You all know and love AC. For the next few weeks, we’ll be posting some of his coaching articles on the individual lifts. In this first installment, AC discusses the Press, a lift he’s pretty dece at. He’s hit 285 for a single, and 260×4…at under 220lbs bodyweight. So, you know, maybe he kinda knows what he’s talking about, and stuff. I heard he also likes Batman. – Jacob
We’re going to talk about the Press. Soon, I’ll also talk about the entire process of Squatting and Benching. Yes I capitalized those words, because fuck you, that’s why. The first thing we talk about when we discuss the Press is grip. When most people Press their grip is usually way too wide. The forearm should be perpendicular to the bar. That’s 90 degrees. Not angled in and NOT angled out. Better external rotation can be achieved with a perpendicular grip. With that said, just because you are gripping it where you are supposed to doesn’t mean that external rotation magically happens. Justin talks about this HERE. That should give you a visual of what to do with your grip and your elbows. You should also have an erection by now as well. It’s hard to explain the grip via writing so just watch the video in the link I have provided.
Moving on, the elbows have to be cued. Some of you have your own cues. I just say to myself “Elbows in” or “Elbows.” Remember – if you know the meaning behind the cue you can shorten it to one word. If your cue is “Anal,” but you know what that means (elbows externally rotated), then you can yell “Anal!” to yourself all day. With a compact wrist and the elbows in, the drive from chest/chin (depending on anatomy) will be much faster and easier. That’s assuming you haven’t been Pressing with internally rotated elbows. Remember that you can get strong doing it the wrong way, but you can get even stronger doing it correctly. After all, you want to be able to break backs, don’t you?
If only Batman knew how this was gonna turn out.
Before you even begin to Press, you have to have a slight lean at the hips. This is NOT over-extension of the spine. Your whole body leans back. The easiest way for me to describe this is that it’s almost like stretching your hip flexors. Keeping your back in extension, you lean your hips forward. This obviously happens at the beginning. This sets the bar up for a vertical path with nothing in its way. Your huge dome and chin no longer risk getting hit. This lean is also important for something that happens later in the lift. So, as you are pressing the bar, you also want to keep it as tight to your face as possible. This is achieved by aiming for your nose. A nice cue to say is “Nose.” The bar gets pressed back in a vertical fashion instead of out in front of you, which would be bad news bears. Once the bar starts to clear the face/forehead, the next thing you are going to do is “Punch” your body “Under” the bar. At this point you are no longer leaning and you are physically driving yourself under the bar. This will get rid of the lever arm between the bar and your shoulder. From there you are just pressing it out for the last few inches.
Now we are at the top of the press. When you are at the top you should continue to “Reach” the entire time. This little reach/shrug causes upward rotation of the scapula. This little movement clears the shoulder up for any impingement that might occur. This is also when the breathing happens. First, there is a big breath for the first rep when you take it out of the rack. Then, when you have completed a rep, another fast breath occurs before you lower the bar. This might take a few days to get used. Consider the bottom of the Press like the bottom of the Squat – you don’t want to re-breath when you are rebounding. At the top, it is a quick exhale-inhale to regain whatever air you have lost during the rep.
Now for the “Rebound.” The rebound is best described as bouncing your triceps off of your armpits. This is very similar to the reflex that happens at the bottom of the squat. For some of you this may get tricky. If you remember all the leaning and shit you did before, you now have to reverse it on the way down so you are set-up again for the next rep, just like you would on a Deadlift.
There is a quick how-to guide to Press. The easiest way to learn is have a coach with you that knows what he/she is doing. I hope this can be of some help to those of you that wanted this write up. I can’t promise that you will Press as much weight as you want to, but with patience and perseverance you can conquer all of your goals. Everyone is different. Some people are stronger than others. Hell – I fucking hate tall people because I wish I was taller. So remember to play the hand you are dealt.
