The road to knowledge is undoubtedly a difficult one. It is littered with many sinuous paths and roadblocks. However, these diversions only help us gain experience to better ourselves in our own enlightenment.
There are also many pit stops along the way. These pit stops can come in the form of coaches, the internet, books, friends, and colleagues. We must learn to use these pit stops wisely and to take what is good and discard the bad. The internet has become a huge tool, especially in the powerlifting and sports enhancement world. A lifter has a vast amount of information right at his fingertips.
My personal road to knowledge began with the desire to learn how to grow larger biceps, a larger chest, and cut abdominals. However, I realized in my sophomore year in college that this didn’t really amount to much. That’s when I discovered powerlifting (thanks to a friend and my first coach), where the goal is to become as strong as possible in the three big lifts. I still remember how I felt after my first deadlift workout. The next day I experienced excruciating soreness, more than I have ever felt in my life. I was able to pull a grand total of 225 lbs in my first workout. Now, I have a 442 lb pull (decent) after two years at 132 lbs.
Did I endure much pain during these two years? Yes, I did. Did I enjoy cutting for competitions? No, I didn’t. Did I have to watch my protein intake and suck down those horrible protein shakes? I didn’t have to. Did I have to scour the internet for endless hours looking for how to improve my strength? Again, I didn’t have to. But this is what we must suffer through to better ourselves. Many lifters today lack this type of intrinsic mind-set. We must sacrifice and endure pain in order to accomplish goals and become who we want to be.
There is nothing as rewarding as reaching new PRs and then setting goals to reach higher ones. However, once progress starts to stall, new methods and information must be absorbed! In hindsight, what I did in the past before taking up powerlifting was somewhat foolish. The lack of information in today’s weight room is appalling whether your goal is to get bigger or stronger. As a beginner, many things will work. But further involvement in your own gaining of knowledge is what will make you succeed. I have come a long way in terms of my own physical and mental development as a lifter, but there is still so much to learn and accomplish.
What many fail to do is to apply what they have learned. What use is the knowledge you have gained if you have not applied it into your plan? How can one know if something doesn’t work for them if they haven’t attempted to apply any of it? Since the body is in a constant state of adaptation, we must bombard new stimuli to it. Many lifters have read this in the principles preached by Westside Barbell and EFS. We can see here on EFS that many professionals of every discipline are gathered to contribute to one basic thing—the spreading and gaining of knowledge.
The source of information is just as important as the quality of information. A perfect analogy of this would be if a poor man with horrible credit history was giving advice to a financially sound individual on how to become wealthy. The same principle applies to lifting. We should listen to those who have “walked the walk.” As we can see with the EFS staff, those who have “walked the walk” have experimented for years with many different training methodologies to reach the top. Is this the only resource on the internet? No. But it sure is a damn good one.
Don’t be afraid of the unknown. We can see the emergence of mobility and dynamic movements before workouts to help with performance and prevention of injuries. This type of thinking would never have been thought of 10–20 years ago. Again, this is another example of a valuable pit stop along the road of knowledge. Sadly, many lifters today perform outdated routines and don’t practice dynamic flexibility and mobility among many other things. It should be the lifting community’s goal to give the lifters in the dark a chance to get started on their own roads toward knowledge.
The road to knowledge is an endless road. We can never know too much. Information is always evolving, methodologies change, and new ideas come about. The next time you think to yourself, “I don’t have anymore to learn,” you aren’t looking hard enough.
Alexander Kang is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois with a degree in finance. However, he finds powerlifting much more engaging and has recently been ranked in the PLUSA’s Top 100 in the deadlift (#26) and total for the 132 lbs class (November 2006). Please check out his YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tigerak02.
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