By Tomás Cuddihy
Mighty Mark Lane, our final Hall Of Fame Inductee for 2013, is a phenomenal athlete with a proud
history not only as a power lifter but as an IDFPA original; an official, webmaster for the IDFPA,
referee, technical director, drug tester, team leader and much more as you will discover when you
read the interview below. Mark is also an accomplished martial artist so don’t make him angry…you
wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. We are grateful for people like Mark who were there at the
beginning and built the IDFPA into what it now is. His wins and lifts are impressive but more than
that his contributions in building and perpetuating the association have been outstanding. And he is
not done yet. At this year’s bench-press competition in Mallow, Cork; Mark set an Irish Masters
record in the first competition of his comeback. Portends well for 2014.
It is with gratitude and thanks that we induct Mark Lane into the august body that is the Irish Drug
Free Powerlifting Associations Hall Of Fame. Well done Mark and long may you continue to lift.
We asked Mark some questions and he was kind enough to lend us his words of wisdom…provided
we return them unaltered. Here now, in his own words, is Marks take on all things powerlifting.
Full power senior results :
 World champs 3x winner (6 x top 3)
 European champs – 3x winner.
 Irish champs 6x winner (7 if include as a master)
 British champs 4 x winner (10 x top 3)
 British DL champs 4x winner
Single lift results
 World champs 4 x winner
 SQ – 1 x winner
Master results
 M1 3x full power winner and about 6 x world DL winner
Best lifts :
 220k raw squat, 270k assisted
 150k bench (raw)
 295k deadlift (was a senior world record)
Records :
 Currently hold 5 Irish senior, 12 M1 4 M2
 WCurrently hold World - 2 M1 & 2 M2
Official Posts
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Webmaster for the IDFPA from 1997->2012 (15 years)
WDFPF International Referee
BDFPA/IDFPA drug control officer for about 10 years.
Profile:
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Name: Mark Lane
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Age: 50-ish ;-p
·
Height: I thought I was 5 foot 8 but having put up a dartboard at the weekend (the bullseye is
5’8”) I found out I was 5 foot 7 and a half – I’m sure it’s the years of squatting and not the years
being on the planet
·
Weight: 82.5-85k depending on before or after a ‘good’ weekend. Compete @ 82.5 or 90k.
·
Occupation: IT Project Manager (yeah boring I know)
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Years Experience: Started powerlifting in 1988 but started weights a long time prior to that it
was even before Rocky met Apollo Creed! It was mainly light weights to help my judo. I remember
winning a clean/press impromptu comp at my school with a ‘massive’ 65k!
·
Club : I train mainly in my shed nowadays. My shed/gym is called BarbL’s gym. (My wife’s
name is Barbara Lane…do you get it….)
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Hobbies outside training: outside of powerlifting – my passion is martial arts. Nowadays it’s
wing chun (assistant instructor), but I have studied judo (black belt) and karate (1st kyu – 1 belt
below black). Started martial arts (judo) was I was 13.
Also a season ticket holder at Wycombe Wanderers (who Martin O’Neil used to manage and got us
into the football league).
Competition Best Lifts
Squat : 220k (raw), 265k (assisted), Bench Press 150k (raw), Deadlift 295k (either).
What are your personal and competitive accomplishments in weight training?
Full power senior results
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World champs 3x winner (6 x top 3) ·
European champs –3x winner. ·
Irish champs 6x winner (7 if include as a master) ·
British champs 4 x winner (10 x top 3) · British DL champs 4x winner
Single lift results ·
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World champs 4 x winner ·
SQ – 1 x winner
Master results ·
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M1 3x full power winner and about 6 x world DL winner
Won the best lifter in the European Champs in 2000.
What first motivated you to start training?
As mentioned before wanted to get better at judo. I wasn’t ever the most skilful so my aim was to be
the strongest/fittest. I moved up the weight classes – 71k, 78k and finally 86k! Then I got too old for
judo and started powerlifting (now I’m getting too old for powerlifting!). An old school friend Andy
Bowman was doing powerlifting and got me started. (In case he reads this – I want to give him credit
as he has been a big influence on my powerlifting and has taught me so much. Even now I ring him
up for advice). I found out about the BPA (the previous name of the BDFPA) by chance by reading a
now defunct magazine called Strength Athlete as it had the results of the WDFPF Worlds in it.
What is your favourite lift?
Bench press even though it’s my worst! Doesn’t help having ape like arms and a 2 dimensional body!
The other lift that I enjoy is rack deadlifts as I can put a lot of weight on the bar to stroke my ego!
I have never liked squats/deadlift as I find any weight hard just different levels of hardness.
Biggest Single Achievement?
Was pleased with my 295k at the worlds – I was in 3rd place up to the final lift. The MC announced
Mark Lane going for a world record for the win…no pressure then!