Today’s post is courtesy of long-time reader, contributor, friend, and chili-maker, Jake Brisket. You should already know who he is. Keep the submissions coming! – Brian
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve contributed anything substantial to this site. Long time readers may remember the writeup I did of my first powerlifting meet; it’s a shock to realize that was two years ago. I guess it’s time to start fixing my incredibly high ratio of lurking to contributing.
Anyway, it’s Monday again, so I thought I’d give some publicity to an up and coming female lifter who I started coaching last summer. Iris has a solid athletic background outside of the gym, and excels as a hockey defender. Since she started doing dumbbell curl and presses (AKA Arnold presses) in her basement around the age of 7, she has enough natural swollertrophy that more than one random person has told her that she would make a good powerlifter. Surprisingly, she had never actually been on a structured lifting program until last fall, when she asked me to put together something that she could follow around her practices and games; at time of writing, she just finished a third season captaining her university’s club team while also playing a few games each month for the Honey Badgers, her local men’s rec team. Now, I don’t know jack about hockey, but I can confirm that Iris plays hard for all four periods, and she brings that attitude into the gym.
I first saw Iris lift in July when her best friend brought her to Cambridge Strength and Conditioning. At the time, CSC’s upper echelon was experimenting with an advanced Russian system called “put everyone on an LP and have a Woodchuck“, so Iris just jumped in with what our other trainees were doing. First impressions were good, when she easily squatted 135x5x3, benched a couple sets in the low 100s, then deadlifted 205×5. Those are reasonable numbers for a 130lb woman, but I wasn’t really surprised until I found out that she had just returned from a semester abroad in New Zealand, and hadn’t touched a weight in over six months. Not bad imo.
Fast forward to the present: hockey season is over, so Iris has put on about 10 solid pounds and is hard at work getting ready for her first powerlifting meet, date to be fixed for this summer.
Finding a new trainee with good natural ability is always reason to celebrate, but her 70sBig attitude is the real reason I think Iris deserves to be featured here. As hard as it is for men and boys to find good training information in the ocean of broscience that is the internet and print media, it’s at least twice as hard for women, because unfortunately many women have also internalized sexist attitudes about what is “appropriate” for them. Remember being a scrawny and confused teenage boy, bouncing back and forth between TNation and bodybuilding.com, searching desperately for a clue? That’s a hard enough time, but at least your quest for swole wasn’t being hampered by friends and family pointedly wondering why a lady would want to lift weights (read: be useful), or magazines reassuring you that no really, that low-fat Yoplait is a great source of protein. Gag me with a pink dumbbell.
Anyway, I’m happy to report that Iris never internalized any of this, so her attitude is refreshing change from all the issues that cause Justin to completely lose his shit. She didn’t need to be cajoled into lifting heavy, and I think she already eats more protein than half of the guys reading this post. I’m not making that up. The first time I asked to see her food log, I looked at the summary for a single week, Monday-Friday and the row “Protein (grams)” read: 210, 215, 204, 283, 243. Read that again. A 140lb woman ate over 200 grams of protein every day for a week, and on Thursday she cracked 2g/lb of bodyweight. If any of you guys want a safe space to discuss how this makes you feel, I would check out http://mopeilitywod.com/ imo. I know that’s where I was headed after comparing my own poor eating habits.
But despite having a few good reasons to feel self-satisfied, Iris doesn’t like getting on her high horse (which is why she wanted me to introduce her) and prefers to just quietly show up and do work. As she said to me the other day after seeing one of her peers doing 3lb dumbbell front raises “there’s no attendance credit at the gym.” Make a note of it, and stay tuned for updates from Iris on her meet prep. Over and out.
Haaaaaaaaave you seen our posts this week? Monday we had a guest post by Jackie. She seems pretty cool. Cooler than anyone else who hasn’t submitted an article about grabbing life by the balls, competing even when nervous, and kicking ass, at least. She added me as a friend on the old facebooks, and now I see that she’s competing AGAIN this weekend at USAW University Nationals in Tennessee, so let’s wish her well and hope for an updated post from her in the near future. Anyone else competing? Seek and Destroy, friends.
