As you can see by my training logs as of late I have not been doing too much squatting or deadlifting. My body is telling me something and I’m afraid that something is not good. When you let pain be your indicator your priorities change. I have been debating on training for the Arnold. Should I do full power single ply or should I just do the 21 deadlift salute. I am qualified for both but something inside me just isn’t clicking.
As you may or may not know last Feb I was told I need a total knee replacement. I decided I would just try and stay as strong as I could and let pain be my indicator with my knee. In October I hit an all-time PR squat of 460 lbs leaving some on the platform. Maybe I could squat 500 lbs I said to myself. BUT WHY my inner ego says? I have nothing to prove to anyone. I have more world and national records in the past three years than I could ever dream of obtaining in a life time. I mean you can only tempt fate for so long right?
So that leaves me with my WHY. Why do I want to push my soon to be 56 year old body to the breaking point? Lately when I walk my knee has been causing me discomfort. It has been locking up again and suffice my back is also angry with me. So again, I ask myself WHY do I do it? It doesn’t matter now what’s happened in the past. What matters now is moving forward. I have decided I don’t want to be that 60 year old Gramma all broken and crippled up. I have decided I want to be the best I can be under the circumstances my body is in right now.
What does this mean? It means I will be starting to do more Kettlebells. It means I will be dropping some weight to get to a leaner healthier me. It means I will no longer push my body to the point of requiring surgery or pain. Does it mean I’m done competing? Probably not, I can see a bench only meet or maybe a push pull in my future but for now it’s time to work on me.
I need to be the best person I can be, the best wife, the best mother, the best grandmother. Being broken and in pain does not afford me these opportunities. I will post progress reports with some before and after pics. My Monday night and some morning Kettlebell classes will resume after the holidays with my Kettlebell girls. I will still train in our gym, I will still help my Powerlifting team and the people I coach. None of that will change. What is going to change is me. I am going to be the best I can be and make the necessary changes I need to in order to accomplish this.
So cheers to my next journey, thank for following and reading my blogs.
#turning56 #gettingoldsucks #letpainbeyourindicator