The Night Lift
From saving lives to smashing lifts, ICU nurse and World Powerlifting Champion Siobhan Taylor talks muscle, mindset and the magic of moving heavy.
By Glorious
Photography By Heiko Prigge
There’s a particular kind of strength that doesn’t announce itself with noise. It doesn’t need to. It’s the kind that builds quietly, steadily, over time. The kind that holds its ground in the face of chaos, that lifts others when they falter, that knows its own worth without needing to shout. Siobhan Taylor carries that strength in every fibre of her being. You feel it when she speaks, when she lifts, when she nurses, when she walks into a room and doesn’t shrink. It’s not just physical power, though she has plenty of that. It’s the kind that comes from knowing who you are and where you’re going.
The first time we met Siobhan Taylor, she was already balancing two worlds that most of us would find impossible to hold together. By day, she was a critical care nurse, making decisions that carried weight far beyond the ward. Away from the hospital, she was becoming one of Britain’s most decorated powerlifters, collecting national, European and Commonwealth titles with the same quiet resolve she brought into ICU. That original story revealed a woman who saw strength not as spectacle, but as survival. It was about community, about persistence, and about carving out confidence in a body that had never fitted neatly into anyone else’s ideals. A couple of years on, she is now a World Champion, a mother of two almost-grown children, and still working in critical care, now as part of the transfer service often described as ICU in an ambulance. Her return to Glorious, this time as part of our collaboration with Sweaty Betty’s Power collection, feels less like a follow-up and more like a continuation.
“I live in a small town in Suffolk about six miles from the village I was born and grew up in, and where my mum still lives.” That sense of rootedness runs through everything she does. Her children are now sixteen and twenty-six, and she laughs that she has “almost fledged them both!” In nursing, she is approaching eighteen years of service, “my career can legally drink in 2026!” The milestones matter. In powerlifting, she lists them with the same clarity she applies to patient charts: All England Champion in 2019, defending in 2021 and 2022, Commonwealth Champion in 2022, British and European Equipped Bench Champion in 2023, defending both again in 2024 while adding World Champion to the list, and now British and World Champion in 2025. It is a record that would overwhelm most, yet she treats it with a kind of gentle pride, pointing out she is currently on a “well earned break from international lifting,” while already eyeing up 2026.
COMMUNITY
That trajectory began in unlikely fashion, with a back injury sustained at work in 2015. “It’s well known that back injuries can end a nursing career due to the physical nature of the job,” she recalls. A physio suggested swapping some cardio classes for strength training to “build my core,” and she gave it a go. She enjoyed the rhythm of moving weights, and when a fellow gym-goer invited her to watch a powerlifting competition, something shifted. “Before the comp was over I turned to my PT and said ‘I want to have a go at that!!’ So we booked my first comp for eight months later.” The community drew her in, the people who lived and breathed the sport, and she has never looked back.
The weight room became her proving ground, but it also became her place of refuge. Working in ICU during Covid, she says, was “very dark.” With patients isolated from their families, the emotional toll was immense. “Lifting became my escape. It was like meditation, my body could be moving without thinking and the payoff was all the endorphins, better sleep and being more physically capable.” When her training space was reduced to lifting with wheelie bins in her garden, she was gifted a squat rack by her idol Betty Grey. “That kindness saved me in so many ways.” The gesture speaks volumes about the culture of the sport, where, as Siobhan puts it, “lifty people are the best of people!”
Her coaches know her well enough to never reveal the numbers on the bar when she is chasing a personal best. “If I know the number I’ll think it’s heavy. That’s always been the deal,” she laughs. The result is a thrill of disbelief when she racks the weight and only then hears what she has managed. “It’s a whole vibe on its own,” she grins, and it’s clear that the joy lies not just in the achievement, but in the surprise of it.
So what makes Siobhan feel powerful outside the gym? Medals? Accolades? “No! Knowing in my bones that I am capable, very capable actually…” That knowledge has been hard won. She describes growing up never fitting the beauty standards around her. “My body never quite fit the socially accepted ideal. I tried dieting and massive amounts of cardio and even when I reached the ‘ideal weight’ I felt miserable. Strength training has provided me with body confidence that ‘fitting in’ never could.” She has stopped chasing validation from others. “I have evidence that I am committed, consistent and driven for my own goals. My body takes up space, but it is so capable and so strong and I am so grateful that it is fit enough to care and provide for the two people it created. I have come to realise that I do not require social validation because I have validation of my own.”