On Wednesday, Brian had an in-depth interview with powerlifter Carlos. Brian is a quiet but valuable part of the team behind the scenes here at 70sBig. He makes sure our social media junk is up to date and every once in awhile, photoshops ridiculous pictures of everyone but me. He showed off his writing chops in this interview, and I think it was pretty damn good. It’s long, but worth the read. You guys really seem to enjoy these interviews, so we have a few more coming. Tsypkin is still working on a 2 or 3 part series of interviews with Niko Hulslander, so hopefully that will be ready to publish in the next week or two. I am also working with AC on a whole slew of upcoming articles that don’t include pictures of his butt. Or do they?
Tsypkin didn’t receive enough questions this week to warrant a Q&A, but Mike scoured the internet (facebook and the comments sections of the posts) and made another very helpful video. Watch it, tell your kids and doctor to watch it, and enjoy. Keep asking questions on the facebook page. Apparently these guys like it.
Now, I have some homework for you guys and gals. Some of you (most?) are relatively new to our humble section of the internet (just kidding, we’re not humble, we’re fucking awesome). It’s time for a flash-back. Read this post:
Homework Part 1: Give us your favorite quote out of that article. Mine: “Fucking Brent.” It just makes me laugh, what can I say? Fucking Brent.
Homework Part 2: Take a pic. Send it to submissions@70sbig.com with the title “This is my 70sbig Face” or something funny. I will take the best ones and put them on the site.
I thought of this a couple weeks ago when I was supporting a couple of my lifters at the NAS Texas Strongest Man contest and saw our buddy Ryan Carrillo . He aimed his Canon and 17-40L in my direction, and without really thinking, here’s what happened:
This is just how I walk around now. It’s fine.
Last week, I talked about the lifestyle we choose to live. We lift heavy things and we have a damn good time doing it. This face helps show the world just how ridiculously awesome we are, so send me your best shots, and I’ll post them up. (Make sure they are less than 1MB each, please. Do you know how much a MB of storage costs in the 70s? Prolly about a hundred.)
To get us started on PRs, our buddy Brooks Conway, a notable young 181lb IPF equipped lifter, sent in this video of a recent 600×1 Raw Deadlift.
CrossFitters take note: He pulls 600 raw, with some bumpers…and doesn’t DROP it. K? He also recently raw squatted 495×3, which happens to tie what one of my 181’s is squatting this Saturday, and benches 365 for raw doubles, so…everyone, get stronger. The bar is high around here. Even if you aren’t there yet, get stronger every week, and keep us in the loop! Post your PRs, do your homework, take your vitamins, and have a stellar weekend.
The first time I met Carlos at TPS, he (unknowingly?) trolled our weightlifting team by loading up a bar to 400-500lbs on a platform and then disappearing for 45 mins while his “deadlift suit stretched out.” Despite this (and pulling sumo at the time too!) over time I came to find him as a laidback, incredibly friendly guy who was always in the gym, either lifting or showing up just to help others train. His transformation and programming makes for a great story that I’m happy to share here. – Brian
Carlos 125lbs to 210lbs in 6 years
Tell us about your background, how you got started lifting, and how long you have been powerlifting.
Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be muscular and strong so I picked up my first magazine issue of Men’s Health at my local CVS in Andover, Massachusetts (at the time, I thought the bodybuilder magazines were too gross looking). I found a chest and back workout, that had some arm work thrown in. l did that workout at the town’s local health club for at least a month, thinking I didn’t need to train legs as I was still playing soccer at the time. On top of soccer I did lacrosse and track and field, but was always dissatisfied with team sports when teammates didn’t give it their all even though I always did.
