Here are some other things I learned:
- All your strength gains happen during recovery.
- It's important to get enough sleep.
- If you aren't getting enough sleep, it is really easy to stray from your healthy nutrition plan.
- Have a goal for training at the gym. Long term goals are good, daily and weekly goals help you get there.
Yesterday was a great day at the gym. Martina and I are personal trainers for each other on Saturdays. We decided to workout together on Saturday so that we could see what our 1 Rep Max was for Deadlift. We were both trying to deadlift 185 pounds and both of us got 185. 185 is what women have to be able to lift in order to make Team for strength. (Your name and deadlift weight, or rowing time, or what have you, goes on the wall in the back of the room along with the names of everybody else that also made Team.) I tried for 195, but that didn't happen. That bar loaded to 195 was just not going to get more than a few inches off the ground. I've never seen a bar that I was trying to lift bend like that before.
I learned yesterday that there is a real focus and clarity that comes with lifting really heavy weights. I've always liked what Baron Baptiste (founder of the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute) said about weightlifting:
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I went to one of my old haunts, Gold's Gym, in Venice Beach. That particular gym is like the world mecca of bodybuilding. Arnold trained there, as have countless others. When I told a friend where I'd gone, she laughed and said, "I love it....the big yogi pumps iron?"
"It's all yoga," I told her. "On or off the mat, it's yoga."
Even if I'm in the creme de la creme of the weightlifting world, I'm still putting all I have learned in my practice into action. I'm using my ujjayi breathing for stamina and presence, my abdominal lock for core stabilization, a focused gaze for calm determination, the Master Principles of Alignment for healthy form. Yes, I'm lifting weights, but beyond that I stay aware of my edge, practice maintaining equanimity, and use my intuition to know when less is more and when to push further.So yesterday, I found my "edge" as Baron Baptiste would say. I look at my experience yesterday in Deadlift as one of the really great accomplishments that I achieved in my class. It's an exercise that I wasn't very familiar with prior to the start of the class, but it became one of my favorites early on in the class.
Now I'm just trying to think of what else I want to accomplish before my class is over. Maybe I'll try for 195 again closer to the end of class.
Have a great week. I'll get much better at blogging again in about 40 days. I'll try to post a little more frequently until then.
