Remember, remember the fifth of November

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I’ve been training pretty hard since January, and focused that training on Olympic weightlifting a few months ago. There have been plenty of times where I didn’t feel like training. Plenty of times between sets where I didn’t know how I was going to summon the energy for the next one. But I always have. Admittedly part of that is due to an ability to induce an adequate release of adrenaline (a topic for another time), but that has to start with a proper mindset.

First, decide how important training is. For me, if I am going to train for something, I’m going to do it right, and my trainees will be the same. Even when I played football in high school and college, I never let anyone work harder than me. Performing to my best ability was the goal then, and it certainly is the goal now. If I slack on a given training session, then I don’t get stronger and better. If I don’t get stronger and better now, then I don’t hit my goals in the next lifting meet. That, my friends, is not an option. If improving through training is just not that important to you, then you should redefine your goals and your intentions. At that point you aren’t training, you’re just working out.

Let’s assume training is important to you for whatever reason. Depending on the goal, sport, or activity, there are many motivational factors for those days you “feel tired”. It isn’t my job to give you a list of these factors. It’s just my job to give you a kick in the ass to figure them out yourself. I don’t have time for people who “feel tired” when I coach, and I don’t have time for it on 70’s Big either.

There is a guy at our gym named Ronnie. He’s 60 years old, about 6’2″, 260 pounds and has been training at WFAC since he was 52. In the CrossFit Total Meet (lifting meet that consists of the squat, standing press, and deadlift) we had at the gym in February, Ronnie squatted 363. He went for 385, but it was dumped over his head, and he pulled his hamstring in the process. His recovery was arduous because of his age, but he stuck with it and eventually recovered. A couple months ago an MRI showed 3 bulging discs in his cervical spine. This caused the muscles in his left shoulder and triceps area to give out during pressing and bench pressing. Ron went from repping 225 for sets of twenty on the bench to barely being able to bench 135. He’s had one set back after another.

I started working with him so that we could figure out how to train around and through this problem while at the same time improving his squat given his cervical limitations. While working on the neuro deal, we tweaked the squat form, then worked the strength back up.

One day Ron came in the gym, and the man was tired. He was moving into a new house, running his furniture business, making his wife and granddaughters happy, and you could tell he was drained.
“How ya doin’, Ron?”
“I’m tired.”

Well, you know what Ron did next? He strapped on his belt, stretched his hamstrings, and started squatting. He didn’t complain, didn’t bitch — just continued loading the bar. We slapped on 300 pounds. 300 pounds for the man who hadn’t such weight on his back since dumping the 385 over his head 8 months previous (sorry about that, Ron! –> I was a spotter). 300 pounds for the man with the three bulging discs. 300 pounds for the man who was tired. Ron stepped up to the bar, un-racked it, and squatted it five times.

If a 60 year old man can come in tired — legitimately tired — and squat 300 pounds for a set of five, then some how you can find the energy and the balls to get through your training session when “you’re tired”. I know I do.

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I had a request for a video of me snatching, so I delivered. In this training session I am just doing some light singles at 110 kilograms to practice getting under the bar. Red, white, and blue, baby.

Justin Snatches – 11-4-09 from 70s Big on Vimeo.

Note: I don’t need anybody pointing out any faults you may see. Not only do I feel them precisely at the time that they occur, but I can see them in the video since I coach this shit. I also don’t care that you have a friend that is stronger than me; this is not a “penis length” contest.