Its Sunday morning and I'm stretching in my garage gym. I've spent the week either in my downtown studio training client , training myself in my garage or pouring over the net thinking about training.
Yet here it is Sunday AM and I'm out in my gym stretching,AC/DC is loud on the stereo, my wife is doing upteen sets of swing combinations and I'm a happy man. I spent the morning pouring over my newly arrived Powerlifting USA and Vitalic magazine as well as getting the site meter on my blog to function properly. There is nothing I like more( well almost) than either training or thinking about how to make my training better.
Training was never a chore for me and I remember thinking after four years High School and 5-6 hour days 5 days a week pf practice that I never ONCE thought of going to practice as work. Never. Ever. I lived to go in the gym and fly. To master my body and calm my mind. To get to do so was a privlege to which I soon was addicted. And still am to this day.
So to hear people bitch about having to train is weird to my ear every time I hear it. What? I get to train not have to train. Now its no fun when you are exhausted and in pain and still have a killer workout to get done but what does that have to do with it?
I also beleive if you want to be a pro first you LIVE like a pro and THEN you get to be one. Not the other way around.But it relates to anything one wants to do but is lacking in will. It means that you do what is necessary to make progress, not what you want to do, or like to do best. This is the essence of WSB weak point training and analysis which I have done unconciously all my training life.
By having heroes and role models to emulate I always patterned my training( which meant my life) on what was necessary to go forward. What the best did.Everything else revolved around that. To many things' detriment no doubt; but it was all about paying the price to achieve your goals. THAT to me, is where champions live. Is it a heavy price? No doubt. If it wasn't we would have many more greats, period.But I am convinced Champions see things others never get to.
I did my best, scaled some heights, payed some price and here I am.
But now that I have no desire to scale heights but to master the ground level the concepts are still the same, just the goals( and the sanity) a bit different. Now being pain free and being able to walk as easily as possible is the goal. Not my 600 pound squat. Now its a full bodyweight squat and having my knee bend another 20 degrees. Its having both arms overhead with no imbalance as well as 300 snatches with the 53.
Its about building a balanced body, an optimized body not an extreme body.It's about finding out whats healthy not whats humanly possible. I guess these are things that we think about when we get old, and that is probably as it should be or very few great things would get accomplished. And the bottom line is that one pays the price whether you conciously risk anything or not. Being alive is being at risk.
Or maybe not. Maybe the great thing is leading a balanced healthy life your entire time and realizing that just because it is there does NOT mean we have to climb it. Pick your poison.
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4 comments:
I read this after doing Jumpstretch traction to deal with kinks from loading out several tons of lighting and steel from a theater until almost one AM last nite. This is more material for that book you need to write. Young guys listen up.
thanks Tom. Pavel is telling me the same thing and I kind of wrote this post in the same voice I am thinking about doing the book.strange minds DO think alike.
thanks man.
This is exactly what I needed to read, Rif. I have hit that little bump where I sat back to reevaluate things, not just related to training, either...good life refresher issues. Maybe it is because the big 40 is coming, and also because I needed the jumpstart. You are an inspiration, Rif. I always felt that "life is good". Whenever I feel a little bit of the blues, I am thankful for the little things, the fact that I have all mental faculties (somewhat), that I have a functional (albeit heavier than should be) body, and I am blessed with a healthy and happy marriage. I know many that lack one or more of those things, and are miserable as a result.
Unlike you and many RKCs, I am a "never-was". I never was a champion athlete, but I was an "also ran". Getting into law enforcement allowed me to push my personal limits, mentally and physically. I am fortunate to be in a position to train people, and fortunately, I am able to motivate people! (So I have been told from countless students, and others I have come across the last almost 13 years in LE.)
I believe that words are more than semantics. If you are able, you definitely GET to train. That is a luxury that many people do not get to do.
Thanks again for the words of inspiration. It is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear.
Thanks Pete,
I was never the guy with natural talent,or natural anything.I just had an intense desire to make myself better than I was and was willing to do what it took to ( try) to achieve that.
The fact that,for the most part, I did NOT achieve my lofty goals really does not matter;especially in retrospect.What matter(s) is the focused attempts to do so,again and again,especially after one fails.
To me the real key is taking responsibility for the true level of committment one is willing to dedicate to their goal. if it is 50% it is 50%- that's cool as long as one doesn't expect 100% results from that effort.
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