Truck pull proves teenagers are stronger than they think
Murraylands strength coach Brooke Prichard's training has paid off for a group of local teens participating in an AC Care program.
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Not many people can say they have pulled a truck.
However, this group of Murray Bridge teenagers can.
As part of an eight-week strength-training program, six boys have been attending weekly gym sessions with Murraylands strength coach and strongwoman Brooke Prichard.
The training all led up to one big challenge: an 11-tonne truck pull.
Open to 14-to 18-year-olds, the free program was developed by Ms Prichard to help children experience powerlifting and strongman training.
As a Viking deadlift world record holder and the unofficial holder of the heaviest truck pull by a female, Ms Prichard said the idea behind the truck pull was to give the participants an incentive to work towards.
“What's something crazy that really just shows these kids that if I stick to doing something there's a massive reward at the end of it?” she asked.
“How many kids can say they've pulled a truck?”
The program has been run by Ms Prichard alongside AC Care, a community service organisation working to support to children and young people, create foster care opportunities, and help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Don't believe it? See for yourself. Video: Peri Strathearn.
The training program provided an opportunity to children who would not normally have the chance to learn powerlifting or step into the gym.
The weekly training sessions at Snap Fitness in Murray Bridge focused on compound lifts, teaching the boys how to bench press and deadlift as well as lift with stone equipment and pull sleds.
Ms Prichard said the aim of the program was to teach proper lifting technique and give the boys the tools and techniques they needed to continue independently.
Her favourite part was seeing the boys’ transition from a lack of confidence to setting goals and finding the drive to succeed.
“The first week I had six guys that rocked up, no-one knew what was going on, they were all quite timid,” she said.
“I said to them, ‘What do you want to get out of this?’ and it was like, ‘Oh, I don't know’ – I couldn't get a response from any of them.
“By the end of the first session it was like, ‘I want to learn how to bench press 100 kilos’.”
Last Thursday, the pilot program concluded with the boys pulling an 11-tonne State Emergency Service truck along Murray Bridge's wharf.
Cael, Abbey and Hayden Moulds, Preston Morgan, Kaiden Martin and Slade Morton-Boxer have been working hard with Brooke Prichard and Lexie Kermond. Photos: Kate Kinnear, Peri Strathearn.
AC Care’s Lexie Kermond said the boys had loved the program.
Given its success, she hoped to run it again and expand the program to more participants.
“It’s given them a glimpse of what they can achieve with hard work,” she said.
For Ms Prichard, too, the program was just the beginning.
It was her dream to roll it out in schools as part of the curriculum, and to encourage more young people to get involved in strongman training.
