Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

by Michael Berry

Ray Louden isn’t your traditional showman weightlifter, but then he doesn’t lift weights to impress anyone. However, this quietly spoken trainer at the Maleny Gym, and a member of the Sunshine Coast Weight Lifting Club in Nambour, has made his own impact on the world of weights.
Ray has just won two gold  medals at the Australian Masters Games and the Australian Weightlifting Championships in Victoria. He won gold in the 60-64 year-old class and the 77kg division. Ray won the same division in 1999 and 2005 and, as he reaches 64 this year, he intends to go on pumping iron.
Ray says the emergence of masters games in all sports during the past 25 years has encouraged older generations to test their skills. Ray started gym training when he was 13. He won state open titles and held state records as a young man but then got married and stayed out of the gym for quite a few years.
“When I was 50 I heard about the masters competition and I started competing again”, says Ray. “Those who take part go right past 80. There’s a guy on the Gold Coast for example, who is in the world hall of fame. At the age of 76 he is the oldest man to put 100kg above his head”, adds Ray, who gives you the impression he might better that record one day.
Ray ran the popular Muscle Beach Gym on the Sunshine Coast from 1990 to 2004. He trained countless state and national championships in body building – both men and women- and that included figure shaping for women. He also guided one youngster towards the Olympics in weight lifting.
As a gym trainer Ray is conscious that using weights is important for older folk because of the resistance it helps with bone density, and keeping the muscles strong.
“They don’t have to do competition weight lifting like I do, because I have done it all my life. But the secret is consistency. If you’re going to do an exercise regime, then consistency is important as you get older. If you can only exercise twice a week then do it twice a week, but do it every week.”
Apart from regular weight training Ray has a special approach to food.
“I follow the Weston A Price food ideas where I basically eat foods as naturally as I can get them. For example, if I am going to drink milk I will drink raw cow’s milk, un-pasteurised and un-homogenised. I will eat meat from grass-fed animals only and ideally, from organic grass. When it comes to fruit and vegetables, if I can pick it myself then that’s what I will eat. I have free-range eggs which are properly free range.
So I eat all my foods as close to nature as I can possibly get them. And that includes all fats, proper fats. It is a whole foods eating regime. That way, I find you don’t have to eat as much, and the good food you are eating will sustain you longer. It follows that your calorie count is down and you don’t gain weight.”
 He and his wife are both on the committee for the ‘Sunshine Coast REAL FOOD PEOPLE’ group following the principals of the Weston A Price Foundation. They do very little supermarket shopping and make their own bread, yoghurt, kefir, soft cheeses and many of their own fermented drinks.
 As for weight training, Ray says he has qualified for the World Masters Games Championships in Sydney in late October.
 “I will keep going for as long as I can, he adds with a determined smile, “probably not heavy competition work like I’m doing now, but I will always be weight training until the day I die.”