A little friendly inspiration

I have to admit that I have some incredibly awesome, super supportive friends, family, teammates, lifters, coaches, co-workers.  They suffer with my highs and lows.  They don't judge when I grunt and growl when lifting.  Or when I scream and cry and have a hissy fit cause I'm having a rough lifting session.  They are hands-down just phenomenal people.

I've been waging an internal battle with how well I think I can perform at the American Open in a couple of weeks.  It's been some great training and some shit training over the past year.  That being said some friends have offered some well-timed and much needed inspiration.

"You worked too hard to just lose before the meet even starts.  It might not have all been perfect but you lift because you love it and you know you can hit 180.  You will do that if the 9 inches between your ears believes it.  You have the strength physically for sure."

"Google 'Donny Shankle: The Iron.'  Careful, you may become mega inspired."  So I googled it.... Donny Shankle: The Iron  and was beyond floored.  It sums up everything I've ever really felt, especially this past year. 

So to my friends, family, teammates, lifters, coaches, co-workers, and anyone else who has had an impact on my life....thank you for the inspiration. 

Coaching, Teaching, Competing: It's all a Passion

In case you haven't read any of my previous post and if you aren't someone that knows me personally, I am obsessed with weightlifting and teaching people how to lift weights.  I suppose it was pretty prophetic when I began lifting weights at the age of 16 and thought it was cool and impressive trying to leg press the entire stack.  Maybe it was where I grew up or the fact that I grew up a bit of a tomboy but it never ever occurred to me that lifting weights, let alone lifting HEAVY weights, would be considered atypical for a girl.  It never crossed my mind that I might get "bulky" or "huge" from lifting.  To me I wanted to get strong, I wanted to be stronger than all the boys, and the only logical way to do that was to lift heavier weights. 

Well over a decade after I first stepped into the weight room, I now step into one of the following three "offices" any given day of the week.....

 

Now my days....and nights....and weekends revolve around teaching others about lifting weights and the actual sport of weightlifting.  It's a passion, plain and simple.  Coaching, teaching, competing. 

As evidenced by many of my posts I love competing.  I have always been a competitor.  However I get just as excited coaching.  Seeing the look on someone's face who has never performed the Olympic lifts before and that moment when all the technique work finally clicks is pretty priceless.  I love screaming my face off as one of my advanced guys goes for a big weight.  If one of my guys bombs out, my heart breaks along with them.  I like being the voice of reason to bring someone back from the edge and help them refocus on the task at hand.  The motivator, the drill instructor, the shoulder to lean on, the frustrater, the high fiver, the good bad and ugly, all in one. 

Coaching people in weightlifting and to lift weights in general is just as much of a beast as competing.  Convincing an 18-year-old female soccer player that lifting weights will only improve their performance is just as challenging as convincing a 25-year-old male that there is a rhyme and reason to why I've given him specific exercises to work on instead of just maxing out all the time.  It's not a simple, cut and dried profession where I get to say lift weights and then be done with it.  I worry about how to best approach improving performance, what to do when an athlete or lifter has stagnated, how to prevent and avoid injuries, what to do when there is an injury, how to best balance their workouts to get the most from them, how to approach the individual that's struggling mentally or emotionally.  I think about all of that almost constantly.  No two athletes or lifters are exactly alike and I will never treat them as such.  I want to know what everyone's best of the bests and worst of the worsts are.  Celebrate when they do well and pick them back up when they've fallen. 

I treat coaching as an opportunity to educate people.  If nothing else when they leave school or when they move on from lifting, I hope they have learned a few things from working with me.  Whether it's how to properly execute a power clean or that they're stronger mentally and physically than they've ever given themselves credit for, it's an opportunity to learn something.  If they have learned that the only limits they truly have are the ones they have placed upon themselves then I have done my job successfully.  Coaching, teaching, and competing; it's all a passion.  One I am fortunate enough to live every day. 

Wish in one hand....

There is a defining line between those who wish and those who do.  As the saying goes, “Wish in one hand and crap in the other.  See which fills up faster.”  People wish they had a better job or wish they could travel to exotic places.  People wish they had more time to work out.  Perhaps some of those are empty wishes, something to pass the time and make life seem a bit less dull.

Yes, I’ve been a wisher in my life, we all have.  I’ve wished I could be a better photographer or wished I could learn to dance.  What it boils down to is those things that are truly important to you, you will find a way to make them happen.  If I really wanted to be a better photographer, I’d study it.  If I wanted to be a ballroom dancer, I’d take a class.  If I really wanted it, I’d find a way to make it happen.  These guys found a way to make it happen:  All Things Gym - Makeshift Platform

When it comes to lifting weights and getting my training in, I’ve definitely found a way to make it happen.  I’ve gone so far to make it happen that my entire life revolves around lifting and training.  My full time job allows me to pass along my passion for lifting through athletes in the weight room.  Working in a weight room also obviously allows me to fit my training in during the day.  My two side jobs also allow me to pass along my passion as well as alternative places to train should I find the need to train elsewhere.

In order to make big lifts happen there are many things I’ll pass up doing so I can have a good training session instead.  I’ll opt for a night of foam rolling, stretching and ice bath instead of a night of shenanigans and debauchery.  It’s not that I’ll never go out and do those things.  It’s just that some days I want to shift into beastess-mode and I generally prefer to do that with a head that’s not in hangover-mode.  I will do the things I need to do and adjust my life accordingly to make it happen.

Obviously I've occasionally taken lifting to an obsessive compulsive level.  I've gotten so wrapped up in weightlifting that I often times forget to do other things, fun things, things that don't involve picking up something heavy and putting it back down.  We all have to let loose once in awhile but for me this is a passion.  People have said that if you're passionate about your job, you'll never work a day in your life.  I disagree.  I've worked my ass off to get here, to get the job that I love going to and that I'm passionate about.  I'm not just sitting in some cubicle wishing I could have an awesome job.  

I have found that “wishers” don’t often understand “do-ers.”  They don’t understand the desire to take things to the next level and the commitment it requires.  To me, wishing you could do things in life instead of going out and actually attempting to do them is to resign yourself to mundane mediocrity.  Sure I might wish to immediately improve one aspect of a particular lift but what I do is set myself up to improve it over the long term.

Are you doing what it takes to make it to the next level?  Or are you just wishing in one hand…..