ABOUT ME

Name: Elizabeth Horne (nee Talbot)

Competed in: Armwrestling, Strongwoman, Grip Strength, All-round Weightlifting

Competitive History:
World Armwrestling Champs 3rd in Heavyweight class Gydnia, Poland 2001
World Strongest Woman qualifier Callander, Scotland 2001 (aged 17, placed joint 6th)
Britain's Strongest Woman 2007 3rd
UK Strongest Woman 2004 (placed 4th)
European Grip Champs Loddekopinge Sweden 2004
British Grip Championships (have competed in this contest since 1996 for a total of 6 years – I have placed 1st in the novice and intermediate categories and 3rd in the open – this is against men!)
British Armwrestling Championships 1999, 2000, 2001 (1st place)

Date of birth: 10th December 1983

Birthplace: England

Height: 5’8”

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Hazel

Bodyweight: 182lb

Fave Foods: Anything fresh and natural!

Hobbies: Training, competing, reading, sewing and garment design, cooking

Favourite body part to train: Arms, forearms and grip
 
About me (personal):

I am 23 years old, married and living with my husband (coach), stepson and baby daughter. I am lucky enough to have my own gym, and train daily. I graduated from university in 2005 with a BA Hons in English Literature; I am involved in the day-to-day operation of 4 different businesses that my husband and I run from home; I have too many hobbies to list and too little time too enjoy them all! I love being strong and always have done – it has played a massive part in shaping my identity from an early age and I am grateful for it. My forte is anything related to hand strength – I am primarily a grip athlete and love performing classic feats of strength. I am also interested in the history of strength sports and have co-published a magazine on this topic.

About me (training):

I started weight training when I was ten years old. My brother and I were involved in a judo exhibition at the local sports centre, and during the break we went for a wander around. We found the gym, where my brother (two years my senior) decided he would like to start pumping up his muscles at the age of 12, so I joined in to keep him company. We started off going once a week, then when he discovered girls and going out, I carried on training by myself and had upped the stakes to twice a week by the time I started high school. It wasn’t long before the martial arts training stopped completely and I dedicated a lot of my spare time to weight lifting instead. I was eager to compete as soon as I could, and was allowed to enter my first contest at the age of 12. I placed second from last, and only avoided the bottom place spot because another competitor bombed on an event; I was so proud of that small victory!

I have always admired the dedication and commitment involved in bodybuilding but for me, the main focus of my training has been simply to maintain good strength and health. I’ve always enjoyed high volume training, especially on events such as squats and deadlifts where I struggle at heavier weights. I like thick bar wrist curls (we used to do them on a decline, which was fun), and sometimes we’ve had training sessions based around the idea of friendly competition, which always appeals to me as a highly competitive person. I’m just like everyone else in that I really enjoy training on events that I’m good at, but I also appreciate that the most important things to train are your weak points. I’ve always liked things that push me really hard: I remember one dark wet evening when I was persuaded to do some crazy holds with weights in both hands, which I was too stubborn to put down when I’d had enough. I ended up passing out because the weight had crushed all the air out of me and I couldn’t breathe! I’ve done something similar on rapid sets of continuous curls as well: 20 reverse curls followed by 20 strict curls with my back against a wall at a weight that was really too heavy and I ended up having to be caught on my way to the floor!

My favourite training events are mainly arm and shoulder work, because I have been given very broad shoulders to begin with, and seeing as people are bound to notice them, I’d rather they looked okay. I would love to be able to deadlift well, and even though it’s a long way from being my favourite lift, I’m determined to get to a respectable 200kg single (I know, it is really nothing to shout about, but I don’t claim to be a powerlifter). I enjoy strongman style events very much. Loading has always been one of my favourite love/hate exercises, as has car pulling. We used to pull a car in a harness up a 1-in-4 gradient with speed bumps and it nearly killed me. I also really liked the Conan’s Wheel when I trained for it and did it in competition. I have to admit that most of these ‘favourites’ are events that I’m reasonably good at.

A lot of my current training is geared towards strongwoman events and the compilation of a classic strongwoman show routine. After having a lengthy period of time away from weights during my pregnancy and immediately afterwards (my daughter was born by Caesarean section), I was primarily concerned with improving my fitness and losing weight when I was able to resume training. Thankfully this is going really well, and I am feeling stronger by the day. I am really looking forward to the strongwoman contests I have coming up this year, and I am also enjoying filming the clips for this website. I would love to travel a little more next year to contests, and compete against some of the great strongwomen across the world.

Some of my lifts/feats:

IronMind CoC #2 gripper x 11 reps
Pinch lifted 2 x 15k Weider discs (3” wide) with one hand.
IronMind CoC #3 gripper closed to ¼”
Rolling Thunder World Record (with new handle) 65.5k
45lb Disc lifted by the Hub
Torn a deck of playing cards in half (Nov 2005 under tuition of US strongman Steve McGranahan)
Grade 5 bolt x 6” bent to 2" in 53 secs.
Bent two 6” nails taped together
Bent a 5” IronMind Blue bar
Rolled two Frying Pans up together