The first time a trainer ever asked me to lift a barbell, he might as well have been asking me to lift a car. I had been working out for about four months, three to four times a week, using a combination of kettlebells and bodyweight exercises, so I thought raising a men’s barbell (45 lbs.) to my shoulders would be something I was capable of. Turns out I was hilariously (and dangerously) wrong.
About a year later, when I was working with another trainer, I re-visited the possibility of incorporating the barbell into my workouts. By then I was much stronger so I was able to at least move the bar, but had zero technique. That, however, was the beginning of my love affair with the barbell.
Over the next few months, I almost exclusively worked on mastering the clean. While I hated failing, I loved that the progress was tangible. Every week I could feel my coordination improving. Once I had my timing down, I began to add weight to the bar and the “gainz” came quickly. 35lbs. 45 lbs. 55 lbs. 65 lbs.
And then I plateaued.
There were a couple reasons for my plateau. I was happy enough with 65 lbs. My technique was good enough for what I wanted to accomplish. And my workout routine was in flux since I was traveling for work and preparing to move. I wasn’t committed to, or focused on, improving.
Once I got settled here in Austin, I found a gym where I could focus almost exclusively on weightlifting. I quickly learned that after more than six months of sporadic workouts, I had a lot of ground to make up. My foundations were still there, but I desperately needed to fine tune my technique and rebuild my strength.
It was disheartening to feel like I was starting over. I had worked so hard and so consistently for two years to build my body and strength. Six months of half-hearted, unfocused effort eroded almost all of it.
Even though I’ve been consistently working out for just over four months, it’s only been within the past month that I’ve started to notice some visible changes in the shape of my body. I’ve also finally started tracking my workouts and am seeing a difference in the amount of weight I’m able to move. In fact, during last night’s workout, I muscle cleaned 65 lbs for multiple reps. I didn’t think much of it until I was showering after my workout.
One year ago, muscle cleaning 65 lbs. would have sounded impossible. And now it’s a drill I’m doing without a second thought. Admittedly it’s nothing special when compared to what the other very impressive women I work out with are doing, but for me it is a big deal.
Getting to this point has been tedious. And in some ways a little Karate Kid-like. There have been plenty of days when I’ve felt like I was painting the fence or waxing the car because I was only adding 2.5 lbs or 5 lbs. plates. And for those of you who aren’t familiar with weightlifting, the 2.5 lbs plates are tiny – like the size of a large donut – so it almost feels silly putting them on the bar. But for me, five extra pounds can make a big difference.
So all those days when I left the gym a little defeated because I felt like I wasn’t getting stronger, seeing changes in my body, or would never lift more than 65 lbs, it’s because I showed up those days, and systematically added the tiny, donut plates, that I was able to get to this point.
I’m still not at my goal of cleaning 100 lbs. (my 1 rep max is 95 lbs.), but realizing that I can muscle clean 65 lbs. for multiple reps is enough to inspire me to keep going. And even if it’s only five-pound increments from here on out, each incremental increase creates a new baseline and therefore new goal.
That’s enough to get me to go back to class tomorrow.