00:00 When we started the club, a lot of people just competing locally.
00:04 And now we look and we see how many of our members are actually representing their nations.
00:08 Swimming was really where I started my sporting career.
00:14 My mom is actually the sportsman in the family.
00:16 At every gala meet I had for swimming, just every time my head would come out the water,
00:21 I could just hear her in the crowd.
00:23 That was kind of where the journey started.
00:26 I did my undergrad in financial management and thought, you know what?
00:29 I want to get international experience.
00:31 I want to live and work in a place that's diverse, that feels a lot more competitive.
00:36 I then landed in Dubai and I landed up working for an events company.
00:41 I was very focused on my career and I noticed my body weight started going up.
00:45 I wasn't as active as I'd like to be.
00:47 My diet was all over the place and I thought, no, it can't go on like this.
00:51 I have to change something.
00:57 It just so happened at the time, this very big bearded man walked into the gym by the name of Patrick.
01:03 He was just kind of this first legitimate powerlifter that we'd met.
01:07 He competes for Team Sweden, he'd been to the World Championship.
01:10 He said, you know what? Let me coach you.
01:12 We started following strength training and powerlifting.
01:15 I thought, I want to do more of this. How can I get better at this?
01:18 We'd always kind of chat and I said to him, there's nothing really now that brings together
01:22 this community of strength athletes and powerlifters and weightlifters.
01:26 I'd love to have my own facility.
01:27 And he said, oh yeah, me too.
01:29 And fast forward to December 2018, we opened Desert Barbell Sports Club.
01:35 Powerlifting essentially is a game of three movements.
01:39 It's a squat, bench press and a deadlift.
01:42 So the training consists mainly out of those movements and complementary exercises to support them.
01:48 A very interesting thing that we managed to do is de-dramatize the barbell for individuals
01:52 that had no idea what powerlifting was.
01:54 We have about 120 some members and there are huge benefits to paying resistance training
01:59 for literally all age groups.
02:01 Almost every single health factor benefited by training with weights.
02:05 My dad suffers from osteoarthritis.
02:08 A couple of years ago, he said he wishes that he had done something to change his situation today.
02:14 A lot of what would have helped him is actually strength training,
02:16 which is what we say countering the aging process by maintaining muscle density and bone density.
02:21 If I can get that message out and if I can change one person's life 20 years from now,
02:26 I've done my job.
02:27 In our region, we are the biggest powerlifting club.
02:30 So we have British champions in our club, Swedish nationals, world championship level,
02:35 Asian championship level.
02:37 The Asian championships this year presents a unique opportunity
02:41 because the competition will be in the UAE, hosted in Dubai.
02:45 When the head of the powerlifting committee said, do you want to represent the UAE?
02:48 How do you say no to that?
02:50 It's such an honor, such a privilege.
02:51 So I very much am looking forward to representing the UAE at the Asian championships.
02:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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