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!

Two Roads Diverged in a Weight Room.....

I LOVE lifting.  There's always been some "glitch" in me that makes me want to be stronger and faster than everyone around me.  Now with that being said there are days where the thought of trying to pick up something heavy just doesn't sound very appealing.  This is where Robert Frost's two roads diverge in a wood....you can take the easy road and not lift.  Or you can put on your big girl panties and do work!

Today was one of those days.  I was a little bit tired and A LOT cranky from work.  Joints were feeling stiff, tired, maybe a bit twingy.  Not the worst I've ever felt going into a work out but definitely a little on edge.  So the roads were split....

Road 1 - Sit here in front of the computer, talking the talk.  Blah blah blahhhhing about lifting.
Road 2 - Pony up & lift some heavy shit.

So I pulled out the big girl panties, squeezed my increasingly large ass into them, and decided to skip down Road 2 or die trying.  Of course with being so inspired lately I decided to take it a step further and put up a big goal for the session.  Full clean 90k for 3 reps or get buried underneath it trying.  A few months ago just cleaning 90k for one rep would've seemed lofty and this time I wanted to triple it.  80k for 3, check!  85k for 3, felt a little heavier than I thought but check!  On to the bar 90k goes.....A lot of grunts, screams, yells, and a slight grinder third rep.....CHECK AND DONE!

With the full cleans done for the day it was time to move onto the squats.  Squatting is one of my favorite lifts.  Squatting for 8 reps, maybe not as much.  8 reps feels like an eeeeeeeeeternity under the weight.  Prior to taking my current job I was on a good roll and had squatted 100x8 but haven't gotten anywhere near that recently.  Today my plan was to match that by my last set.  I did one warm up set of 70x4 then got right into it.  90x8, felt like baby weight.  Decided to jump straight to 100.  Knocked out 8 reps no problem.  Went to 105....1 rep 2 rep breath, 3 rep 4 rep 5 rep breath, 6 rep breath, 7 rep breath, 8 rep scream like a banshee and rack it like a champ! Lay on floor waiting for my ass and legs to stop twitching.....

Both lifts were PRs for the reps.  Clean 90x3.  Squat 105x8.  Beastess...mode...complete.

Two roads diverged in a weight room.  I lifted some heavy weight.  And that has made all the difference.....

WTF was I doing for the last 7 years?!!?!?!?!

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. 

What is Beastess?

What is Beastess?  Ever heard of balls to the wall?  Well since I don't happen to have that particular bit of anatomy I can't really go balls to the wall.  But I can damn well Go Beastess! I can walk into a gym like I own the place.  I can walk onto the platform and decide that I will own whatever weight I put on the bar. And if it isn't heavy enough or hard enough, I'll add 2k, add 5k, add kilos until it IS heavy and it IS hard.  And I'll still rep it out.  Then I'll go on to my next lift and own that lift too.  After the day is done, I'll go home and eat like it's my last meal on earth then eat some more.  And foam roll and stretch like there's no tomorrow.  And then if I'm not beat up and beat down enough, I'll crawl my ass into an ice bath for 15 freezing minutes.  What about tomorrow?  I'll do it again. It's a conscious effort to Go Beastess.  And I will continue to do it until I'm too broken, bloodied, and dying to go on.  Even at the end of it all, I will be the Beastess and I....WILL....ROAR!