Forget everyone else at the gym. Forget that dude on Insta claiming natty when we all know he’s shooting up. Forget your bros. Forget the idiots on Youtube.
It’s you…versus…you.
The lifting world is a strange place right now, from kettlebell to Olympic weightlifting to powerlifting. From social media to youtube to “semi professional brand ambassadors” on Instagram (yes I realize I am calling the kettle black on that one!) to who we think is natty or not and which countries are getting banned from the Olympics, and yes, even fake weights…FAKE WEIGHTS! It is easy to get wrapped up in all of this, to watch “the beautiful people” who are 5 to 10 to 20 years younger than you, putting up numbers you will never be able to hit no matter how hard you work or how much junk you inject. In the gym, in training, talking to your coach, picking your program, and competing, you’ve got to take a step back form all that bullshit, tune out all the noise, and remember that it is you versus you.
You have probably read this one before, “don’t compare yourself to others”, but the one I really like to remember is “do not compare your point A to someone else’s point B.” That analogy strikes to the heart of what I am getting at. Social media is not reality, it is a curated collection of everyone’s best moments and best looks…and their best lifts…today. Yes some athletes will show a nice reel of their journey from their first competition to where they are now, but even within that reel you may not really understand that journey is a decade long, you don’t know their genetics, their lifestyle.
As a 41 year old athlete and coach…about to turn 42 soon…I can’t really compare myself to anyone…my age…my height…being drug free…I am one of one and in a category of my own. Competing in kettlebell and Olifting and powerlfiting, I have met some absolutely gifted athletes, pretty much all of them younger than me, or not as tall, or started lifting when they were 12, or they’re juiced. And even I play the social media game, so I know how it’s played, I try to be as true to my real life self on social media so there is no difference, and I know when it comes to lifting I am maybe just a little bit better than average, and that is it, and I’m ok with that. I am still busting my ass, I am still competing, and still hitting PR’s. And I know, when I lift, when I step on the platform, that because of my body and my proportions, my age, my starting point, my journey, that I am one of one, and it is just me versus me.
