I've competed in weightlifting for the last 7, almost 8 years. Prior to that I lifted for sports performance starting at the age of 16 when I was old enough to drive the 40 miles to a suitable gym. I lifted twice a week and did conditioning twice a week all summer long. I then proceeded to have some of the best sport seasons of my high school career. In college I did track & field and lifting was a natural part of that training. Only one other female teammate actually enjoyed the lifting and wanted to pick up heavy things. Other than that I lifted with some of the guys in the weight room.
Once I graduated and joined the working world I still hungered for competitive athletics. As luck would have it a co-worker at the gym (started my adult life as a personal trainer) was competing in weightlifting. One day I asked her to take me with her and the rest is history...the end.
Now if that were truly the case you'd know who I am and that I accomplished great things in weightlifting. Only I haven't really accomplished even the meager goals I set out to and in retrospect I think I've accomplished next to nothing over the last 7 years of training. I'm not saying that my training sucked but well, WTF was I doing for the last 7 years?
In all reality the only thing I accomplished over the last 7 years of training is being EXTREMELY consistent. And by EXTREMELY I mean that I've snatched and clean & jerked and totaled pretty much the same exact weights +/- 3-5kg for the last 7 years. Talk about consistent and talk about plateau. Why was I content with that? Who in their right mind would be content with that? It's like going into the weight room every day and saying, "Hey, I think I'll be mediocre today." What a horribly awful mindset to have! I had those goals to lift big weights but never even tried to get there. Sure I went in and lifted but it really seems I never pushed myself to the complete breaking point. WTF was wrong with me?!?!
Here's the good news though....I have gone BEASTESS!! Now not only do I want to pick up heavy shit (which I've always wanted to do), I actually pick it up. In the last 3+ months of training, I've managed to hop on the PR train a few times and get PRs in almost every lift I've ever done. Be it power snatch for triples or split jerks for singles. My long time nemeses were snatching 70 and clean & jerking 90. Welllllll, at my last national meet I opened with 74 & 90, not to mention that I've hit lifts bigger than that in training. Needless to say, I've slayed the 70/90 demons and now that I have I'm so hungry for bigger, faster, stronger that I've completely gone off the deep end! I just about eat, sleep, breath, and poop weightlifting.
I wish I could 100% say what inspired me to go into the gym and not just say I want bigger lifts but actually attempt bigger weights. To walk in, lift something heavy, and then add 5k more and see what happens. I have my hunches on a few things that changed in my life that were part of my inspiration: people, places, things. I'm just being a little intro/retrospective and wonder why the hell I waited 7 years to become this inspired?!?!
My brother once quoted to me, "A dream not written is only a wish." Well I'm putting it down here now:
Summer 2012
- Snatch 80k
- Clean 100k
- Jerk 100k
- Squat 137+k (This has been a goal since I started lifting at 16. Squat double body-weight which at the time would equate to around 137k. Now it's more like 150k.)
By Summer 2016
- Total 200+
- Squat 150+k
- Invite to Olympic Trials
My final parting words are......
Don't be content with mediocre. Don't go into today to be mediocre. Go into today to do and be great.
Once I graduated and joined the working world I still hungered for competitive athletics. As luck would have it a co-worker at the gym (started my adult life as a personal trainer) was competing in weightlifting. One day I asked her to take me with her and the rest is history...the end.
Now if that were truly the case you'd know who I am and that I accomplished great things in weightlifting. Only I haven't really accomplished even the meager goals I set out to and in retrospect I think I've accomplished next to nothing over the last 7 years of training. I'm not saying that my training sucked but well, WTF was I doing for the last 7 years?
In all reality the only thing I accomplished over the last 7 years of training is being EXTREMELY consistent. And by EXTREMELY I mean that I've snatched and clean & jerked and totaled pretty much the same exact weights +/- 3-5kg for the last 7 years. Talk about consistent and talk about plateau. Why was I content with that? Who in their right mind would be content with that? It's like going into the weight room every day and saying, "Hey, I think I'll be mediocre today." What a horribly awful mindset to have! I had those goals to lift big weights but never even tried to get there. Sure I went in and lifted but it really seems I never pushed myself to the complete breaking point. WTF was wrong with me?!?!
Here's the good news though....I have gone BEASTESS!! Now not only do I want to pick up heavy shit (which I've always wanted to do), I actually pick it up. In the last 3+ months of training, I've managed to hop on the PR train a few times and get PRs in almost every lift I've ever done. Be it power snatch for triples or split jerks for singles. My long time nemeses were snatching 70 and clean & jerking 90. Welllllll, at my last national meet I opened with 74 & 90, not to mention that I've hit lifts bigger than that in training. Needless to say, I've slayed the 70/90 demons and now that I have I'm so hungry for bigger, faster, stronger that I've completely gone off the deep end! I just about eat, sleep, breath, and poop weightlifting.
I wish I could 100% say what inspired me to go into the gym and not just say I want bigger lifts but actually attempt bigger weights. To walk in, lift something heavy, and then add 5k more and see what happens. I have my hunches on a few things that changed in my life that were part of my inspiration: people, places, things. I'm just being a little intro/retrospective and wonder why the hell I waited 7 years to become this inspired?!?!
My brother once quoted to me, "A dream not written is only a wish." Well I'm putting it down here now:
Summer 2012
- Snatch 80k
- Clean 100k
- Jerk 100k
- Squat 137+k (This has been a goal since I started lifting at 16. Squat double body-weight which at the time would equate to around 137k. Now it's more like 150k.)
By Summer 2016
- Total 200+
- Squat 150+k
- Invite to Olympic Trials
My final parting words are......
Don't be content with mediocre. Don't go into today to be mediocre. Go into today to do and be great.
No comments:
Post a Comment