So yesterday I was all excited about the meet and talking about how fun it was and how I'm gonna get stronger...and then all of a sudden last night, I ended up having a melt down. Or a pity party, I guess you should really call it.
The more I thought about the meet throughout the day, the more I started getting down on myself about my performance. Maybe it's just the post competition blues, I don't know. It's just I really thought that hiring a coach and training just for strength would get me stronger...but besides deadlift, I ended up not really any stronger than I was to begin with. And that is really frustrating! It almost validates my thinking that I've having reached my genetic limit for strength. It just sucks when this is what you love and you want to get stronger!
Powerlifting is hard. Not just physically hard, but mentally hard. It's easy to get frustrated with your lifts, especially when you've been lifting for so long. The strength comes to a point where it doesn't keep progressing so fast and you're not hitting PRs all the time like people who are newer to lifting. It's hard seeing everyone else reach their goals and hit prs, and you're just ....stuck!
But I can do one of two things. Give up and accept that I won't get stronger and find something else to focus on...or keep just working at it. And I'm not one to give up. It's just now I feel a little lost as far as how to train and what to work on to get stronger. It seems that most people have trainers who write out their workouts, and I guess I can see why. I just don't see how people afford that! If I was just satisfied with staying where I am now, or only building muscle, or just general health and fitness, I'd be okay with just going into the gym and doing whatever. Like, as long as you're training hard and having fun, that's all that matters...but I'm not satisfied with that! I want to be constantly improving.
I guess I'm allowed to have a few days to be a little bummed, but then it's time to suck it up and keep training. I'm going to look into programs and decide what I need to work on to get stronger. But until then, I'm gonna train hard in the gym regardless and have fun doing some of the things I haven't done in a while, like muscle ups, handstand pushups,cleans and push presses! Who knows, maybe I'll do some CrossFit WODs just for fun! I think it'll be good to not follow a plan for a while and not stress about my training.
I saw this yesterday and it was a good reminder to me that lifting is just something that I do for fun-it's not my life, it's not what defines me, and it's not what matters in light of eternity! It should NOT be a source of stress or frustration.
I'm thankful that I have a strong and healthy body, so I'm just gonna chill, not stress about it, and keep training just because I love it, no matter how weak or strong I feel! BUT...I AM going to set some new goals and keep working towards doing better at my next meet. I may not have done my best Saturday, but I loved it and definitely want to do it again!
The more I thought about the meet throughout the day, the more I started getting down on myself about my performance. Maybe it's just the post competition blues, I don't know. It's just I really thought that hiring a coach and training just for strength would get me stronger...but besides deadlift, I ended up not really any stronger than I was to begin with. And that is really frustrating! It almost validates my thinking that I've having reached my genetic limit for strength. It just sucks when this is what you love and you want to get stronger!
Powerlifting is hard. Not just physically hard, but mentally hard. It's easy to get frustrated with your lifts, especially when you've been lifting for so long. The strength comes to a point where it doesn't keep progressing so fast and you're not hitting PRs all the time like people who are newer to lifting. It's hard seeing everyone else reach their goals and hit prs, and you're just ....stuck!
But I can do one of two things. Give up and accept that I won't get stronger and find something else to focus on...or keep just working at it. And I'm not one to give up. It's just now I feel a little lost as far as how to train and what to work on to get stronger. It seems that most people have trainers who write out their workouts, and I guess I can see why. I just don't see how people afford that! If I was just satisfied with staying where I am now, or only building muscle, or just general health and fitness, I'd be okay with just going into the gym and doing whatever. Like, as long as you're training hard and having fun, that's all that matters...but I'm not satisfied with that! I want to be constantly improving.
I guess I'm allowed to have a few days to be a little bummed, but then it's time to suck it up and keep training. I'm going to look into programs and decide what I need to work on to get stronger. But until then, I'm gonna train hard in the gym regardless and have fun doing some of the things I haven't done in a while, like muscle ups, handstand pushups,cleans and push presses! Who knows, maybe I'll do some CrossFit WODs just for fun! I think it'll be good to not follow a plan for a while and not stress about my training.
I saw this yesterday and it was a good reminder to me that lifting is just something that I do for fun-it's not my life, it's not what defines me, and it's not what matters in light of eternity! It should NOT be a source of stress or frustration.
I'm thankful that I have a strong and healthy body, so I'm just gonna chill, not stress about it, and keep training just because I love it, no matter how weak or strong I feel! BUT...I AM going to set some new goals and keep working towards doing better at my next meet. I may not have done my best Saturday, but I loved it and definitely want to do it again!
All right chica, first of all what you are feeling is completely NORMAL! ( well, normal for this sub culture of people). I can understand this post on so many levels! You are right that you need about a week or two of workouts without a strict plan. Go in and do what you love and don't worry about anything else. And while I understand your thought process about being disappointed with your lifts at the meet, please understand that your body was very sleep deprived and muscles function differently that way sometimes. This is just my opinion but I think if you had the proper rest, then you possibly could have made the marks you wanted to easier. You are a naturally strong woman genetically and I'm pretty sure you haven't reached your peak yet! I think once you do a couple more meets and your jitters are at bay then you will see that you are indeed stronger than what you think your limit is. Also, even if you never compete again in an official meet, I have no doubts you will exceed your own expectations with your strength! You've just have that athletic mindset and I know things will only get better from here.