I got into lifting weights in my senior year of high school. I had just finished my last season of cross-country, weighing in at 125lbs, and wanted to get into another individual sport. In May of 2008 I found my current gym, Total Performance Sports in Boston, and started seriously Powerlifting. This has more or less been the only gym I’ve ever gone to since I first started lifting weights. It’s one of the few gyms I know that houses Olympic Weightlifters, Strongmen, Powerlifters, and MMA/combat fighters. [ed. note: this gym is legit, definitely 70’s Big]
What’s your programming typically look like? Do/have you use(d) any of the popular programs (531, TX method, etc) and if so which do you like the best?
When I first started lifting I started by using Westside. Then I came across Sheiko and was intrigued by it and ran these three different cycles of it in this order: #29 then #37 and peaked with #32. I found that this improved my total more so than the Westside training ever had so I kept doing it for a while and started tinkering with it.
About two years ago, I became interested in the block concept because I read that Sheiko was a form of this bigger concept called Block Periodization and asked my friend Thomas Butler about it. Thomas is a close friend of mine who I met through competing in Powerlifting in the 181 class. I was stronger than him at the meets we did together but his gift with Powerlifting has more to do with programming and we quickly became good friends. Tom was also interested in trying out a block program and sent me a training cycle that he had written. I followed it through to the letter and loved it. We eventually collaborated on an adaption of it that best suited my needs and as a result I really started to see my totals increase.
Starting at my ~1400 total and using Tom’s block programming, I hit:
In less than a year and a half, I put 300 pounds on my total.
Carlos pulls 665 to round out a 1700lb total
I always go with Thomas’ programming whenever I do a meet because I tend to have paralysis by analysis; thankfully he takes all the thinking out of it for me. So while I have programmed other lifters, I could never write out my own training because I could never be that objective with myself. Whenever I’m not prepping for a meet, I always gravitate to 5/3/1 to maintain and give my body a rest. I find that Block Periodization tends to beat me up too much; if I used it as an annual plan I would either burn out or injure myself.
Block isn’t a routine ala 5/3/1. It’s a concept designed to move effectively towards a specific end using three training blocks: Accumulation, Transmutation, and Realization. Each block is roughly 3 weeks of training, followed by a one week deload at the end of each block. In accumulation you get into “Powerlifting shape,” meaning that increased hypertrophy and work capacity are the goals of this block. The basis of the transmutation block is to take the general abilities and transfer them to specific abilities using increased intensity and reduced volume. I think it’s important to know it’s normal to feel like shit during this block, but you should still be able to hit all of the numbers you planned to hit. The realization block is the final stage of training before a meet where volume is low and the intensity is high. It’s often referred to as a taper and the training is directed to the competition lifts.
I’ve had a lot of questions about Block and wrote up some stuff you can see on my old log and my current training log.
You are a really well balanced 220lber, do you ever take more time to focus on one lift more so than the others, or have you always pretty much given the squat/bench/deadlift equal treatment?
Here’s my training philosophy: I practice the competition lifts to get good at them. Granted, there are some programming considerations to make when preparing for a meet, but to ignore any of the competitive lifts is a big mistake. You want all of the contest lifts to be automatic; to be second nature. To get there you need to do many reps the same way you would in the meet, including using gear if you’re equipped.
Your meat and potatoes of your total is going to come from your Squat and Deadlift, but the Bench Press is vital to maintain momentum leading into the Deadlift flight of a Powerlifting meet. I may never have any of my one individual lifts be in the top 10 lifts of all time, but that doesn’t matter to me. The end goal is having the best total, and the lists I care about are the National and World record totals for whichever weight class I compete in.
I believe that in order to be great, you must look at Powerlifting like any other sport. You have to be skill specific and therefore train to meet the explicit demands of Powerlifting. Hitting the upper echelons of strength involves training speed strength, limit strength, and etc. Therefore you can’t reasonably spend your training economy on specialization of a certain lift and on top of that you need to be aware of how much volume you do. I’m nowhere close to perfect on these things. I’m just trying to highlight the fact that to be a good Powerlifter you have you practice your skill and not ignore any of the competition lifts.
