Hail to the Dinosaurs!
What do you do when you have a bad
workout?
Answer: You learn from it. You go
back to the drawing board and you
things through, and you figure out
how to have a great workout the next
time.
And sometimes, a bad workout can be
the best thing ever.
Case in point.
I've been training very hard on my
Dino-style Olympic weightlifting
workouts. Lots of squat snatches,
lots of squat style cleans and
lots of split style jerks.
The squat style lifts are a real
challenge for an older lifter who
didn't do them when he was young
(which would be me). The squat style
lifts require tremendous flexibility,
and a unique combination of strength
and speed. They're not easy to do.
Anyhow, I'd been hitting things very
hard, and doing front squats and high
pulls along with the lifts -- and I
overdid things a bit, and woke up on
Saturday morning so sore and stiff it
was hard to walk.
I rested on Saturday and lifted again
on Sunday. I was still pretty sore and
stiff. But I thought I'd work it out
as I did my warm-ups.
Wrong!
My timing was off, my speed was half
of what it normally is, and it ended up
being impossible to do squat snatches.
I just couldn't drop into the squat
position to catch the weight. So I
missed weights I should have made
easily -- and I missed them badly.
It was a BAD workout.
Grumble, grumble. Unload the bar. Put
everything away. Turn out garage light,
lock the door, go inside, grumble to
wife, have dinner, and sort out what
went wrong.
It was such a bad workout I wondered
if I should stop trying to do squat
snatches and switch to split style
snatches.
Grumble, grumble.
Last night, I tried again -- but I did
things differently. I did an extra
long warm-up, followed by MANY single
lifts with light weights to get my form
and timing down, and to help get my
knees, hips, thighs and ankles all
stretched out and loose.
I concentrated on a slow start, which
helps me get into position for the
second pull and the squat under. On
Sunday, I had been rushing things.
Last night, I took it slow at the
start of each lift.
Gradually, slowly, methodically, I
added weight to the bar -- and I ended
up hitting five perfect singles in the
squat snatch with a good weight.
So last night ended up being a pretty
good workout. Why? Because I learned from
the mistakes I made on Sunday -- and I
corrected them.
Now I look back on it, and Sunday's
workout wasn't all that bad. It was
merely -- educational. And educational
is okay.
As always, thanks for reading and have
a great day. If you train today, make
it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Everyone makes mistakes, but successful
trainees learn from them. Here's a book that
offers plenty of from the trenches advice
for older trainees:
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Think, but
don't overthink." -- Brooks Kubik
