Take today for instance. I was able to hear start to finish a conversation that nearly made me laugh out loud. It was between two co-workers. Not sure how exactly they got on the topic of strength, but they did. First one of them talked about bodybuilding, a subject I would wager he knows very little about. That might not be fair, I am sure he knows plenty about bodybuilding, at least from what he's read, but I feel confident saying he knows nothing about bodybuilding from a training standpoint. It might be a mean thing to say, but I never claimed to be nice.
Then powerlifting came up. the other person in the conversation said he'd heard ALL powerlifters used steroids and other drugs to enhance their performance. Cue the beast to start snarling inside my head. There was a part of me that badly wanted to jump into the conversation with both feet and set these two "experts" straight. I chose silence, see I AM getting wiser.
I am so glad I decided to be quiet, I learned that powerlifting is really easy anyone can do it. The beast was snarling pretty loudly at that point and the sarcastic voice in my head decided to lay off me for a bit and focus on the "experts" I was listening to. I admit the thought of either of those gentlemen facing a barbell loaded with 135 pounds made me want to laugh.
Let's be clear: I LOVE powerlifting. It is my passion. Something I am working very hard to get better at. Powerlifting is many things, I don't think easy is one of them. The majority of my training revolves around the three lifts with the remaining training working on conditioning, mobility, and flexibility. I enjoy training or I wouldn't do it, but I wouldn't say I find it easy. There is nothing easy or particularly fun about 2500 meters on the rower for a warm up or 8 laps of sled pushes at the end of a workout. In fact, there are moments in the midst of those things that I wonder exactly what the hell is wrong with me that I pay for this kind of abuse. Oh right, I said I wanted to go to the next level with my powerlifting. Not only am I not too bright, I might have masochistic tendencies.
Back to the conversation I eavesdropped on. I could have spoken up and said I was a competitive powerlifter with a 991.1 pound total and I have never take steroids. I chose not to. Life is too short to try to educate people who are already convinced that they are right. Besides, they weren't really hurting anyone. I'm not naive, I know there are drugs in the sport I love, that some people think it's fine. I don't judge and that is not the path I have chosen. It's empowering to discover how strong my body is, how much stamina it has when I am pushed and dig deep.
I know the truth. I love powerlifting, it has opened my eyes to a whole new world and shown me just how strong I really am. I love it and I will pursue it to see how far I can go, but nothing about it is easy. It is hard work and there are times during training when the only thing dragging one more rep out of me is that I will NOT let my coach down. I want a fist bump from him at the end and I want him to tell me good work. Yep, I still need the extrinsic praise to get the work done sometimes. No shame in that as far as I am concerned.
This guy can get me to front squat with minimal whining.
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