January 02, 2014

Olympic weight lifting motivation while sick

Today I tried to go back to the gym and train for  the first time since I got sick. Even during my warm up I was out of breath, coughing, sweating profusely, and light headed. I decided I was going to do a few sets of light clean and jerk to practice form, then go crawl back into bed. After only a couple sets I was contemplating going home. Rise miller who is only 14 years old and is the coaches son told me when your sick or unmotivated that's an opportunity to teach yourself to push through adversity. He said, "your feeling crappy right now, but if your able to put your mind in the right place, focus, and train through it now, then there will be nothing that can happen to you during a competition that could be anywhere as bad as this." Rise then told me about how Michael Phelps swimming coach had stepped on his swimming goggles on purpose during a meet once so that his goggles would fill with water while he was swimming to teach Michael to continue to push hard and stay focused on the task at hand even when things aren't going your way. Rise was right. Me being sick wasn't a problem, it was an opportunity. If I could stay focused on the weights and form at that moment, then anything I faced at a meet would be easy in comparison. I finished 5 sets of jerk, and 5 sets of clean and jerk. Lesson learned. Thanks Rise.

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