Put Your Hands On The Bar!

The other day, i was coaching a client about her business and we were discussing next steps... her fears, the obstacles between her and that next objective... and i started thinking about my powerlifting coach, Doctor Johnson (we all called him Doc)...

i was maybe 18 years old, weighed about 145lbs... this was my first real weightlifting training - i was on the powerlifting team... Doc was our coach (he was strong as hell, late 50s, a professor of biology)... it was my turn on the bench press... i was about to press 225 which for me had become a barrier - not the "pounds" per se - in fact i was doing relatively easy reps with 215, so 225 shouldve been nothing... shouldve been, but this was a move to 2 "big plates" on each side of the bar - that was what was playing in my head... i had never tried 225, but it should have been an easy lift... but moving up to the 2 plates felt HUGE... so i pulled my belt tight... sat on the bench... breathed heavily... started to lay back... stood up... shook out my shoulders... sat back down... went through the inventory of foot placement... etc. reached for the bar... then sat back up - it just didnt "feel" right... i did this process a 3rd time... my "getting set" stuff... in my head was "dude, 2 PLATES! You've NEVER done this! What if i DO it? What if i DONT? blah blah blah... doubt fear everything has to be in the perfect spot... ahhh!!!"

i started to go through the process a 5th time when from the squat rack came Doc's voice, "PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE BAR AND LIFT THAT!" immediately, the head voices stopped, i sat down, laid back, didnt think about where my feet etc. were (they were in the right spots, of course, Doc had drilled it into us... the muscle memory was deep) and so, i put my hands on the bar... and i pushed it solidly... the flood gates opened and quickly pushed my PR over and over...

In fact, the head games didnt happen again until i got to 315 (3 plates on each side) - but on my 1st shot, i wrote OVER my b.s. and had my mantra playing in my head: Doc's voice saying over and over "Put Your Hands On The Bar and Lift That!"

i was so caught up in the game of "getting ready" and making sure everything was right... and messing with my OWN head on the plates... Doc's voice cut through all that noise and gave me permission to take the next step... to take the next action necessary to achieve the objective - "Put Your Hands On The Bar..." - everything else fell in to place; my feet knew where to go... my body KNEW what to do next - my head needed to get out of the way and sometimes merely doing the next thing, no matter how simple, is the hardest thing to do... i let my head, my fears, my doubts take over vs. just putting my hands on the bar...

So... there i was with my client, hearing all of the "noise" of fears, over-complications, doubt, etc. - and i thought, "Put Your Hands On The Bar..." - we identified the next simple step in building her business and i said, "Do That... and call me when you are done." She did... and she later told me that the flood gates opened for other things that she and her partner needed to get done that they hadnt taken the time to start... They KNEW what to do and HOW to do it... cutting through the head noise by merely taking the next step...

When you are stuck - Put Your Hands On The Bar...

Moving Things

Anyone who knows me knows i love to lift weights... that i'm very passionate about lifting weights. there is something very "pure" about lifting weights... Henry Rollins said it best in this message a while ago...

For me... lifting weights is the lens through which i see life... it's one of those things that helps me create metaphors for my life... my coaching... my consulting... how i approach a business or a person... etc. etc.

And i really do believe that everyone can benefit by some sort of weight lifting / resistance movement.

It will change who you are...

Honestly, i think that anything that one is passionate about can be used as a metaphor for life... it is kinda why we become passionate about something. Anthropologists talk about myths as stories we to create to help us explain why things happen ("reality") and to help us deal with how things work in "reality". For me, weight lifting is a lens that distorts to a certain extent but helps me clarify as well...

The greatest relationship i see connecting weights to life is that moving / lifting weights is all about change: change in the micro by moving X pounds Y distance over Z time... change in the macro as i get stronger or get injured or realize i can... or cant move something.

Change... the underlying principle of life... it is growth... it may be progression... but change always happens and learning to understand HOW i can impact or direct that change but KNOWING that change is going to happen and through lifting weights i learn how to deal with it.