This is why we do it

Mondays are dedicated to females and training. We have a lot to cover this week, including the GoRuck Challenge and IPF Raw Worlds, but the ladies look forward to this day’s dedication.

I first met Ben at the 105kg weigh-in at 2010 USAW Senior Nationals. We got along immediately, joked around, and his coach at the time, Paul Doherty, helped handle me at the meet. Ben and I stayed in touch, he let AC and I stay at his house when I did a local seminar, I encouraged him to start his awesome training log, and I still intend on helping him finish a really cool children’s story he wrote. Throughout all this, Ben has continued weightlifting and got into coaching. His stable of lifters has grown, and it’s been really cool to see the coach and lifters excel.

He recently handled 5 lifters at the Midtown Classic weightlifting meet at Midtown Strength and Conditioning and wrote a really good post on it. I know how it is to handle five people in a meet, and I know how it is to see them have success and failures. I also know how it is to be physically and emotionally drained at the end of the meet because of funneling all of my energy into those lifters. To have that moment when someone you train with, someone you care about, someone whose success means more than your own…to have them finally hit that lift, that mark, that goal that they’ve been working towards…it’s an indescribable feeling. I watched this video of CC, Ben’s friend, training partner, and lifter, hit this ballsy 98kg clean and jerk (below); it’s an amazing effort. But the part when she makes her way to Ben and gives him a hug…it honestly made me well with tears.



I know that feel, bro. Good work CC and Ben. Here’s to more of the same.