As I keep lifting and learning I’ve found myself moving away from being an emotional lifter towards being a more logical lifter. On average maintaining a solid sustainable level of satisfaction is > than some emotional highs every now and then.
I don’t think on the balance of things it’s productive to be emotional attached to numbers on the bar. They are just a function of ur readiness and fatigue at any given time. Progress, progressing and feeling a sense of momentum are more satisfying to me. Lends itself to a process focused mindset as opposed to an outcome focused one. You have are satisfied in trying to doing all the little things to the best of your ability and u get what gains you get. Even in a comp setting where the number mattered you can only ever execute to the best of your ability and since it’s not within your control how other people do can’t be too mad.
It’s still a work in progress for me to be fair but I went from rarely being happy to mostly being satisfied and happy rarely so isa win. Last week I had 260kg in my head because looks cool lel but ended up being 255kg for the RPE prescription. Still a PB but certainly not as sweet.
By nature I’m not really a satisfied person ever but at least in a lifting sense this seems to be da wae. Often enough I’m pleasantly surprised by getting more than I was expecting
EDIT: kinda rambly so far but I hope the gist is getting across. Pretty I’m hunting progress constantly. It’s just reframing… not getting 240kg on a given day from one perspective it’s a clear indicator of progress and a session that was productive enough to stimulate more gains for the future like @FlatsFarmer said. Not to mention was an actual PR.
Yeah definitely starting to come down with something. I could still lift today but I think that would be a stupid decision. Missing sessions makes me angry. Kinda. I don’t know what it makes me feel but I don’t like it.
Anyway registered for a Covid test from my employer. I can’t imagine that I have Covid (I’ve literally been in contact with only my housemates and seen my sister two weeks ago or so). So isolation wouldn’t be much different, haha. I just want to have the test confirm it so that I can continue life as usual without others needing to be scared. Well and also social responsibility.
I will probably take this week off from lifting and hope that will sort me out for good.
I feel that. I don’t mean this to come across as a personal excuse or to devalue other posters’ encouragements, but ultimately in some cases it can be easier to root for others than it can be for oneself. Sometimes this is unhealthy.
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Terribly written book but gets exactly at what you are describing.
Absolutely. I can definitely see how I do that on a regular basis.
Well in that case I wasn’t trying to compare myself to hamster per se, it was more a way to put my efforts into a greater context. If I want a comparison I can easily use my competitions. I am actually pretty certain that I am the worst deadlifter in my league and probably even by a good margin. But that just means more motivation to close the gap.
I’m reading Tactical Barbell right now, some stuff we both could use ahah:
"Consistency is king. Progress takes time. Stay consistent, and keep plodding. Compare
yourself with yourself no earlier than every six months. Make no judgments until six months
are up, and then see how far you’ve come and re-assess. Anything less is a waste of time. No
changes of importance will happen in the short term. Shut your mind up for six months, do
the work, and then assess.
You will have bad days. Some sessions will be better than others. Some days you’ll fly
through a 5 mile run and think you finally have it, and then the very next session you’ll get
winded putting on your running shoes. You will not always enjoy training. You will hurt.
Many of your training sessions will be less than perfect. This happens to all of us. Suck it up.
You are slowly turning into a machine. This doesn’t happen overnight."
Definitely good quotes. Although I feel like I’ve come a long way already with this. Employing a coach helped me as well. I don’t question my training and progress as much as I used to anymore but we all get stuck there sometimes. I mainly get disappointed by the big events, such as max attempts.
I actually think in my case it would help to have more exposure to very heavy weights in order to deal with the psychological aspect better. But I am also happy to not make that call.
No Covid. I’m leading 4 or 5 to zero with tests. Pretty fortunate that I can take a test every two weeks if I want to. Makes seeing my at-risk parents easier. Also my current employment will enable me to get the vaccine earlier than most people (to protect patients… well and employees). I’m pretty strict with it all anyway. I have seen 2 people outside of my household/ people I don’t have to absolutely see in the last 4 weeks. Which are my sister and a girl I’m going out with. So you could argue that quarantine wouldn’t change my life drastically atm, haha.
Cold symptoms are on the milder side for the time being but noticeable but I’m still taking it easy. Training in the snow won’t make it better.
It’s what makes strongman “great”: you can be bad at some aspect and still be a great strongman. It’s so diverse that there’s room to play to YOUR strengths as needed. I get blown away by the speedy dudes and make up for it when it’s time to grind. I’m a rep dude and bow out when maxes show up. You figure out where you shine, and, like what you’re doing, bring up the lagging areas while still falling back on your strengths.
Absolutely. In my last competition I came fifth (and with very close results among us 5) in the yoke walk (300 kg for 20 meter in 12.13 seconds) which even beat the overall winner of the competition and many favorites for this event. What’s even crazier was that first place went to a guy that weighed in at below 100 kg, who obliterated us with 10.7 seconds.
The diversity of challenges is one of the things I love about the sport.
Yeah Szymon is an absolute beast. He got second overall. Mind you, the winner weighed in at 165 kg and I have competed against people up to 200 kg (which at that point does them no good nut still). So about 70 kg between the winner and second place. Fuck weight classes, haha.
Well I have a name that everyone including me (!) pronounces wrong. And even that incorrectness can often not be replicated by my countrymen.
So I maybe shouldn’t comment on the issue, haha
Very unsure about when to start training again and not fuck up and where the point is to stop being a pussy. Annoying as fuck. I can’t deal with “listening to your body”. That concept has stopped working for me a long time ago. I feel physically ill most of the time anyway, so the borders between that and actually being ill in the sense of having the flu for example are very blurry. Definitely won’t start today but run some errands which will require longer walking and see what impact that has.
We have a live bomb defusing situation of 4 different bombs going on near my place, so the situation in the city is even more tense than just the usual lockdown vibes, lol. I parked my car in what I later realized is part of the restricted area. So wish me luck it doesn’t blow up. Kidding, it’s not gonna and even if, we would have much bigger problems.
I can relate. I find that there are some tell-tale signs that help me discern if it’s the mind or the body that’s in revolt.
If I’m under the weather, I’d feel fine to do heavy stuff, but I’d be disinclined to superset shit without rest and how I feel about twenty reps is also a clue. I. e., challenge to do, or worried about pushing my heart through that.
If it’s “just” the mind, the will to do all the things is there.
It helps to have some gauges to run through. If my mobility complex leaves me panting, I have no business doing a widowmaker. If pushing the prowler without weight back and forth jumps my heart rate, then same issue.
I still find it hard to find the time point at which it’s okay to train again and not fuck myself up for any longer than necessary. One thing I am noticing rn is that I sweat a lot more than I do anyway if I move and a general feeling of being under the weather here and there.
I have a history of being very vulnerable for flu like diseases and especially long diseas progression so this stuff is kinda complex to maneuver for me.
I am sure it would be very helpful if I had some good and long nights of sleep.
