There’s more to life than lifting!
“Wait, what?” This can be a difficult thing for most of us to grasp, especially when we eat, live and breathe lifting; but there comes a point in time when we realise that we lift weights not for the sake of lifting weights but for the euphoria that it brings. This is a bit of a controversial one, so bear with me while I explain…
When I had my first ‘episode’ or what we now know to be an MS relapse, I was prepped to go into ICU as Doctors had thought I was going into a coma (a whole different story for another day!). I was alone, scared and remember fighting the tiredness because I was afraid to fall asleep in case I didn’t wake up. I promise you, during those critical hours, not once did I ever think “damn I wish I squatted that triple better last week” or “if only I could’ve PR’d my deadlift”. I thought about my family first and foremost, I thought about my teammates and my closest friends. I thought about all the things I’d miss out on and all the things I didn’t get the chance to achieve… and I thought about how stupid I was to not bring a phone charger to the hospital so I could’ve contacted all those people to tell them I loved them.
Now I hope that no one reading this ever has to wait until an awful occurrence to make them realise what actually matters in life. I’m sorry it look me this long to figure it out but here we are! I’m not saying that I don’t care about my training, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I train harder than I ever have because my training now has purpose. I’m not chasing numbers, I’m chasing improvements and enjoyment. I train because of the feeling I get when I lift, the pride in doing something I thought I’d never do, and the people that I surround myself with.
When you first catch the powerlifting bug you’re naturally drawn to the idea of improving your numbers and getting bigger lifts. For many lifters (especially younger, more inexperienced lifters), this can develop into an unhealthy mindset of seeking linear progression on your lifts at any cost. Over a period of time numbers can become everything to you, you can start to compare yourself to others and in some cases let numbers determine your self-worth. It’s important not to forget that even for the most elite athletes, we all only have 9 minutes on the platform, but there’s 525,600 minutes in a year. So the time we spend on the platform is 0.0017% of our time annually. What do you do with the other 99.9983% of your time?
Please do not take this as your ‘get out of jail free card’ to be lazy and not train. That is absolutely not my intention. My intention is to highlight that if you’re doing something, be it powerlifting, or any other sport, do it because it makes you happy, do it because you find value in it, not because it adds value to you. No matter how much success you have in the sport (or in life for that matter), never lose of sight of what really matters, what it all boils down to, and never forget your ‘why’. We don’t get burnt out because of what we do, but because we forget why we do it. Winning, getting medals, or beating a record are important to get us motivated in the beginning, but if that is the only focus then it blinds us to the experience along the way which is the true gift of the sport.
Powerlifting is such a powerful sport, one that teaches you skills transferable to life. It teaches you that strength comes in many forms, and there is so much more to being strong than lifting weights. That my friends, is what Odyssey is all about; not the weight on the bar, but what the weight on the bar means, the journey that you take to get there, and the people who are with you on that journey. That is why I will be that 80 year old granny still giving it socks in the gym, because I’m in it for the long haul, I’m here for the journey and my only destination is health and happiness.