She was the perfect distraction.
Wrapped in closely body-hugging black spandex and carrying a vulnerable confidence moving from exercise to exercise.
There was no one else in the gym that day. Only a 20 something shapely girl, half confused about her exercise choices and a so far well determined man, there to lift some serious iron.
"What's that exercise for?" , I asked her after resisting it for the 400th time. She was doing a kettlebell front raise pretending to be a Swing.
"Those are done for the back. Swings, I guess."
"I see. I've seen them being done a bit different, though"
"Oh yeah? How's that?" She asked with a mix of curiosity and the knowledge of a possible pick up line being used.
I went on to demonstrate her a well orchestrated, near sublime rep with one hand, swinging the bell in harmony with tension.
We went on to have a brief chatter. She didn't give me her phone number. I retreated to the squat rack with a defeated face.
Be informed that all this melodrama ensued while I was waiting to perform another set of barbell good mornings.
Honestly said, I just wasted two precious resources, both time and energy into a task that was clearly mundane and of least importance ( come on, what was I thinking, she would end up with anything more than some head nods with me? ), when it could have very well been applied to the barbell for a thousand times more benefits.
Absorb energy from the barbell
A great workout session should have you feel more energized once it is done. The barbell isn't there to test your intestinal fortitude in the gym. The barbell is there to help you gain energy from it. Store the energy within you and then release or demonstrate it during competition or times of crisis.
The effort spent at lifting a barbell is an investment you can make which delivers its returns whenever you are on the stage, the field, the ring, or in any devastating situation in life.
Same goes for any other training modality: kettlebells, dumbbells, bodyweight.
The moment you start looking at these training tools with a view that they are there to energize you and not drain you out unconscious, you'll acquire a totally new meaning to training.
Of course, 500 pounds is always going to be harder to lift than 200. But the path you take to reach there tells a lot about whether you added all that strength and energy into your energy account or simply kept exhausting your precious earned energy savings on acts of no returns.
If your goal is to push yourself to death on every training session, well, abusing almost any training method can help you get there. You just need to push the pain meter ahead to achieve these lesser pursuits.
Proper application of training methods entails staying fresh or keeping your nervous system capable of performing another rep in reasonably correct form.
The oldtime strongmen said it best when authoring their landmark training methods: "Do not attempt another rep unless you are 100 percent confident of completing it." Applies well to every exercise. No half-hearted rep attempts, please.
Get energized. Don't smoke yourself up under the bar.
And let the sexy girl in the spandex wonder what's keeping you from getting distracted from that super heavy weight on your shoulders.
Wrapped in closely body-hugging black spandex and carrying a vulnerable confidence moving from exercise to exercise.
There was no one else in the gym that day. Only a 20 something shapely girl, half confused about her exercise choices and a so far well determined man, there to lift some serious iron.
 |
| Can she distract and rob your resources during training? |
"What's that exercise for?" , I asked her after resisting it for the 400th time. She was doing a kettlebell front raise pretending to be a Swing.
"Those are done for the back. Swings, I guess."
"I see. I've seen them being done a bit different, though"
"Oh yeah? How's that?" She asked with a mix of curiosity and the knowledge of a possible pick up line being used.
I went on to demonstrate her a well orchestrated, near sublime rep with one hand, swinging the bell in harmony with tension.
We went on to have a brief chatter. She didn't give me her phone number. I retreated to the squat rack with a defeated face.
Be informed that all this melodrama ensued while I was waiting to perform another set of barbell good mornings.
Honestly said, I just wasted two precious resources, both time and energy into a task that was clearly mundane and of least importance ( come on, what was I thinking, she would end up with anything more than some head nods with me? ), when it could have very well been applied to the barbell for a thousand times more benefits.
Absorb energy from the barbell
A great workout session should have you feel more energized once it is done. The barbell isn't there to test your intestinal fortitude in the gym. The barbell is there to help you gain energy from it. Store the energy within you and then release or demonstrate it during competition or times of crisis.
The effort spent at lifting a barbell is an investment you can make which delivers its returns whenever you are on the stage, the field, the ring, or in any devastating situation in life.
Same goes for any other training modality: kettlebells, dumbbells, bodyweight.
The moment you start looking at these training tools with a view that they are there to energize you and not drain you out unconscious, you'll acquire a totally new meaning to training.
Of course, 500 pounds is always going to be harder to lift than 200. But the path you take to reach there tells a lot about whether you added all that strength and energy into your energy account or simply kept exhausting your precious earned energy savings on acts of no returns.
If your goal is to push yourself to death on every training session, well, abusing almost any training method can help you get there. You just need to push the pain meter ahead to achieve these lesser pursuits.
Proper application of training methods entails staying fresh or keeping your nervous system capable of performing another rep in reasonably correct form.
The oldtime strongmen said it best when authoring their landmark training methods: "Do not attempt another rep unless you are 100 percent confident of completing it." Applies well to every exercise. No half-hearted rep attempts, please.
Get energized. Don't smoke yourself up under the bar.
And let the sexy girl in the spandex wonder what's keeping you from getting distracted from that super heavy weight on your shoulders.