Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Get All Of Your Reps

This is an excerpt from my book,Steel Reflections, available when you click on the link in the left column.

You figure that this will be the last rep. After all, it is the rep number that you told your partner that you were going to squat. You said, “I’m getting 8 here,” and now everyone was gathered around the squat rack. They were gathered there because most of them noticed that after rep number two, you were having trouble. No turning back, no stopping. It was going to
be one of those sets where reps 3 to 6 caused your ears to ring and your legs to shake. You had to push with all that you had, driving your hips up as hard as you could. The onlookers start encouraging you; they saw that this set was a bitch. Inside, they questioned themselves; whether they would have quit by now or had the guts to push through. Rep number 7 bordered on incredibly ugly. You dropped it below parallel with a lot of speed, a fast descent was the only way that you could get a bounce that would push you all the way through. The lockout at the top was a struggle; the room seemed to not exist; nothing around you was there.

The barbell shifted down your back a little causing you to lean forward some. Just to hold on, you took a huge breath at the top, all else was gone now; this was the rep that you knew really counted, the one that made you strong. Your lungs burned, your eyes were glazed. And down you went. What a struggle. The crowd was screaming and you were stalling at the halfway point. You leaned some more, using your back—rounding it some—your neutral position gave way to almost a good morning. The bar was moving now, ever so slightly and you pushed and pushed and pushed. You locked number 8 out at the top. What a set; one of your toughest ever. You couldn’t rack the weight. Spotters helped you put it back into the rack. You bent over and placed your hands on your knees. You were totally spent and eventually just sat down for 10 minutes on the bench that was next to the rack.

That’s what it’s all about. That is why training is so great, so rewarding. It is for me and many others. It’s for those sets, those reps even that challenge your very essence, that make you reach in your guts, that show you what you have, what you are made of and that you don’t have
quit in you. No money, no material crap, nothing is better than a set like that for me. Rewarding as hell and satisfying.
That’s probably funny to some, the importance that I place on one set of squats. Maybe,but not to me. What others think are important, isn’t even on my radar screen. You can have your parties, your cruises, and the fancy clothes; I’ll take a set of 8 in the squat any day.

All About Being a Lifer

What's a Lifer? Someone who isn't in to something for just a day, a month, a year...it's for life. Whether its training or your family or your job...it doesn't matter. You work at it, you build on it, you see the big picture . You don't miss workouts because it means something to you. You are like a Shakespearean actor- no matter what is going on in your life, you block it out when it's time to train. You walk into the weight room and all else disappears. Worry about it later.