This last week has been quite possibly one of the best weeks I've had in as long as I can remember. Training well recently brought me a 207kg squat. My max is 215kg but I haven't been able to hit anywhere near that basically since I got that lift due to a recurring groin injury. The best I've managed since then was around the 150kg mark. In the same session I also got a new max of 111.6kg for bench. (random numbers because the plates are all in pounds). I finished off the session with a massive PB for rack pull from 2 inches below the knee, taking my max up from 260kg to 311kg. My great friend Andy Rutland has been telling me for a while I could top 300kg and once again he was bang on the money. We worked our way up to 288kg. That flew up, felt so easy, so I thought yeah this is on. So we loaded up the bar. because we had pretty much hogged all the weight in the room there were only random plates left so it ended up being 311kg. Bit of a jump from 288kg but I addressed the bar, took my grip, set myself and go! It seemed to take an age to come up and my knees were shaking like a cold wet dog. But I got it to the top. Bang!! happy days. In this same session Andy smashed out a 147kg bench and I think it was a 240 or 250 squat. Andy's dad trains with him and at 63 he is inspirational. Tom has only been lifting a very short time and he can really shift some weight. I think his squat was up past the 160kg mark, for bench he hit I think it was 97kg (which is way over bodyweight) and he rack pulled something like 220kg. It was a cracking session, PB's all over the place, happy days. The plan is to work that rack pull to the ground. When I can deadlift that from the floor, shits gonna get real!!
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| 311kg (686lb) Rack Pull |
"Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure"
All of that is kind of taking a back seat to other events. I wont expand too much on them as its not my place to but a close and very good friend lost their mother this week. My thoughts are with them during what is a very tough time. I know they are strong and will most likely only get stronger but any loss is a sad and difficult thing. They have my deepest sympathy.
I was asked recently what I thought life meant, and I have thought a lot about this. Its actually something I have pondered many times. My conclusion is that life has no actual meaning. It is a journey made up of events each with their own significance, it involves people who all make worthwhile contributions. At the time their contribution may seem to be insignificant or negative but everything has a silver lining. My grandad once said to me. "Everyone brings happiness, some by arriving, some by leaving" so maybe those negative people are necessary to ensure you really do appreciate the positive ones. I guess everything is relative to something else. Perception is a major factor too. As a very crude example, consider loss. One man loses a golf ball, one man loses his wallet and one man loses a loved one. It doesn't take a genius to work out which one has suffered the greater loss. So in everything in life look at the bigger picture and things will often be better than at first they seem. Trust me it works.
The best way I could think of to rationalise lift is below. I dont see it as a set or random encounters or inconceivable events. Everything you do leads you to a given point at a given time. I dont believe there is a higher power at play, but I do have some faith in fate. whether we really are fated or whether we make our own way is not for me to say.
Things in life are not set in stone, they are fluid, they move like rivers. They twist and turn and never follow a direct course. You can steer yourself along the river and stop off to look around but you cant dictate where it will ultimately take you.
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