Some Days You're Just Going to SUCK!

One of the toughest obstacles for a lifter to get over is having a bad day.  That's the day where it feels like you've completely forgotten how to lift and seriously question whether you actually knew how to lift in the first place.  Those are the days that like to jump up and bite you in the ass, usually after you've been rocking some amazing workouts.  Hop on a PR train for awhile and I can guarantee you will eventually run into one of those sucky lifting days.

Weightlifting requires a certain attitude.  You have to be mentally strong and just a bit crazy to willingly walk up to something that outweighs you, pull it off the floor as high as you can get it, and throw yourself underneath it.  With that attitude and craziness comes the desire to be perfect every single time you walk on the platform.  You want to be good, you want to be strong, and you want to get better.  BUT.....Some days you're just going to SUCK!

"Yeah yeah yeah, some days will suck but they really won't be that bad."  You only THINK they won't be that bad until you're actually in them, getting ready to punt your protein shaker across the room in frustration. Maybe your body just isn't feeling well, you might be tired, you might be unable to mentally dial in.  Whatever the reason for having a sucky lifting day, it is still frustrating as hell.  (And if you haven't been there you haven't been training long enough.)

Now here comes the tricky part...allowing yourself to have a sucky lifting day.  I have talked many fellow lifters off the proverbial edge, reassuring them that it's okay to have a bad lifting day.  That just because today didn't go as well as you'd hope, the next training day could be phenomenal.  Practice what you preach, Sister!

Today I had a sucky lifting day.  Snatching with mildly decent technique apparently just wasn't in the cards today.  Push pressing felt like my body had no idea what it was really supposed to do.  Front squats I might as well have just been attempting to squat a trailer house for as heavy and as awkward as they felt.  All very irritating which lead to me being a baby, throwing my straps and belt all over the place.  Like I said, practice what you preach, and I sure as heck was not allowing myself to have a sucky lifting day.

Now that the day is over I can step back and tell myself, "Yeah it was a sucky lifting day but Wednesday you'll be better."  It's also a good time to remind myself that some days I'm just going to SUCK and that when those days come I just need to swallow my pride, make the weights move well regardless of how much is on the bar, and allow myself to have a bad day.  This isn't training that takes just a couple days, weeks, or months to be good.  It takes YEARS and I'm in it for the long haul.

So as it was once quoted, "Without failure there is no success."  To realize this and that along the way there will be Some Days Where You're Just Going To Suck, that is what separates the Beastess from the boys.  

The People Around You

Weightlifting is an individual sport.  It's you vs the weight on the bar.  You alone are responsible for the outcome, good or bad.  That being said, however, the people around you can affect your training.  There are people who affect your training positively, negatively, and those who probably have almost no bearing on your training.  You will absorb bits and pieces of the atmosphere those around you create.  It's your life atmosphere and you will soak it up through osmosis whether you like it or not.

The negative people, those Debbie Downers and Negative Nancies, will rob you of your mojo.  They might not take it during your workout but if you're around those people on a frequent basis outside of training eventually their poor attitude will sap you of your great attitude.  Like I said, osmosis.  Then there are those people that rob you of your confidence, make you feel bad about yourself, and by extension your training may suffer.  They can suck out the general confidence you have in yourself and you can damn well bet that translates to the confidence in your abilities on the platform.  You may not realize some of these people are in your life (they're really good at sneaking into people's lives) or that they can affect your training so much even if they have nothing to do with it.

The positive people, the polar opposite of Debbie Downers.  These people have an uncanny ability to instill a confidence in you that you never knew existed.  They inspire you to reach further than you've ever reached before.  Not only do they expect you to reach further, they hold you to the task of getting those high reaching goals.  They motivate you to do work even on the days where it would be easy to hang up your hat and call it a day.  At the end of the day these are the kind of people that make you feel good about yourself and good about what you're doing in life.  Surrounding yourself with these type of people will boost your training, make you reach for that last rep, motivate you to push it to the max and then tell you to add 5k more.  And you'll do it because you know you can and because someone is behind you telling you that they believe you can. 

Training for an individual sport isn't always easy.  It takes dedication above and beyond weekend warrior status.  You're going to train when everyone else is going to take a nap.  You're going to bed early when everyone else is going to the bars because you have to train in the morning .  You're getting recovery in because you know if you don't, the next day you'll feel like a train wreck.  Pushing yourself to the next level and then setting that bar even higher is tough on your own some times.  Surround yourself with people that have a positive impact on your training and it'll be that much easier to Go Beastess!