A little while back Donny Shankle and Jon North published a reading of the reality of weightlifting called “The Old Show.” The meat of the message was that weightlifting is often times monotonous and extremely hard to love. That’s the beauty of the sport, it take so much dedication. Literally day in and day out you complete the same movements over and over and over again. I love it when people ask weightlifters what they’re going to do to today. The answer’s always the same: snatch, clean and jerk, and squat. That’s like asking a quarterback what he is going to do today; he’s going to throw the football.
After posting yesterday about making a decision mentally to defeat the barbell on a day-to-day basis and winning the battle daily, the barbell decided to rub it in my face today. Ironically, I lost today. It was a good reality check that weightlifting isn’t all glory all the time. It has troughs and valleys. We cannot hit PR lifts every day for the rest of our lives. There will be days when the barbell wins. Despite our best mental and physical attempt. I don’t like it. It will leave me anxious, angry, and frustrated for the rest of the night but it’s a reality that comes with the sport. It’s part of the deep dark side of weightlifting.
The gut check comes tomorrow. Will one bad day turn into six or do I get up off the floor, grab the barbell, and win tomorrow? I guess that remains to be seen but like I said yesterday the weight will always be the same, it will never be heavier or lighter the only difference is me. I got whipped today but the barbell can rest assured tomorrow it will not lay on the platform smirking at me like it did today.
Down days happen but what makes a great weightlifter is how we respond in the subsequent training sessions.
Developing Power & Strength through the use of the Olympic Lifts.