Also being part of the 24hr bench press marathon that broke the record in the Guinness Book of
Records was a hard but great experience (unfortunately another team beat the record before ours
got into the book!). We had to bench 50k for 10 reps every minute for 3.5 hours and then have 30
minutes rest and then repeat this cycle for 24 hours.
What has been the biggest obstacle you've ever faced in achieving your goals?
Having a full quad tear a couple of years ago. Didn’t look good when I was the patella at the side of
the leg. I had chronic tendinitis in the knee for well over a year – ignored it and took a handful of
ibuprofen before training, rather than resting. The end result was the quad tear – a lesson to
anyone (if anyone does) read this…listen to your body!
How important is diet to you?
Very. If I don’t eat clean, I find that I am sluggish in my workouts and run out of energy very quickly.
It might also be a little psychosomatic in that I feel I’ve eaten well so I have the right fuel in my body
so I will have a good workout.
I tend to have the majority of my carbs in the morning and then have protein/veggies in the
afternoon/evening.
Also having a protein shake before and after training I find really helps with my recovery.
How often do you train and where?
BarbL’s gym – but I do sometimes train @ Sunbury with Andy (the deadlift) Murtagh.
How would you summarize your training style and belief in training?
Based on a hardgainer style of training , ie abbreviated, basic and cycling the training coupled with
speed work.
I will only do weights 2-3 times per week and only do 2-4 exercises per session. I cycle my training
and one of the keys is having recovery/active rest weeks – I think this is one of the reasons why 531
works as it includes the deload week. I also do a lot of speed work but I go heavier in my speed
work than the traditional WSB style of 50-60%.
I will cycle the speed work and peak on 80%.The reason I go heavier than WSB is I find that you have
to focus on the form more as it’s a medium/heavy weight. With the lighter weight you can get away
with poor form and then develop bad habits. When I deadlifted 295k, in training I peaked on 80%, ie
235k beforehand. To ensure that my grip was strong enough to handle 295k every other week I did
max rack lockouts. I used 3 different heights so that I could have 3 different PBs and every fortnight
chose one of the PBs to beat.
If you were given the controls to the gym music system what would you play?
AC/DC, Thin Lizzy or Queen – non-stop. And mainly just 3 songs – Thunderstruck, The Boys are Back
in Town, Don’t Stop me Now.
I feel sorry for my neighbours as when I have a heavy training session I often have Thunderstruck
(AC/DC) on repeat for the hour! “I was caught in the middle of a railroad track – THUNDER”
How do you fit your training/diet in around your career? What sacrifices have you made?
No sacrifices per se but used to train on holidays if I was on a competition cycle. Fortunately
I have an understanding wife!
I have missed many work do’s over the years as I didn’t’ want to miss a training session.
What would be your number 1 tip for a young guy/girl aiming to build strength?
Be patient and stick to your training cycle (whoops is that 2 tips?). I’ve seen lots of people
trying routine A for a few weeks and then give up and try another routine. As coach Dan John
says “everything works” – what he means by that is commit to a routine for a cycle say about
6 weeks. You can make tweaks but there is no need to radically change it.
What’s your biggest pet peeve in the gym?
People taking performance enhancing drugs and pretending that they’re still drug-free – yet
they’ve gained say 3 stone and 40k on the bench – it insults my intelligence. I remember one
guy who made those sort of gains telling me it was because he was eating ‘chapatis’ – I was
half tempted to buy some then realised he probably meant dianabol filled chapatis!
What single event in your life has made the biggest impact in making you the man you are
today?
Hope she doesn’t read this but meeting my now wife at school – she’s been my rock.
Over training – real threat or over hyped and misunderstood?
All of the above. I think the main issue is recognizing when it hits you. That is why I prefer
cycling the training and having de-load weeks to minimize the risk of overtraining. Also as
mentioned before, I find getting the right amount of protein post training helps with recovery.
So sometimes overtraining is really under-nutrition.
I also think some people can use it as an excuse for not making gains – it could be a
combination of nutrition as mentioned above or simply not training hard enough.
Best thing you ever bought?
Uhm…nothing in particular but have a passion for trainers, I have several pairs which will
never see the outside world other than from a window!
Describe your perfect day.
An busy but perfect day would be a winning a DL comp, followed by watching Wycombe
Wanderers win 5 nil against our rivals Colchester and then going to an AC/DC gig!
Your favourite food?
Bit boring but I love chicken – good job as I have it most days!
Your most disliked food?
Liver – it’s offal….
Your favourite quote or words of wisdom?
Ali once said – “Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they
have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina,
they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be
stronger than the skill."
I have this on a poster in my gym
Or indeed anything that comes from our Captain Cuddihy is normally worth listening too 