Fit Force girls at large

The Fit Force Gym on Main Street is now the in-place where people banish stress and meet new friends in a great atmosphere! Grainne Kierans, a Drogheda woman and former captain of the Irish ladies soccer team; Fiona Kearns from Meath, who has 10 years of experience in the gym fitness business; and Orla Smith, a power lifter from Virginia, are transforming the lives of hundreds of people in the friendly town of Ballyjamesduff. Orla is a world power lifting champion who lives in Lakeview, Virginia and works with Fiona and Grainne in the gym. She has four European medals and two world championships and has seven world records and eight European records. She is a member of the Irish Drug-Free Power Lifting Association. She took up the sport in 2002 and is proud of her achievements at the age of 42 and a mother of two (12-year-old Dean and eight-year-old Zoe). Orla achieved no less than four European records and a world record on her 40th birthday. She has the bench press championships coming up in September, and recently participated in the European Championships in Castleblayney, where she scooped another European record. In January of this year this amazing woman captured a world record in the bench press, smashing a standard that had held for the previous 16 years. In the squat she lifts 125 kilos and in the bench press it is 71 kilos. She got involved in the sport when she took a dare from one of the lads in her gym: 'I went for it and started training with one of the lads in Navan, who had been doing power lifting for 20 years'. The girls all think the people are friendly and genuine and really 'appreciate our work'. Grainne said she was lucky to have the gift of being able to play football at a young age. When she was 20 years old she went to play as a semi-professional in Denmark for a summer. Arising out of that she was asked to sign for the Arsenal ladies team and had the honour of playing there for two seasons. Then she moved on to captain Charlton and reached an FA Cup final. This energised woman then went to play for Leeds United and then progressed to Bristol Academy for two years as a coach and a player. She returned to Ireland two years ago and is delighted to find herself in Ballyjamesduff and loving what she does. Grainne is hoping to get people from the gym involved in a marathon in the near future. 'The Cavan people are hard grafters, regardless of what they work at during the day, and they really put in the effort in the gym. You could have a Lithuanian woman, a Dublin man and a Ballyjamesduff farmer together in here at the one time and the craic is great,' said Grainne. This highly motivated woman didn"t rule out that the fact that all this interaction could lead to lots of romance in the future. 'They can go to the gym and do the classes, - there"s a weights room downstairs and a sauna where you can go in and chill out. Some of them even go off for a coffee afterwards.' Fiona worked in the Knightsbridge Hotel in Trim as a manager and worked in Aura Fitness in Drogheda and Body Trim in Navan. She has been at the fitness game for 10 years in all, and loves it. 'We teach all kinds of different classes, from Pilates, which is a core conditioning system, to rebounding, which is probably the biggest fad ever to hit Ballyjamesduff - this is a cardio full class on the trampolines - everyone has their own little trampoline and you work out for 45 minutes.' There are also spinning classes and kids fitness classes will be starting soon. The gym is open from 9.30am-2.30pm and 5-9.30pm; Saturdays 10am to 4pm and on bank holidays from 10am to 1pm.