Take the Big Bag

Cat brought my attention to Spanish team
They are selling these shirts to raise funds for Walid Owda of the Palestinian Powerlifting Federation who is organising powerlifting meets for Gazan lifters

Check out their profile to get one and support the project

Lou's shoes

Client success post 🎺
Lisa's been training some calisthenics classics and she recently unlocked press ups (on her knuckles - for wrist comfort but it's also badass - and toes). 4 solid reps and a 5th wormy one 🪱😁
AND 4 beautiful reps on band assisted chin ups

There’s less than 4 weeks to go now until the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships. My team England tracksuit has arrived.
You can’t tell from this selfie but I’m loving my training, and focusing hard on rest and recovery.
I’m excited for the huge privilege and honour to lift alongside some of the best from other countries – inspiring fellow athletes to look up to and share the platform with.
I’m deeply grateful for the support of my friends, family and client community who are making this possible.

I’m also doing another kind of prep, that’s heavier than anything I’ll ever touch on a barbell.

Being an athlete is not just a physical way of life, but about the choices you make and the mentality you cultivate. Part of that for me is taking an active interest in the political state of the world that our sport takes place within. Because the two things are not separate.

I’ve already been in full-on research mode for the past 2-3 years, working on the book I’ve been writing. Now I’m taking some time to learn more about the history of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is the organisation that remains in the shadow of the former British Empire – something that we don’t get taught much detail about in Britain.

This year’s World Cup saw a number of match ups between two nations where in the past one had been the coloniser and the other had been the colonised. Fans remarked on the interesting extra dynamic this added to the events. In a competition organised via the Commonwealth, this is the underlying dynamic of the whole event. So I couldn’t pass up this chance to do some self-education.

So far I’ve read Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor (2016), Uncommon Wealth by Kojo Koram (2022), and Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire (1955). I’m sharing some key lessons, including the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the concept of the Imperial Boomerang, over on my blog. https://takethebigbag.com/2026/08/25/commonwealth-powerlifting-championships-prep/
In Part 2 I’ll be learning and sharing more about the history of the colonisation of Canada, as part of my journey to this competition.

'If we truly love sport, then we must love it enough to tell the truth about its history and courageous enough to transform its future.

The greatest challenge before sport is not lifting heavier weight. It is lifting the weight of history.'

Justice Roe Williams

The Weight Beyond the Bar What the Sonita Muluh Incident Asks of Us: Reclaiming Sport Through Justice, History, and Love

(Most of) the BBT Summer Summit 2026 crew: Lou, Heath, Siyang, the PB Pig and Lydia