today I had a very special day at the gym.
I have stalled on bench press since forever, I don't know when was the last time I upped the weight on my 5x3. Today was again chest day and while I was laying on the bench, I thought about how my lifts had been progressing since I tried to have the philosophy of "Do not panic" when going for PRs.
On my MP3, there was an instrumental version of a song by Madonna "
to have and not to hold" which has a very soothing, calm rhythm. I thought about not doing anything particular, don't breathe more or harder, don't push the bar like you are benching 300 lbs, don't get in the way of the bar and yourself, long story short, I did 3 sets or 6 reps each, when I had been struggling to reach rep 5, always pussing out. Interestingly... Madonna's song has her singing or whispering very slowly "only I... am to blame" at the end of the song, it bore a meaning in that particular moment.
This is not a massive achievement but I started to have some sort of revelation.
as a pianist, you fuck up thousands of times when performing on stage (or otherwise) because you let your thoughts get in the way of your goal (will people like it?, am I good?, the piece is too hard!, did I practice enough? I know them all), The same happens while lifting (am I strong enough? do I have the right form? did I sleep/eat well?
All the time that has passed in my life, over 23 years of trying to come to terms with that part of performing or producing music on stage has given me some kind of knowledge and I am always trying to apply any of that in my lifting life.
So today I did that and I forgot about the fears and embraced the situation. it was very different, more personal, more spiritual and I kept going on with my thoughts and the parallel aspects of piano and lifting. It's very amazing how many similarities there is between both. I thank god, the universe, the energy, etc, for the chance to learn or realize things like today.
what I want to ask kindly of people lurking or reading this.
Please care about strength, regardless of your aesthetic goal.
another analogy I found between the reason to do and listen to concerts and lifting weight is that when it goes well, there' s a small "triumph of Humanity", Whenever you break a plateau and you conquer it, it matters. No matter if you are professional or an amateur or are disabled or what, Comparatively, when you go to a concert of any kind, you want to see the artist triumph and you want to be blown away by it, you want them to take you with them in their journey.
That personal small "triumph" is what motivates me both on strenght/ligting and doing music. basically, try your best to make humanity proud of you, make humans proud that you are one of them. that's why I almost always cry when I see the flame of the olympics being lit up. God knows how many hours they have spent to make it there, everybody in their discipline and they are going to represent us, humanity, in the maximum festivity of human triumph there can be.
.
but they are not the only ones that matter. It may seem like the the world doesn't care about you reaching your goals but I firmly believe the world
needs you to conquer your goals,
o.k. that was long, sorry for the headache....
ll:dr, I had a nice chest day.
EDIT:
FallingEdge, you can believe people when they say you have big arms, lol. you are way past that "mmh. dunno" phase many of us are going through now.
