of sports, and areas of fitness you can help people with.

All sports once I understand what is required for the athlete, person I’m going to work with. Mainly the strength, flexibilty components; I am educationing myself in the other 2 physical qualities endurance & speed so that I can be an all rounder in the 4 main areas of physical preparation.

What are some typical mistakes do you think normal gym goers make when they train at the gym i.e. in terms of the weight they are lifting, perhaps their programme

Poor form, technique. Lifting too heavy to maintain form, over training, too much volume,no plan to work from,they just wing it every time they go into the gym and normally end up only training the body parts they like.

Imbalance in their program design and staying on the same program too long!!

What do you enjoy most about being a PT?

Working with people,seeing them improve and of course achieve their goals.


Cathy Millen
September 2012


Click Pic to Watch Cathy's routine at the NABBA World Champs 2000