Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Ups and Downs of Progress

This post is inspired by a friend of mine who will be spending over a month out of the country, have very inconsistent ability to train, and her nutrition is going to be all messed up. It took me some serious effort to calm her down as she was freaking out about it all and what she is going to do while she is gone.

Progress, it is something we all strive for, to be the best we can one step at a time. We love when we have some, and we hate it when we don't have any, or even move backwards. It is one of the greatest concepts that we have created because it means that we are closer to achieving something we want. If you are progressing towards something, you are probably a much happier person right now because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel of your goal.

The worst thing that can happen to people is a setback. A setback is discouraging; it can be something that knocks you back one step or it can knock you back to the beginning of your journey. Regardless of how severe, it seems to hurt just as bad each time. It is even worse when there is nothing you can do. Sometimes your situation just won't allow you to move forward, you try and try and try, but this setback is just there stopping you.

Sometimes though, that setback can be the greatest thing for you, even if you can't see it. The phrase "one step back for two steps forward" can be just that. If you allow yourself to look beyond this setback, this "one step back", then you can come out of your situation much improved...if you allow yourself.

Back to my friend who is out of the country, she is a weightlifter and found out she won't have any access to an Olympic bar or bumper plates, so she won't be able to practice the snatch and clean and jerk. She was furious and freaking out about it. After some talking, she realized it doesn't have to be the worst thing. She does have access to a gym, so now she can spend this time getting as strong as possible; really dedicating herself on just strength now. When she gets back, she'll be able to use this new found strength and apply it to her lifts, and she will come out a better, stronger lifter than she would have been otherwise. It just took seeing what those 2 steps forward for her could be.

I'm in a similar situation now at my internship. We have different performance tests throughout our time here, and they are more work capacity based, encompassing in a "Monster Mash" at the end which has taken people 3 hours before to complete. That is obviously very different than me just focusing on the snatch and clean & jerk. I'm taking a huge step back right now. (I'll talk more about my summer training program in another post for more specifics). I have lost a significant amount of squat strength with the lower volume of squatting and all the conditioning I'm doing. That is translating to more difficult time doing cleans. However, my work capacity is going up, so I'll be able to have better training when I get back. Because my pulling strength stays around much longer than squat strength, I'm able to work on my technique when I am doing the lifts and I am already feeling better and more confident with my lifts. My all time best clean was 95kg, and I hit 90 the other day on tired legs and with a lower front squat. I did that because my pull is much more efficient than it was before. While I may not hit a new PR this summer, I'll get back much quicker when I get my strength back with my new pull.

Everyone experiences a setback, you just need to learn to look towards those 2 steps forward while taking that step back. Progress isn't always positive, and isn't always linear. There are will be times when you're making amazing progress, times where your stagnant, and times with huge setbacks. The key is to make sure that the trend is always upward and that you are better in the long term than you were when starting. Face that setback head on and get better from that experience.

1 comment:

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