You train at a gym with a decent amount of geared lifters. Have you gotten any influence from the geared guys, or been able to take training ideas from geared lifters and successfully use them to get stronger at raw lifting?
I think choosing to pursue raw lifting rather than equipped lifting was crucial for me because it forced me to focus entirely on what really matters: getting stronger.
The last equipped meet I did was the 2011 Europa Battle of Champions. During the meet, after Squatting 705lbs, I thought to myself, “Do I look like a guy that can Squat 705lbs?” Unfortunately I bombed on Bench, and gave myself an early exit to the showers.
The next day when I saw myself in my bathroom mirror, my face was absolutely obliterated; it was completely covered in popped blood vessels and the whites of my eyes were entirely covered in blood. I told myself that this wasn’t healthy at all; I could only imagine the intra-cranial pressure my brain must have experienced as a result of the supramaximal weights my body was handling. It was then that I told myself that I was never going to compete equipped again. It’s scary to think that lifting maximal weights alone might potentiate brain damage, let alone handling weights that are 200, 300, hell 400 pounds over your raw max.
Since then, I’ve decided to go raw. I still look at the geared lifters at my gym as my mentors. I am still a kid in their eyes, since most of them have at least ten years of lifting experience and if anything, I take every piece of advice they give me and apply it. I’m very big on mobility work and getting your body as healthy as possible. In seeing how some of my more experienced peers are limited by their chronic injuries, have I decided to learn from their mistakes and do my best to keep on top of things and to take care of my body.
I may be 23, but I desire longevity in this sport in order to achieve my goals. I cannot afford to lose time due to preventable injury. As lifters, we can barely afford to have a bad training session, let alone get sidelined by an otherwise avoidable injury. I do my best to see a Chiropractor and undergo A.R.T. and Graston treatments on a semi-regular basis. Plus, I am always sure to do a general and sport specific warm ups before EVERY training session. It may look goofy, but I rather spend the 10-15 minutes to get my body ready for the task at hand.
Tell us about what you generally eat. Do you follow any of the popular diets (paleo, carb cycling, vegan lol, etc)
When I first started training, I was 125lbs, so the first thing I did was temporarily cut out any cardio I was doing. I was running just about 10 miles per day at the time, so going from one extreme to another was a huge paradigm shift. However, I knew that if I wanted to reach my size and strength goals, I had to really focus on changing my eating habits. If memory serves me right, my first “real” training program was the infamous “Squats and Milk” program:
Press behind neck 3 x 12
Squat 1 x 20
Pullover 1 x 20
Bench press 3 x 12
Rowing 3 x 15
Stiff legged deadlift 1 x 15
Pullover 1 x 20
This in addition to, of course, a gallon of whole milk a day. At that time I ate every 2-3 hours, totaling six meals per day, all while using the milk as a supplemental source of extra calories. Following this routine, I gained 55lbs in 8 months, thus shifting my weight from 125lbs to 180lbs.
When I came to Total Performance Sports, I began following a program similar to that of the Westside approach. My diet therefore had to change, so I wrote myself a quality mass diet to go along with my new training style. I ate 90-95% of “clean” foods; i.e. no candy, no fried stuff, no junk food, and no fast food. In order to calculate my caloric intake goals, I used this formula: body weight x 16 + 20%
Following that logic, I consumed 3456 calories on training days, and on non-training days I consumed maintenance caloric levels. This approach worked well, as I was able to consistently gain 10lbs every 3 months. When my lifts stopped advancing, I made sure to gain another 10lbs over the next 3 months.
