Weightlifting 101: Mobility

So you decided to start Weightlifting. Now what?

When you begin Weightlifting you begin training with a purpose.

You begin training for competition. You begin training for pressure. You are training for three white lights. You are training with the knowledge that you very well could fail, and that you very well could succeed.

For many people this is a completely new experience.

Weightlifting is not working out.

You can no longer go to the gym, turn your brain off and put in the work.

Yes, there is a time and place for that in weightlifting, but you will not improve if that is how you approach each and every training session.

You must now look at the barbell and the platform as a piano, or a mathematical equation, or a golf club, or a blank piece of paper.

Your barbell is there for practice. It is there for you to develop a skill. This is a very important point.

You are developing a skill.

You are practicing.

You are not simply picking something up and putting it down anymore. You must approach each session as deliberate and deep practice.

Practice is not always comfortable. It takes deliberate and intense focus on a task that is oftentimes very difficult, and sometimes frustrating.

However, in order to improve you must embrace this mindset. You must be willing to put in the work, endure the frustration, engage your attention and focus on the task at hand. This task is no longer simply just ripping a weight off the ground. You must now be worried about positions and timing and a myriad of other things that you never had to think about before.

Coming in to train after a long day at work, shutting your brain off, and just going to work feels good because all day your focus has been in your mind and on external situations. Problems at work that need to be solved. Caring for family members, and planning for the weekend. All these things take us outside of our body and place our focus on the external.

As soon as you grip the barbell for your first set of position drills and stretches your mind must return inwards. You must feel points of tension, how does your shoulder feel? Are your heels coming up on your overhead squat? What is that pain in my wrist? Does this look right?

All of a sudden you must have a strong focus on your body and how it is moving.

When you move on to technique drills the focus must become even more absolute as you are moving a load in a dynamic, and perhaps unfamiliar, manner.

Is my back angle correct? Am I fully extending? Am I using my legs? Is my catch position timed well? All these thoughts and more can be racing through your head as you complete a single pull.

You are used to just grabbing the bar and pressing or pulling or squatting with all your might.

This is different. This is art. This is science. This is practice.

Treat it as such.

You must realize that it will not be comfortable. It is not always easy to release the frustrations of the day as you practice a movement that is difficult and frustrating itself.

So just realize that you are practicing. Practice is hard. Practice requires attention. Practice can be frustrating.

BUT realize that your practice will lead to skill. It will lead to immense satisfaction knowing that you pushed through the resistance, the frustration, and the doubt. You dedicated yourself to a task that very few people truly master and you mastered it.

This is what it takes to be successful at weightlifting: focused practice each and every training session, an attention to detail, and a burning desire for improvement.

There will be times when you will have to turn your brain off and move, but treat the barbell with respect. Look at it like the pianist looks at a piano. It is an extension of the body, a tool for expression, a means to share with the world the uniqueness that lies within.

Embrace the frustration and throw yourself fully into focused practice.

The satisfaction on the other side is worth it.

Keep pulling.