Thursday, March 26, 2015

Antisocial Trainer

I love my job.

I love the people I get to work with.

I love watching them all make strides every single day.
Seeing potential where they've already decided they are limited is one of my favorite things. Watching the discovery of all they are capable of? Awesome.

It always encourages me to push myself as well - even though right now I'm having to reframe my success. Trainer Guy reminded me that I made a 20lb gain on my backsquats from last year's personal record (215lbs last year, 230 this year) while that doesn't seem like a lot of weight. But he reminded me that, if I gained 15-20lbs on my squat every year for the next 10 years (not realistic), just think about where I'd be... And he has a point. So even though I've "only" gained 20lbs on my clean and jerk, that's still an achievement that, in the big picture, is pretty huge.

So being pregnant (and generally lifting within 10 lbs of my last PRs), I've had to reframe my fitness journey a bit and look at it as a day by day sort of thing. I can still lift comfortably, but there are days/times when The Bean lets me know that it's rest day. And I listen. Thursday was a great example of that. I certainly had the energy to do more, but The Bean had other plans. Instead of acting on jumping on some training homework, I mobilized, coached, and did a few light stability movements (ya know, working on Turkish Get Ups and Handstands/handstand walking). Being inverted seems to agree with The Bean and helped relieve some moderate cramping (totally normal at this stage in the game).

So when it came to 1 rep max day today, I probably could have used 1 more day of rest, but The Bean was cooperating, so I rolled with it.




And, yes, I didn't set any new personal bests, but my snatch was up 5lbs from last week, and my clean was as well. (Experimenting with a different Jerk style caused me to miss the jerk, but I later made it as a jerk from the rack after some rest and reestablishing the form that worked thus far - see video above, 135lb clean.)

Realizing that I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant and still able to do what I love is kind of a big deal. And I'm still improving, staying sharp, keeping my strength. I'm more process focused than ever - less "goal weight" focused. And each time a client sees some sort of improvement - whether it's a big improvement that came easy, or a tiny improvement that was hard won, I'm reminded of the power of focusing on the process. It's simple. Do the work - reap the rewards.

I've been asked by those who knew me back when I worked from home, if I'll go back to that once The Bean makes an appearance outside of my body.  I never gave it a second thought, to be honest. A step backwards doesn't seem like a viable solution to the problem. In fact, I kinda look forward to the first Meet that The Bean goes too.

For now, I love my time with my clients, and a little down time with my friends, but I can't deny having a newfound love for my couch time - very little of which is spent conscious these days.  Call me antisocial, but when it comes to my weekends, I generally opt to spend a good 1/2 of it giving Clydas a run for his money in the snoring department....
So if I turn down your invitation to hang out - it's nothing personal.
I'm not being antisocial.
I'm just busy making a person.
And that shit is exhausting...







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