EGO Lifting

        I had a different plan for this weeks post, but decided to adjust on the fly after I got inspired.  I’ll get back to it eventually, but I’ll let it simmer on the back burner for a while longer.  Without further delay, here goes... 

I see guys and girls all the time keep loading a barbell with plate after plate and are just hoping for the best.  Hunting for a new PR that they are in no way prepared for.  The story you are about to here is true, names and places have been changed to protect the innocent.  It was a late winter day in 2014.  I was in a facility south of the Mason Dixon line, training alone while a man was lifting a few platforms down from me.  I’d seen this scene before, almost déjà vu.  I knew what would happen.  He kept throwing weight on with no regard for his health. It was too late, his ego had gotten the best of him and his ego wanted to take him to a dark and lonely place...I assumed the operating room.  Set after set his form went from above average to appearing like Forrest Gump deadlifting in his magic shoes.  No not a pair of CrossFit Nanos. 

I made an attempt to help him save his spine early on.  I don’t want to see anyone get hurt and being as I was a guest in the facility I didn’t want to over step so I politely asked him if he would like a tip.  He douche-baggily declined.  Before what would turn out to be his last attempt, I started to go see if he maybe now he'd be open for a suggestion.  But then again, I’ve only ever seen YouTube videos of people passing out attempting a deadlift so I thought this was a prime time to witness this.  I had a prime front row seat, so I walked back to my barbell, sat down and pretended to tie my shoe so I could watch.

He walked up to the barbell like he was entering the octagon of the UFC ready to fight for the title.  I wish I had video of this, but what happened next actually made my back hurt.  He got set up on the bar, made some weird noises, I assume trying to scare away gravity, then all of a sudden it turned into a scene out of The Walking Dead.   He looked like a zombie coming up out of a grave.  His hips shot straight up, the inside of his knees smashed together, and his back rounded like a black cat at Halloween.  I was close enough to see the gigantic vein start pulsating on his forehead as his face became flushed with blood and then came the zombie noise.  He let out this grunt from deep within, filled with air and intervertebral discs.  The best part, it appeared like the barbell was bolted to the platform, like magnets were holding it down.  Did the bar move you ask?  Not enough to be noticed by the human eye.  Its also never a good day when you get done with a rep and you go lay on a foam roller.  Trust me, that won’t put the fluid back in your discs. 

I wanted to share that with you to talk about that chase for numbers in the gym.  If someone performs a lift with terrible form over and over with heavy weight, your body will adapt and program itself into using that awful movement pattern.  I also see it where “beginners” will fail time and time again chasing that new PR and then see their confidence get rattled and self-doubt creep in.   For a beginner, it’s probably better to find a “technical” max, where you stop at the weight that you can do with perfect form and technique.  But the ego doesn't like that, the ego wants more weight.  Finding a true 1 RM demands an extreme amount of focus and body awareness that beginners just don’t have yet. 

If you always train with fantastic form you’ll get stronger in a perfect position with a great movement pattern.  This is a good thing, a very good thing.  Plus the likelihood of injury will be significantly decreased.  Take your time to perfect your form and technique.  Don’t walk-in chasing numbers and worry about what your peers are doing.  Instead use your time to focus on your technique to develop the movements and positions necessary to bring you to those numbers that you so desperately seek. Patience early will pay massive dividends down the road.

So, for my beginner lifters out there, if you can’t perform full, controlled reps, how about we lighten the load?  All it takes is a momentary lapse in focus or form and it’s game over.  The requisite mobility and strength to perform an exercise through a full range of motion should be your gold standard.  That should be your goal, not “I want to lift more than Susan or Brian”.  Take some weight off the bar, leave your ego in the car, and put in the work to get mobile and get stronger.  It takes time.  This isn’t studying for a final exam, you can’t cram weeks, months and years of volume into a short period of time…it takes years.  I know revolutionary stuff right there.

For me, I’m always working toward perfection, but there is always going to be a teenage girl in China that can Snatch and Clean & Jerk more weight than I can.  Hell, there are probably some that warm-up with my best lift totals.  I can embrace it though.  But don’t get it twisted, some day, I’ll be stronger than every teenage girl in China…well at least those that weigh under 58kg.

G

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