Empowering Women Through Fitness: An Inspiring Conversation with Nicky Simpson

Nicky Simpson joined Enterprise in 2020 following the acquisition of SHB Hire and now holds the demanding role of Commercial Director for Enterprise Flex-E-Rent. In an engaging conversation, Nicky shares her passion for fitness, from Olympic lifting to CrossFit, revealing its positive impact on resilience, consistency, and strength – in all areas of our lives.

Hi Nicky, what’s your sport?
My main focus is Olympic lifting and CrossFit. I also swim, row and cycle, often as forms of active recovery. I’ve been Olympic lifting for 18 months and enjoying CrossFit for three years. CrossFit has so many different elements which means I’m continuously improving because of the variety of exercises I need to master and my commitment to a training schedule for the Olympic lifting.

I’ve done a few competitions, including the CrossFit Open, which is the qualifier for the CrossFit Games, which is an international level competition I aspire to qualify for one day as a master. I have to work hard on the gymnastics elements of CrossFit as that’s not my background, which is more strength and endurance. I’m really good at powering through challenging moments, enduring tough sustained activity, and gymnastics is a different skillset.

What’s your fitness background?
I’ve always been an outdoors person, having worked with racehorses in the past. Some years ago, my mum had cancer and I committed to running, something I hated at the time. I really wanted to challenge myself and that journey got me addicted to feeling better, stronger, fitter. I crave learning and challenging myself which then tended to lean towards physical events such as charity three peaks, tough mudders, a half marathon, even a pentathlon.

Why is fitness important to you?
Fitness stabilises my mood, personality and approach to work. It sets me up for the day and helps me wind down at the end. Fitness plays a role in maintaining my health, I very much value my body not in how it looks but in what it can do and for me being physically and mentally fit is an absolute must to deal with life’s challenges.

“I crave learning and challenging myself which then tended to lean towards physical events such as charity three peaks”

Could you describe your weekly routine?
My mornings are dedicated to technical, usually strength-based workouts, planned by my Olympic lifting coach. In the evening, I do cardio to get the day out of my system. I think of this as training the engine, or building up skills. I’ve got a great gym set up at home, and I’m a member of a local CrossFit box so I don’t miss out on the community feel and competition of training with others. The weekends are fairly heavy sessions of 2 ½ to 3 hours of CrossFit which really helps with stamina. I know my body, and I listen to it, to make sure I’m training wisely and avoiding injury or fatigue.

What about diet?
Food is fuel to me. I’m a grazer. I think about what I need to do and eat to fuel the tank for all the training it will need to do. For me this is generally carbs like rice or pasta at lunch, and then something lighter or more protein based in the evening.

How do you avoid injury with such a tough training programme?
Preparation is key. Warming up and lots of specific mobility exercises are a key part of my work outs. A 30-minute warm up pre-lifting helps me to get mobile and warm up my muscles in readiness. I had a meniscus tear in my knee about a year ago from running so having rehabilitated it back to full mobility I’m extra careful now to do pre and post training exercises and general muscle care to try and prevent a reoccurrence or another injury..

Is fitness a social activity for you?
CrossFit is very social it prides itself on it’s community feel to training and also train with a good friend a weekends which can get very . competitive, I’ve done a couple of partner events which are great fun. The CrossFit community is a great one to be part of whatever someone’s ability

Do you set yourself goals?
I love a process, so it would be remiss not to have a goal, but you’ve got to love the process. I stay focused on 1% incremental steps to achieving my goal. One of my goals is to make the CrossFit Games as a Master. I want to complete at a higher level. I’m competing against myself, asking: ‘can I go quicker tomorrow?’ Our bodies can do anything, but it’s your head telling you can or can’t, and it’s about managing that mindset. I often compete against younger people, and my experience helps me be more strategic in my approach and game plan, which helps work through the pain so I can keep going without stopping for a breather, whereas the others rush on and burn out quicker!

“Our bodies can do anything, but it’s your head telling you can or can’t, and it’s about managing that mindset”

How important is routine?
Creating a routine is an important foundation for fitness, and it’s so important to love what you do, otherwise you won’t form good habits and forming good habits allows you to build new better habits on top to progress

How does fitness help in your career?
In lifting, you train until you fail. Then you analyse why, and you keep learning. In that way, it mirrors work –learning from setbacks and making consistent progress. If you never try and you never push yourself to the point of failure you’ll never know what you can improve and what you can ever do or be.

Any advice on building good habits?
I fully recommend a book called ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear. It explains that we expect progress to be quick and linear, but in reality results are often delayed and we might plateau for a time. Through persistence and consistency we see an accumulated benefit. The author writes about our abilities to improve our habits, look at the goal we want to achieve and set regular small steps to achieve them.

What’s your biggest achievement?
Lifting twice my body weight is definitely one of them! It’s satisfying to continue to make progress. Olympic Lifting can be frustrating, but with consistency you make small incremental improvements. All my lifts have increased by 10% since the new year so I’m always impressed that whatever I seem to throw at my body it adapts, learns and allows me to get stronger every day

What lies ahead?
Short term goals include mastering gymnastics in CrossFit. I’ll keep working on strength and endurance as well as focusing on technical aspects. Long term, weightlifting is great for bone density and will be part of my life. Over the age of 40, it’s really important for females to build in strength training and will help with peri-menopause and menopause symptoms.

If you would like to be featured in our ‘Empowering Women Through Fitness’ series, please email Sarah.Williams@ehi.com. 

“We expect progress to be quick and linear, but in reality results are often delayed and we might plateau for a time”

If you are interested in a career with Enterprise, please visit our recruitment website at careers.enterprise.co.uk