This week I deadlifted, and although I'm summing up my training in one post so it's easier to track, this deserves it's own post. Today's plan was to go by feel, and by feel I mean work up to something pretty heavy. Meets coming up. We all know that in the beginning we get stronger. PRs are more frequent, and it's because we start building our foundation. We set numbers we've never done and try to keep beating them. Easy, right? But then you get strong(er) overtime. It seems like PRs aren't as frequent. Technique seems to be more of a focus. Not that it never was but "weaknesses" start to show and other body parts start to pick up the burden. Or maybe we never realized that our backs did all the sumo pulling.
My point is our max pulls must look like our warm ups. Our approach, our technique, everything. Again, easier said than done. But what I failed to realize is it's not the strength portion I need to work on, it's the mental portion of the lift. It's connecting my mind with my body that my approach, my technique to deadlift 135, 225, 315 needs to be the same. And I realized that once I get closer to the number I want, the weight won't come up off the floor. If I could deadlift 350, I sure as hell can deadlift 360. And 370. So why can't I?
After deadlifting 345 at a decent speed, I went on to add 20lbs. Easy. Waited a few minutes, then started my set up. It did not go anywhere. I tried to shake it off and attempted again. Nothing. What in the fuck. At that point my body was hurting and my mind was running. But I refused to let that be the end. I was willing to try anything and this is when it started to get chaotic. Many of you would say "what in the hell" or "why, just why".
I went back down in weight and started to pull conventional because that was the solution to my problem. Totes. 335 did not move, twice. I went back down in weight thinking I was done attempting. I went back to sumo and started to do pause deads with 185 on the bar. Conventional wasn't the solution if you didn't pick up on my sarcasm. We went over cues. Boom, felt easy. Did that for 5 x 2. Went up to 225 x 2. Great. I kept going, repeating everything over and over, until I hit 365 for two singles.
It wasn't that I couldn't do it. It was my mind getting in the way. It's like what Dave says, "don't think, just fucking do it." So I kept DOING it.
I really needed today. It taught me perseverance. It taught me to be more patient. I see a lot of great training session, PRs, but rarely about frustrations. It sets the bar high for unrealistic training cycles. Not to say that you can't have a great one. But for training to come all together is rare. The point of training is to learn. To work hard. To earn your way. Not think it will come easy. So when it gets hard, the weight is testing your loyalty and commitment.
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I deadlifted 27 reps total to get it right. I wish this type of day on no one.