The Most Important Thing

The Most Important Thing

…is family. 

Sometimes we get so caught up in our goals that we forget about the people who are propping us up. The people who are there to break the bad news and stick around for our reaction. Family doesn’t always mean blood relation, so I suppose the proper word for what I am trying to convey is COMMUNITY. 

This past weekend, I competed at the Lexen Extreme Fall Classic and I got a reminder of what it meant to personally be a part of a community. The profound sense of acceptance and support that I received over the weekend is something I will never forget. This article will serve two purposes: to recap the meet and show you why building a community is so important.

I competed in the 132-pound class and finished the day with a  215-pound squat, 135-pound bench press, and 260-pound deadlift. Though I didn’t achieve a couple of my goals, I was happy to get a feel for the 132-pound weight class and set a PR total of 610-pounds with the support of many great lifters, coaches, and friends. Some of these people I’d never personally met before but corresponded with on social media, and some of them I’ve known for quite some time.  Regardless, when I stepped onto the brightly-lit platform, it made all the difference that someone was there to support me when I really needed it.

When I say I needed it, I really did. After my missing my first deadlift attempt, I thought I was going to have to cut it there and bomb out. My hip-popped during the lift and my entire left leg was throbbing as I swallowed tears. I was told to pull conventional instead of sumo and the thought of that made me extremely nervous. My sumo pull has always been much stronger than conventional AND I’d maxed my conventional pull just a few weeks earlier and it was super slow. Not only that, but the weight I opened with was five pounds heavier than that super slow conventional pull. There was no way I’d be able to pull it off with an injury. Surprisingly, I PR’d my conventional deadliest by 25 pounds.

In all honesty, I started lifting weights because I just liked how it felt. But now it goes much deeper than that. Now I’m little more competitive, I’ve got training partners, and it kind of just feels like training and competing is something productive to do with my pals. We set our own goals, but we also know that we need each other in order to achieve those goals. This is why building a community is the key to achievement.

It was almost exactly a year ago that I started training at The Spot Athletics and at first l felt like the odd-man-out. Constantly getting picked on, making dumb mistakes, and always asking “Will I get yelled at if I do such-and-such?” Now, I feel a part of a family. Going further, I’ve expanded my network of friends and it was this small group that pushed me at the Fall Classic. It was these guys who offered verbal support, shared their ammonia to get me pumped, rubbed baby powder on my thighs before each deadlift attempt, and inspired me to believe in myself.

Our very own Nic Bronkall, or Coach B, took the time out of a beautiful Saturday to be cooped up at a powerlifting meet to handle me, because here at The Spot Athletics, we have something that not a lot of gyms have: a family. We want everybody to achieve their goals and be motivated to be the best person they can be. 

Savannah Steamer

Sleep Is Overrated

There are 168 hours in a week. Lets say you train 4 times a week at 1.5 hours a session. That equates into 6 hours of training. Of those 6 hours you really don't even train 90 minutes. You warm up, you talk, you roll around on a foam roller, you check your phone and you occasionally lift some weights. So subtract 6 from 168 we get 162 hours left in your week. While training hard and being consistent is important in your quest to reaching your potential you need to optimize how you use the rest of your time outside the gym. That needs to be with what you eat and one over looked factor is sleep.

Many think that they can get away with 4-5 hours of sleep or that there is to much to do during the day that they can sacrifice sleeping. Well new science is showing that Improving your sleep is an extremely important aspect that can have powerful implications in your performance as an athlete. Life is stressful with training, work, school, relationships and everything else that falls in-between these, they all place stress on the nervous system. The body is designed to experience stress but if there is no time in-between where the body gets some relief from this stress the body begins to breakdown and we see adverse reactions to stress. Therefore you need to have strategies in place to help promote recovery and maintaining a balance within the body.

Sleep often falls to the side as a recovery tool. We all do mobility and eat right but sleep gets a back seat. Well sleep is your most essential component to recovery. It's even more important if you are injured, traveling or in the competition phases of your training. If you are depriving yourself of sleep you will be unable to perform in the gym, on the field/court or even with normal everyday tasks. Poor sleep during max effort training, where you are continuously beating your body down will lead to under recovery and early signs of overtraining.

Tips to help you sleep

You need 7-9 hours of sleep per day

Stop consuming caffeine in the afternoon.

De-stress for 20 minutes. Just relax and unwind. No phones, computers or outside distractions.

Turn all electronics off an hour before bed

Have bedroom temperature 67-70 degrees F

Take naps daily around 30 minutes in length but avoid them in the late afternoon/evening

Plan tomorrow before dinner. So make your to-do list so you don't lay in bed thinking about all the things you have to do tomorrow as they will be on your list waiting for you when you get up.

If you can't sleep within 15 min try reading. The book super training will put you right to sleep.

When you lay down close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Focus on letting go of all muscular tension. Begin at the top and work your way down.

 

Improve your sleep. Improve your performance. It's science.

 

Coach B

 

Consistency in training for athletes

Are you consistent?

You trained so hard over the summer, didn't miss a workout and yet, when season comes you just stop?  Studies show that training effects start to fade after two weeks of the cessation of training; so, how long do you want to go without training?  Hopefully not any longer than two weeks or your performance will start to suffer.  It is not by accident that in college, athletes are required to train year round... yes, even during in-season.  This is required because it is what is needed to get the most out of the athletes.  I realize that in high school and middle school there are a lot of other demands besides training, but that is true of college and life in general.  The bottom line is that you have time for what you make time for.  We train several athletes that not only play 3 sports but train with us year round.  It is by no accident that the athletes we see year round will all be going to play for college teams eventually.  They have made training a priority and no matter the season, they get their training in.  The training during season will not be as hard as off-season to adjust for the increased demand of competition, but the intensity of the workouts are still high.  Most of our off-season programs are 3-4 days and the in-season programs are usually 2 days per week.  This change in programming allows for the athletes to perform at their best all season long because they are maintaining their strength the entire season.  Without this training, we have seen girls that have lost 5 inches off their approach touch height by not training for 4 months during their high school season.

The issue of consistency is very close to home for me, because when I was in high school I never trained in-season.   This was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in training and wish I could go back and change it.  When I look back I remember being really strong going into football season, but then I wouldn't train during football or wrestling season and I would come out of wrestling season much weaker than when I entered football season.  Then, I would start to train hard again for the next 6 months and start the cycle all over again.  Please don't make the same  mistake that I made.  I was a good DII football player but I believe that if I had only trained year round then I could have been a good DI player.  I am proud of my playing experience at Ferris State & Wayne State but I still think that if I had only trained in-season I might have been able to play at one of the big schools.  Don't make the same mistake I did and you won't have to speculate on how good you could have been "if you only".  Yes, it can sometimes be difficult to find the time, but the rewards far outweigh the time and commitment you have to put in to be at your best.