Siobhans words match perfectly with the message behind Sweaty Betty’s Power collection, the kit that carries her through both work and training. The leggings, tops and sports bras are designed to move seamlessly between roles, a kind of uniform for women whose lives are built on strength and adaptability. For Siobhan, it is less about performance marketing and more about practicality. The same consistency that underpins her motto that “doing the small things makes the big things move better” is visible in the clothing she chooses to train in. If a piece of kit works, she will trust it through the toughest lifts, the same way she trusts her routines on a demanding day in ICU.
Community has always been central to her journey. From her colleagues in nursing to the women she lifts alongside and the coaches who guide her, she is quick to point out that none of this has been achieved in isolation. “To have a group of people that actually see you for who you are and do not expect you to be small, take up less space or be quiet to maintain their comfort is a special group of people.”
Within that space, she has grown from a regular gym-goer into a national referee, an international champion, and now an emerging coach. Yet she is still “just Siobhan,” a phrase she repeats to show that while titles are celebrated, losses are supported, and her identity is never reduced to results.
When doubt creeps in, as it inevitably does, she leans on her coaches to break down the challenge, either by stripping goals into smaller steps or by focusing on weak links before returning stronger. “Sometimes it means being brave, which means being scared and doing it anyway,” she admits. The lessons from ICU are ever-present, where attention to detail and the one percent rule can mark the difference between progress and decline. “Instead of trying to make massive improvements in one area make one percent improvements in everything and it adds up,” she explains, a philosophy that serves her just as well in patient care as it does on the platform.
Known for her philosophies, Siobhan carries mottos that extend far beyond the barbell. Asked what she would tell her younger self, her answer carries the weight of experience. “You are going to be better and bigger than your wildest dreams. You will have influenced people in places and in ways you can’t even imagine. You are worthy and valued just as you are for who you are. You are going to make it and be happy.” Writing those words, she admits, made her cry, though they now read as much like guidance for any young woman still searching for her place in the world.
In nursing, lifting and life, Siobhan wants her legacy to be one of compassion and equality. She hopes people will see that lifting is for anybody, at any age, and that the benefits spill into every corner of life. And, of course, she wants her children to feel proud. Her proudest moment so far has not been a medal but overhearing them boast about her strength. “Seeing how proud my kids are to tell people about what I’ve achieved in lifting. I overheard the small one tell a friend’s dad, ‘My mum’s stronger than you!’ High praise from a teenager!”
superpower
Even if she is not competing, she will still be coaching, refereeing and supporting the sport. “The future of powerlifting is looking very strong,” she says, and you believe her. For Siobhan, strength has never been about dominance. It is about lifting others up, a principle that runs through her favourite motto. “Lift up and lift heavy always. This isn’t just for lifting, but is a way of saying lift others up. If you can manage more of the load, especially for those that are oppressed, then do more of the heavy lifting, and do that always. Even if nobody is watching.”
Which is why Siobhan’s presence in the Power collection shoot feels so right. It is easy enough to dress someone in performance gear and ask them to pose as if they belong there. It is something else entirely to show a woman who embodies power in every sense, whether she is handling fragile lives in an ambulance, carrying her family through difficult times, or stepping onto a world stage to show exactly what she is capable of. Siobhan Taylor is not just wearing Power. She is power.
A Glorious Sport Production:
Creative & Art Direction: This Is Root
Photography: Heiko Prigge
Director of Photography: Robin Weaser
Photography Assistants: Joe Horton, Callum O’Keefe
Make-Up: Alev Miller
Make-Up Assistant: Rae Anglim
Wardrobe: Nicole Daly
Hair: @hairstylesbyicee
Runners: Rose Arthur, Eleri Shone
With thanks to Mount Pleasant Studios
Siobhan’s team:
Coach: @strengthcoachrhett
Sports Therapy: @moore_perform
Training Club: @mwlclub
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