By the time I reached the 200-210lb mark, I realized I had put on too much body fat, and had to tweak my dietary program. I began using a carb cycling approach, and started improving my body composition. I’ve been in the 200+ body weight range for the past two years, but my body composition has been steadily improving. When I began, I was 210lbs at 25% bodyfat, and now I’m at 215lbs at 17%. I think measuring your body fat on a regular basis and using concrete numbers to monitor your body composition is absolutely crucial to making progress.
Thomas and I track my body composition as a marker of whether or not a training block was successful. If my lifts are improving, but I’ve only put on body fat, it generally tells us that improvements are due to mass leverage, and that I’m becoming an inefficient lifter. There is no point in adding mass for the sake of mass if it is solely acting as deadweight.
My current body composition goal is to be 210lbs with 10-12% body fat. My ultimate goal is to maintain that body fat percentage while at 225lbs. Although it is a painstaking process, the substantial increases in my competition totals make it well worth the effort; it’s verification for me.
When you interact with skinny hipsters do they react to you like you are Godzilla? And how do you find hipster style clothes that fit you?
I couldn’t help but laugh at this question. Powerlifting is a sport that I will live and die for, but it is only one facet of who I am. I’ve been a musician for about ten years, and culturally speaking, I’ve always been a hipster-nerd type that enjoys going to thrift shops, pretentious coffee shops, and underground metal shows. You’re just as likely to see me grinding out reps on the squat as you would catch me talking about existentialism in Harvard Square.
I find it kind of weird that in the Powerlifting and music scenes often it’s not about just lifting weights or the music, but you have to dress and act a certain way to be part of the sport/scene. Like it’s mandatory to have a shaved head, facial hair, and tattoos in order to be a “true” Powerlifter. There have been times that I haven’t been taken seriously as a lifter because of those superficial things, and I think it’s silly. The majority of my friends knew me before I became a serious Powerlifter, and they don’t treat me any differently as a skinny 125lb’er versus me now at 215lbs.
One of the things that I love about Powerlifting is that it’s a pure way of expressing yourself. The weights are objective, and they’re extremely honest with you, there’s no bullshit when it comes to lifting a max weight.
If you really want to talk appearances, for actual hipster fashion, I’m lucky to live in Boston. There’s so much culture and all different walks of life here that you can find whatever you’re into and augment it to your style. I like going to this store called Bodega or any of the shops in Allston to get some fashion. Funny enough, my old tailor that use to be my go to guy for tailoring my multi-ply suits is now my actual clothing tailor. If he can make my squat suit fit I trust him with my jeans.
When is your next planned meet?
RPS and my gym are getting together to hold a meet in the Boston area, I believe it’s going to be October 12-13, that’s definitely my next meet. Any of the guys from my gym, myself included, are going to compete for bragging rights.
Today’s article is courtesy of Jackie. She gives us an honest and frank look into her story of going from a gym-stud to fresh meat on the platform, with a little prodding from her coach. More importantly, it’s easy to see just how much the work we do with the barbell effects our outlooks in the rest of our lives. A huge thanks to Jackie and her coach Chris for bringing us this story – keep ’em coming, folks! – Jacob
When it comes to training, I have had some significant personal accomplishments. Deadlifting 300lbs, pressing the 24kg kettlebell, 32kg Turkish Get Ups, and repping out pull-ups have all been exciting feats. But I must humbly confess that these have all come relatively easily to me. Which begs the question, what am I capable of if I really applied myself? I’ve never really found out the answer, but it’s a question I hope I never stop asking myself. As a recovering fitness trend-junkie, in addition to a stubborn Italian (which is more of a character asset if you ask me), I have always struggled with training “ADHD,” and I occasionally relapse back into old habits of over-training, under-eating, lack of mobility work, and training with the purpose of vanity. This resulted in disturbed sleep patterns, inevitable injuries, mood swings, apathy and boredom. This is a lesson I have learned all too many times, and am frankly sick of getting beat over the head with it (if you’ve met my mentors, you would understand I mean this both figuratively and literally).
