He ain’t heavy – he’s her grandad!

Eddie Bennett and his granddaughter Gabby have a bond that is strengthened by their shared hobby.

At 72, Eddie is one of the country’s oldest competitive powerlifters, and he’s now passing on his skills to the next generation, 17-year-old Gabby.

The pair are regulars at Unique Fitness And Lifestyle at Bradford University’s Great Horton Road campus. It is at the gym that originally stood on this site where Eddie developed his passion for powerlifting.

He initially went there to work out with weights, then got to know members of the gym who asked if he fancied having a go at powerlifting. “They said, ‘You’re fairly strong. Why don’t you take up power lifting?’ So I did,” says Eddie, who has been weightlifting since he was a teenager.

“Because I was a skinny child, I wanted to build myself up. Very soon I was playing rugby,” he recalls.

Eddie gave up rugby when he was 40, but carried on weight training. He has coached the Bradford Bulls in weightlifting. Six months after starting powerlifting, he entered his first competition and has been notching up the trophies ever since.

Powerlifting is a strength sport consisting of three events: the bench press, the squat and the deadlift.

It resembles weightlifting, as both disciplines involve lifting weights in three attempts.

In the 32 years he’s been involved in the sport, Eddie has competed all over the world and broken a British record. Eddie won his first world championship aged 63 and his first British championship at 50. Watching her grandfather competing inspired Gabby to take up the sport in 2008.

“I went to a competition with him in Milan and I saw other women competing. I didn’t know they did it and I made friends with some of them,” she says.

A week after the pair returned home Gabby, from Bingley, started training with Eddie, a retired highways engineer with Bradford Council. He says he was ‘made up’ when Gabby showed an interest. “It’s given me a new lease of life,” he adds.

Ten weeks after starting training, Gabby entered her first competition and, like her grandad, she is now winning trophies. “In her first competition she broke three world records and she’s never looked back,” says Eddie proudly. “She has broken 42 world records to date.”

Two grown men is the equivalent weight of what Gabby can lift. She and Eddie, who both belong to the British Drug Free Power Lifting Association, train twice a week at Unique and say the hardest thing is maintaining the motivation between shows as the competitions are so far apart.

“You think about footballers and they are competing every week, but we compete four times a year, so training has to be enjoyable. It has to be an integrated part of life and not everybody can cope with that,” explains Eddie.

Adds Gabby: “Competitions encourage you to train more because you’ve done so well.”

Gabby wants to see the sport receive more recognition, and she also wants to see more women involved. “We want more girls, and more young lifters,” she says.

The sport demands positive thinking too. “You have to be positive and the beauty of that is it rubs off into every day life,” says Eddie. “Powerlifting brings many health benefits. It prevents osteoporosis, it slows down the ageing process by encouraging your body to deliver more growth hormone than it would normally, it burns calories and teaches you about sensible eating.

“Active muscle also aids blood flow, reducing the risk of hardened arteries and blood clots. The heart is a muscle and also responds to training by growing healthier and stronger.”

Powerlifters, like most sportsmen and women, are conscious of their diet. Vitamins, minerals and fresh fruit and vegetables are essential ingredients to staying healthy and strong.

Despite being diagnosed with arthritis at 50, Eddie defied doctors’ orders not to powerlift. “The consultant said ‘You are going to have to give that up.’ Obviously I didn’t and now when I go for my six-monthly check-up, the doctor always says, ‘Are you still lifting those weights? – Don’t give it up!’” smiles Eddie.

He believes powerlifting is good for discipline, and a good social sport. “It’s a very friendly sport. It’s one of the few sports where you are cheering for your competitor because we all know the competition isn’t between you and the guy over there, it’s between you and that lump of iron,” says Eddie.

Now Gabby’s boyfriend has expressed an interest in competing and has started training with Eddie.

“It’s a very family-orientated sport. People go to competitions with their wives and children,” says Eddie.

“There are a few cases of husbands and wives, fathers and sons training and competing together, but I think we are the only grandfather and granddaughter!”

- For more information about powerlifting, visit the British Drug Free Power Lifting Association’s website, bdfpa.co.uk.