ReplyDeleteNow about how to beat those post competition blues-- what I usually do is set other athletic goals aside from competitions ie road races, getting faster, etc. while I know we compete in different areas of fitness, try finding a different area other than power lifting to focus on ( but still keep some heavy strength days in the mix. ) preferably an area that has a dual purpose of keeping your body strong and healthy for the next training cycle of power lifting comps
: )
Just hang in there with all everything! Sending you big hugs!
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement!
DeleteHi, I've been following your blog for a while but wasn't able to comment, since you only allowed comments from a few types of IDs (like Google, Typepad etc.). First of all, congrats on competing! It is something I might be interested to do in the future and it's great that you had fun. I think sleep-deprivation on the day of the meet has a lot to do with it - I know I don't have good numbers if I go to the gym tired! So don't get too bummed about it! What I wanted to mention, however, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, is if you have given a thought to your nutrition? You still seem very skinny/lean and from the numbers you've mentioned previously you don't eat that much, especially carbs ... I realize (as I've been there, done that) it's hard to eat more if you have a history of ~clean eating~ and carb-restriction (150-200 grams of carbs might seem a lot and it's really not - most powerlifters I follow eat way more than that, 200 grams is a minimum, and I'm talking about lean women), but I think you would see a great improvement in your lifts if you increased your intake a bit, stopped focusing so much on eating ''clean'' (and only allowing yourself a ''cheat'' once a week) and gained muscle! At least this happened in my case and other people I know had a similar experience. I know you often say that you WANT to gain weight but are just not able to do that, however if you really wanted that, you wouldn't be eating egg whites and trying to compensate on rest days with lower carbs ... I guess you might be limited by your weight class, though - whether you're close to the top limit of the class you compete in and whether you would be willing to move up. Like I said, my intentions with this comment are not to hurt you or anything like that and I hope it'll give you some food for thought.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for the input, I appreciate it and completely get what you're saying, and you're right! I do know I need more carbs and calories, and actually have been increasing them lately, and I'll keep adding more if that's what is needed! I guess what I don't understand is that I am eating MORE carbs than I did a year ago, yet my strength has gone down (on some things), so I don't get it....
DeleteI guess coming from fearing carbs to eating 200+ grams a day feels like a lot to me! I am not a strict clean eater, however. I do have one treat meal a week, but I don't limit myself to "clean" foods throughout the week, just try to eat healthy foods most of the time. You did mention eating egg whites...which I never do, as I hate them! I always eat the yolks! My fat is usually on the higher side, that is compared to most "fitness" people-usually 80-100 grams, since I do know that my carbs are on the moderate side I need to keep the fats up. I don't want to go up to the next weight class, but nutrition will be something I will definitely focus on more for the next meet! I felt like I was doing good as far as making sure to eat enough, especially the night before a lift, and before and after training. But I guess my calories and carbs on rest days should be upped to match my training days. Which is what I did when I did gain a few pounds a couple of years ago by hitting a calorie goal every day. Again, thanks for the feedback and I will take it to heart!
My mistake then, I thought I saw a photo on your IG or maybe a post here about an egg with egg whites or something like that. I used to eat a lot of fat (80-120 grams), but now I've given more priority to carbs (so as a consequence my fats are a bit lower) and I've really noticed a difference in my performance (and cravings). I do eat ''healthy foods'' most of the time, but that for me includes more rice, (regular) tortillas, pasta etc ...
DeleteI'm not sure how you can gain muscle without moving up on weight, though? Or do you have enough pounds ''left'' to stay in your class?
I'm not saying diet is the cause for your lack of progress, but it is something that is easly tweaked, so give it a try! Then I guess it also depends on the program, recovery (how many rest days you have, not having too many sets per workout, cardio) etc. Good luck! :)
I will sometimes add whites just for more volume, since 2-3 eggs don't fill me up! But never just egg whites. I actually felt like I was stronger back when I was eating less carbs but high fat. I didn't notice a big strength increase by upping my carbs. But I do eat rice, pasta, tortillas, bread, cereal potatoes, oats-those are my normal carb sources. I don't think you can gain muscle without gaining weight, but I'm around 119, so I could gain a few pounds and still be in the 123 class. However gaining 4 pounds of muscle is not an easy task. I'm not against gaining fat either, but I do want to keep it to a minimum as aesthetics are important to me as well. Guess I'm asking too much to want to look good and be super strong at the same time! I definitely agree with you though that maybe adding in even more carbs will help-it's worth trying for sure. I just love my peanut butter, cheese, and eggs too much to keep my fats low! :/ I think programming has a lot to do with it, as the program I followed was way lower in volume than what i normally do and we took out a lot of exercises that I'm used to doing as well. There are so many factors. But I've had my pity party, moving on! Thanks again for the feedback, I appreciate it! :)
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