Passion of the barbell

Note: This image is my work. However, the final image of the illustration (Row 2, Column 3) is Garage Strength’s logo

I have been training the Olympic lifts at TLAC with coach J.T. Silvers and his gang for about two years now. Besides getting stronger and faster than I ever thought possible and still having plenty of room for more, my emotional journey has been far more enriching. The shared lessons learnt on the platform have shaped me off the platform as well. I am very grateful to have found something I love. As I continue to learn more from this sport and my team, I wanted to reflect on the tenets I have come to form while on this endless journey:

1. Long term over anything else

Whenever training felt long and painful, I always asked myself, ‘Will future Shveta be happy if I did this? Front squats feel heavy but will future Shveta clean more if I did this?’ The coach knows what he is doing so the answer to these questions was a resounding yes. However, I had to keep reminding myself that I always ought to think long term, not just how painful or joyful something felt in the moment. This is true with everyday habits as well. For anyone who is writing code, it obviously takes more time to comment. However, taking the time out now to write the comments will save the coder tremendous heart ache later on. Consider teaching for instance. Building foundational knowledge takes time in the moment but it will undoubtedly reap benefits later in the future.

2. PRs are a distraction

Legendary American football coach Nick Saban lived and preached the philosophy that ‘Outcomes are a distraction’ [1]. Will Fleming, the coach of Olympian Mary Theisen-Lappen, talks about focusing on the process [2]. This idea applies to individuals of all skill levels. I would keep thinking about hitting my snatch PR and in turn, get over in my head whenever I was close to 90% of my max. Clearly, this fixation with a certain number had to change. The goal was then to have my 90% feel like 85% and so on and so forth. This was even visible in my coaches program where he had me to a lot of volume at 85–90% and higher if didn’t miss.

This ties back to ‘atomic habits’ where the author James Clear talks about how the compounding effect of consistent good habits brings about remarkable change.

‘If you can treat success and failure, both imposters the same’ — Rudyard Kipling

3. The best athletes have amnesia

You’ve got to forget and move on. There’s been so many times that a bad snatch session had spilled over into a clean and jerk session; not because I was tired but because I was mad that I could not hit numbers I’d expected too. Or I would spend so long on that one imperfect snatch and forget all the other good things I had done. This could not go on as I was wasting precious time sulking. The only solution here was to rememeber and learn from my mistakes, but forget enough that I was emotionally distant from it. This allowed me to start every rep with an almost fresh mind, and almost without any emotional baggage.

Doing anything meaningful is arduous. If you are running a business, there’s going to be more than one setback, unprecedented that too. If you are doing a sales call or are a performing artists, people will say no to you more often than not. Gotta forget and forge ahead.

4. Be a student of your body

My body is way smarter than I give it credit. It is smarter beyond imagination. If I miss a lift, it is often because I think too much and interfere with my body’s natural movement or try to fight or force what I am feeling. As I spent more time with the lifts, I let my conscious self take a back seat and just be in tune with my body’s rhythm and cadence. Sure, I still have the one cue or feeling that I focus on (‘stay close’ and I often visualize the bar jumping off my hips and being weightless), but the net consequence is that I observe my body, instead of trying to control it. I have come to cherish the mind-body connection and seek ways to nurture it through eating well, sleeping well and thinking well.

As for applying this tenet outside of work, it comes as no shocker that I work my best when my physical and mental well-being is taken care of. I have borrowed heavily from Novak Djokovic’s line of though here.

“A centipede was happy — quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, ‘Pray, which leg moves after which?’
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.”

-George Humphrey

5. Mental toughness can be trained

I remember there was a time when I would grip and re-grip the bar 10–15 times before attempting a 90% or higher snatch. I wouldn’t do this ritual for any weigh lower than 90%. This was because I had serious doubts if I could get under the bar. Same with a heavy clean. I would be defeated before I even attempted a clean, let along get under it. Even as a noob, my heart would race during a regular Friday PR attempt during training! That had to stop, especially if weightlifting was something I wanted to long term. This was my cue to start training for mental toughness and channel my inner Djokovic. Breathing techniques, visualization and embracing the good, the bad and the ugly thoughts spewing out of my head allowed me execute.

I am far from done here and there’s long, windy road ahead but — baby steps…

6. ‘What does it take to break you?’ — Nick Saban [4]

You are only as strong as your weakest link. The goal here was to identify my weakest link and attack if whole-heartedly. In the weight room and in my journey towards self discovery, my biggest break throughs have been on the other side of a seemingly insurmountable mountain of fear.

Conclusion

It’s a super power to be in a happy mood when there’s nothing to be happy about. My time in the weight room with my fellow weightlifting crew has given me a taste of this superpower. Despite the misses and the close calls, there’s always a reason to smile. And heck, if you love something, why not endure some suffering for it?

References:

[1] Outcomes are a distraction - How Nick Saban's PROCESS changed the football world

[2] How to build a champion mindset ft. Will Fleming

[3] Djokovic says mental toughness is not a 'gift'

[4] What doesn't kill you. makes you stronger

[5] Tommy for giving me some Nick Saban know-how

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leters@shvetadhamankar.com