If we commissioned a caricature of Charlotte it would have a smile spread across her face, head thrown back, laughing with everyone around her- likely between sets of something heavy. Charlotte’s joyful nature reminds us all that being dedicated to your training and enjoying the process are never at odds. Recently she started to focus on weightlifting specifically and has been following individualized programming with those goals in mind. Just the other week, she hit a lifetime PR snatch of 130lbs, and it looked niiiiice. Charlotte likes lifting, and lifting likes Charlotte right back.

What initially brought you to Queen Street?
I joined Queen Street after moving back to Kingston because of the welcoming community and awesome programming it offered. After dropping in during visits to the city, I knew that I wanted to join Queen Street full-time!

How does fitness fit into your life?
Fitness wasn’t always a part of my life - I didn’t play sports growing up and I thought going to the gym meant running countless miles on the treadmill. After I discovered lifting in 2016, I saw how consistent movement and fitness in my daily life positively impacted my mood, sleep, confidence, energy levels, and eating habits.

When did you become interested in individualized programming? What goals are you working towards?
After years of consistent training, I was interested in seeing how individualized and specific programming could make me a better athlete. I wanted to become stronger and improve my technique. While I enjoy the occasional sweaty conditioning workout, I really love lifting heavy weights and wanted to set strength goals to improve my lifts.

What did you learn about yourself through the assessment phase?
After the assessment, I learned that I was experiencing some strength imbalances between my left and right sides. I was surprised to see that I was actually “stronger” on my left, despite being right-hand dominant. I always assumed that my right side was much stronger than my left and would actually compensate for that in the gym or in my daily life.

What progress have you made recently that you’re excited about?
I’ve been working hard on becoming more technically proficient in the snatch and clean & jerk and recently hit a PR in my snatch that looked really good!

What elements of the coaching have been particularly valuable to you?
It’s encouraging to have someone else believe you can also achieve your goals and have a plan laid out for you that does exactly that. When a coach writes out that I’ll be doing X movement at Y weight, it’s a confidence boost to see that they believe I am capable of doing this and don’t need to second guess myself.

What’s something you do outside of the gym that feels essential to your success inside the gym?
I always try to get 8 hours of sleep! I am lucky enough to be a good sleeper and try to take advantage of that as low hanging fruit to help my success in the gym.

Tell us about an ordinary moment (or two) in the gym that brings you joy.
I love “doing mobility”, but it’s actually just hanging out and talking with people. I also love bro-ing out and doing a pump sesh.

If this song comes on mid-workout, it’s impossible for you to not sing along, what is it?
Any Bad Bunny song!!