The truth is that I haven’t ever really worked hard for something. I mean, really worked for it. To clarify, I have applied myself in school, work, relationships, and I do have experience setting goals and meeting them. Yet, the goals I set were mediocre at best, and easily attainable. To be even more candid, if I did ever set a high standard that would require some serious dedication (which was rare) I would usually quit. Give up. Just like that. If it wasn’t executed perfectly, exactly as I expected, it was over.
But to work hard, hours on end, sacrifices, compromises, losses and gains and more losses, all for something that looks and feels so far away, and promises no guarantees? Nope. Never really knew what it felt like. I’ve been one of those people who would back out in the middle of a winning streak for fear of losing face, who would “stop while I’m ahead,” who wouldn’t pursue something because it would entail some serious effort and risk failure. I have been this person, this way, for most of my life. Which, ironically, isn’t really living it all.
For two years now, Chris Falkner, coach for Tucson Barbell, has been fighting to get me into Olympic lifting. While I did play around with the idea and techniques, it just seemed ‘too hard’ to actually commit to. Recently, however, life threw me a couple of curve balls, leading me straight to the platform. After feeling uninspired for so long, it became the only place that I could seem to find the solace and serenity that seemed so absent from my life.
Spending 1-2 hours, 5-6 days a week, for 3 months (and counting), focusing on the same movements and techniques over and over can be very humbling. You fail… a lot, and start to discover more about yourself and your “limits.” You can’t afford to use any energy on giving a shit about what you look like, what people think of you, or, God-forbid, getting “bulky.” The goal becomes the focal point, and it’s amazing how your perspective changes when you do finally wake up. It’s like seeing everything for the first time… finally. I remember watching my coach in his training session one day. I had seen him lift before, but this time I saw it differently. Before approaching the platform, he stood back for a few moments, almost as though he was paying his respects. There was complete silence, no music, not talking. It was just him, the platform, the bar, the weight and the passion to become better. Everything he would talk about, in that moment, had finally started to make sense.
A few days before the Grand Canyon Winter Open in Phoenix, AZ, Chris had suggested I register as a participant. Immediately I got flustered and scrambled to find reasons not to. ‘I’m not ready.’ ‘I have too much homework and a test to study for.’ All euphemisms for: ‘I am a chicken shit.’ Chris did what he does best and called me out, and I was fuming. (You see, when people other than myself are right, I get pissed.) I decided to do it, even if it was mostly out of spite.
At 5:30am on a Saturday morning, I braved the 2-hour drive, in pouring rain on Interstate 10 (which is scary as hell) to participate in my first official weight-lifting meet. Already sleep-deprived from the nerves the night before, I spent the entire two hours talking myself into going and not turning around back towards a warm bed. I weighed in, warmed up, and it was time to lift. The gym owner was explaining the rules, and I honestly don’t remember a single word he had said, I was so preoccupied. My hands were shaking and I had to remind myself to breath. But I remember finally setting foot on the platform and having the visual of coach training, and my teammates. In the moment before, I suddenly stopped giving a shit about anything other than the lift. In the moments between, I was too busy admiring the other girls’ lifts and paid no attention to the adrenaline rushing through my body. I ended up hitting all three of my snatch attempts, setting a new personal record at 47kg. I landed two attempts of the clean and jerk at 60kg and 64kg, and missed my last one at 67kg. Three of my teammates and I qualified for University Nationals in April. It was an amazing time, and I learned an invaluable lesson. The experience wasn’t about hitting numbers higher than the next girl, or having the best technique, but to work hard and compete with the older, weaker version of myself.
In the days following the meet, I have felt more confident in my training and technique. The gym has become a refuge and I count the minutes until I get there. I realize my numbers aren’t necessarily the most impressive. I am a little fish in a rather large pond and I acknowledge the cards are stacked against me ever becoming the “best.” But as long as I show up and am better than yesterday, I’ve found my calling.
