ICAEW fellow and champion power lifter Steven Forshaw was “a typical young man, playing quite a lot of football, doing a bit of boxing, being into all-round fitness”, but a knee injury while playing football in 2016 proved to be a turning point in his sporting and professional life.

A bad tackle “ruptured most things” inside his knee, requiring major surgery and a long period of rehabilitation when he had to learn to walk again. His injured knee is “held in place with screws in my tibia and femur”, he says and it is now “probably stronger than the other side that hasn’t had surgery.”

Forshaw was already a few years into his accounting career by that point. After graduating from the University of Bath and training at Dunkley’s Chartered Accountants, he worked in public practice accounting in Bristol, before moving to the financial services industry. He joined St James’s Place Wealth Management in 2014, a role that took him to Hong Kong for a six-week stint to “steady the ship as an interim financial controller.”

Since he began competing in 2022 (following some intense training during lockdown in 2020 and 2021) Forshaw has risen through the ranks and this year, he achieved the power lifting triple crown of becoming British, European and World Champion. His deadlifting personal best is 272.5kg.

“I was confident I could qualify for the British championships and if you do well there, you get to the European championships, and then if you do well there, you get invited to be on Team GB effectively,” Forshaw explains. “My hope and aspiration at the start of 2025 was to qualify for the British and maybe the European Championships – I hadn’t even factored in the World Championships; that wasn’t on my radar and it still feels surreal.”

Though power lifting and accountancy might not seem like they have much in common, Forshaw explains that there are several transferable skills that he uses in both disciplines.

Following clear goals

There was no single moment that led Forshaw to take up power lifting. Instead, it was something that “just evolved” when he was focusing on regaining strength in his injured knee, future-proofing it against early arthritis.

Power lifting appealed to Forshaw when he was looking for a fitness goal: “I’m a fan of strength sports generally, such as watching things like The World’s Strongest Man – certain individuals are less gifted in terms of height for some of those sort of sports, but some strength sports are more accessible and power lifting is probably the front runner.”

Tracking organisational goals is an essential element of Forshaw’s career as an accountant; something that allowed him to maintain focus, even outside of his job, as things became challenging during the Covid-19 pandemic. During lockdown, he set up a gym in his garage and started to see great improvements, but he didn’t want those gains to be meaningless.

“I didn’t want to drift through what was obviously a difficult time for everyone,” Forshaw says. “So in 2020 and 2021, I set a goal to train to hit a certain level before I would put myself out there on the platform in competition, on display.”

The need for focus

Balancing training with working full-time has been an intense experience, but Forshaw says the “rigorous mental discipline and extreme focus as an accountant effectively comes down to ruthless efficiency.”

“When you finish a long day, you’ve still got to find time to train with focus and intention,” he says. “It’s not just about turning up and going through the motions; there’s got to be intent, as well as intensity.”

Understanding and modelling data

In 2022 – the same year he started power lifting competitively – he joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments as a senior director. Similar to his role at St James’s Place, he was involved in process improvements, along with project and risk management.

“A lot of my roles have involved data modelling, which, funnily enough does cross over quite well with power lifting – I’m self-coached and my work has certainly ingrained an analytical mindset in me, along with strategic planning and attention to detail,” Forshaw reflects.

A drive for efficiency

Forshaw says his accountancy roles have included elements of “seeking out improvements … so that ruthless efficiency just bleeds into my own life so you optimise every hour.”

“You know you've got a limited number of hours when you're not asleep and then not working, so you have to operate without wasting any time,” says Forshaw. “That's the sort of discipline that is invaluable when fitting in training around a nine-to-five day, which is, of course, never just nine-to-five.”

A methodical approach

Forshaw says that winning the world title “definitely serves as proof that if you apply methodical focus and attention to detail, skills honed professionally can achieve world-class success in any field.”

“Motivation gets you started, but discipline keeps you going, whether it's finance or a world title, the secret is just showing up every day with consistently high effort and intention.”

Looking ahead, Forshaw, who now works as a freelance accounting consultant, is planning to take a well-earned break over the holiday period before looking for a new contract. But he will not be resting on his laurels for long: “I will be aiming to defend my power lifting titles in 2026 and continue broadening my industry experience, so it will be a year of planned improvements, both professionally and physically.”