Niamh Doyle - Peak Performance

My name is Niamh Doyle. I love powerlifting and strength sports and have a genuine passion to help people to get stronger and confident through resistance exercise. I encourage people to release themselves from the shackles of aesthetics and focus on how training makes them feel and what they can do. I have a Master of Science degree in Sports, Exercise and Performance Psychology, completing a thesis titled "The Effect of Acute Resistance Exercise on Feelings of Energy and Fatigue, Moderated by Participant's Sleep Quality”. With this qualification, I practise as a Performance Coach for a variety of athletes. I am a qualified Personal Trainer since the beginning of this year from Evolution Fitness and I am qualified to instruct Strength & Conditioning, HIIT, Spinning and Mobility-based classes. I have a Certificate in Nutrition for Health & Performance from Optimum Nutrition. During COVID-19 lockdown I hosted a plethora of online classes via Zoom. There were between 15-18 sessions per week with 30+ attendees. The offerings varied from 1-to-1 sessions and core classes to Tabata and circuits. I received phenomenal feedback from the participants of the classes who said that having the classes gave structure to their time in lockdown and really aided their mental wellbeing during such chaos.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch! We can discuss your goals and work towards achieving them together. We could make a great team!

If you would like a deeper history to get to know me better and understand my journey, I will detail that here. So I was never an athletic child, I always had an excuse to get out of P.E. and really enjoyed high-calorie food! I got to my heaviest weight of 120kg in the second year of my undergraduate studies in 2014. I joined Weight Watchers but didn’t follow Weight Watchers eating plans, I used MyFitnessPal as I had a good understanding of energy balance from my own research. I mainly attended Weight Watchers classes to stay adherent. I then joined a gym and began running using the ‘Couch to 5k’ app. I really enjoyed running and my increased energy and fitness levels. I worked up to a 10k by the end of the year.

About a year later I ventured over to the free weights section of the gym when all the running started to become slightly monotonous. I thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of increasing the weights week by week and asked for help with form from the trainers in the gym. In 2016, I was heading back to college for final year with a new motivated attitude. I had viewed the International Powerlifting Federation's World Championships on a YouTube stream and felt that powerlifting was something I really wanted to pursue. I arranged a meeting with a trainer who worked in the gym in UL who has extensive knowledge of the three lifts! Powerlifting involves the back squat, the bench press and the deadlift movements. I was taught the basic techniques, some cues and my 1 repetition max (1RM) in squat, bench and deadlift was tested. I was set up with a powerlifting style programme that I loved. To continue with powerlifting I started attending a beginner's powerlifting classes in a powerlifting specific gym, CityGym in Limerick. I loved every second of these sessions and learned so much information and cues from the trainers. I tried to soak up as much knowledge as I could because I was so keen to pursue this sport seriously! In December of 2016, I completed my first mock meet at CityGym and the obsession was ignited!

Just under a year later, I competed in my first official competition with the Irish Powerlifting Federation (IPF) in CityGym, I came second in my weight class. At the end of that year, I was invited to compete to represent Munster in the IPF/NIPF All-Ireland’s which was held in Belfast. Then in February 2018, I competed in the IPF Nationals as a Junior. This was an amazing experience as I was competing alongside some of my Irish powerlifting idols! I have competed multiple times since then, each time refining my knowledge and increasing the amount that I lift. I believe I am proof that you can be unmotivated and uninterested in sport and exercise and turn it around!