Persistent Adaptive Repetition. Is this a new method? Nah it's just what we do over the years so we don't stagnate or kill ourselves. You all know I'm in the wrong sport if I'm looking to profit off of it.
Persistence. Keeping going despite setback after setback. Injury, pain, unrelenting disappointment. But you keep going. You keep showing up to the gym. You keep showing up to the competitions. You keep posting on this shithole we call social media. ANd you keep doing what you were put on this earth to do as insanely contrived as it is. Having session after session where you are continually disappointed, yet continue to look forward to going to the gym more so than any other aspect of the day. Persistence.
Adaptation. Changing the plan and being flexible to understand nothing goes according to the schedule you have set forward in the first idea of what SHOULD happen. Having thoughts and obstacles that feel as though they will destroy and tear you apart from within, but realizing there are multiple ways to achieve the goal. Pivoting around the obstacles, re framing the method of approach, or considering different pathways despite feeling defeated again and again.
Repetition. Doing this over, and over. Year after year. Feeling defeated year after year. Feeling beaten every session. Feeling as if you are drowning against an unrelenting opposition or carrying the weight of a world that only gets heavier and heavier. Accepting this as fact and continuing on no matter the adaptation required or the revolting feeling of never being what you thought you could be. Doing so anyway, Trying to find the line that may never be, or may have already been surpassed.
Welcome to powerlifting. It will beat you the fuck down and annihilate your feelings of self worth. It will also show you what could be, if you choose to see it. It never gets easier to see. And it never gets easier to carry. But you can get better. I choose to believe that. I would not be able to continue on if I didn't. It may be foolish, it may be idealistic, and it may be a fruitless endeavor in a vain and callous sport.
But it's par for the course.