"As I draw in this bow, I travelled a long road. Now I release this bow knowing I took the necessary risks and gave of my best" Paulo Coelho. The quote is from the book "The Archer", and the big lesson is what one can gain from a lifelong dedication to something like archery. I like the quote above because you can take out the word bow, and insert whatever you are dedicated to. For 10 years, I would draw in my karate belt. For 10 years after that, I would draw in my football helmet. Now, I draw in the barbell. What I draw in has always been some form of physical expression, but it is different for everyone. What do you draw in? Are you daring enough to give everything into something without fear or reservation?
As a personal trainer, I am no stranger to asking people about their fitness goals. A lot of times, I get vague, unquantifiable goals like "lose my spare tire", "put on muscle", "get stronger", "more toned", "get better at squats," etc. WHERE IS THE PASSION? I will tell you where it is. It is behind a trap door that has been shut because of fear. The fear of coming up short or losing keeps us from committing to something we have never accomplished. I remember listening to a Kobe Bryant interview, and he metaphorically related all his basketball injuries to climbing Mount Everest. Kobe talked about how someone climbs Mount Everest by staying focused on each step and not being paralyzed by how large a feat it is to climb to the top. Kobe then went on to say instead of being focused on how long it would take to recover from injuries like a torn labrum, torn Achilles or fractured knee, he put his efforts towards each day of rehab and built himself back up one training session at a time.
We all have ambitions and dreams. I don't care how afraid you are to achieve your wildest dreams and claim not to have any. If this blog post can awaken even one dream, I have left the world a better place. Humans are designed to identify a personal dream and pursue it relentlessly. Without a dream, there is no need to take risks or give everything you have. Someone living without a personal dream means there is a loss of life force that will make the world a better place. We all know how it feels to be lit up by something. Like when we were kids and a parent asked you about your favourite toy or video game. Whatever you loved as a kid, you would let yourself become lit up with energy and not hold back. That magic kids have when they are lit up about something is still alive in adulthood. Sometimes, we may need to crack open that trap door. What dreams are hiding behind your trapdoor? What can you offer the people you love? What does the world gain from you pursuing your dreams?
My personal anecdote and dedication to the barbell
The early stage
Chances are, what I draw in will change over time, but regardless, I will take the necessary risks and give my best effort. In 2020, the world did what it did, but during that time, I found something that lit me up like a Christmas tree. That thing was and is Olympic weightlifting. I will never forget the first day I tried to snatch with a barbell. It was in December 2019, and I remember thinking, "Wow, I am terrible at this, and I need to figure out how to get better". January 2020 was when I hired my first weightlifting coach. I was sent the online program and followed the program at the gym I was working out of. I followed the program for 3 months, and then the world went into lockdown.
The Den - What I call the warehouse I was training out of at the time
I cancelled the programming with my coach and started training with the kettlebells I had at home. While at home and without a gym, I started watching weightlifting videos and reading about the sport. I eventually found a gym to train out of, and funny enough, it was at the gym with my first weightlifting coach, Steve. We became training partners and did a fair bit of weightlifting together. Gyms would open and close, but Steve had access to the gym regardless of government mandates, so we kept training. That summer in 2020 was the start of my new obsession. All I thought about was weightlifting. I didn't care about anything else. I couldn't be bothered by the news. or anything that was not weightlifting-related.
The coach who taught me how to lift with passion
Shortly before the end of 2020, I hired another coach, Jon. I watched many videos of Jon on YouTube when he was training out of Cal Strength. I decided I wanted the most authentic weightlifting experience I could find, and at the time, Jon seemed perfect. My training with Jon as my coach just fuelled the fire even more. I remember telling him, "I just want to improve my technique and don't have any major aspirations in the sport". Remember what I said earlier about vague goals? I was scared of what would happen if I put everything into weightlifting, so I picked something unquantifiable in case I needed an out. I will never forget Jon's response to the vague goal of improving my weightlifting technique, "That's fine, and I can help. Just watch out as you might get bit by the weightlifting bug".
I remember the day my trap door busted open and released my passion into the world. I was in the gym alone, and the environment was similar to a scene from one of the Saw movies. Flickering lights, concrete walls with chipped paint, unidentifiable noises coming from the dark corners, and me standing over a barbell loaded with one hundred and two kilograms. I had been working with Jon for just over four months, and written on my program for that Saturday was "Snatch - 1X1 MAX". This means keep going up in weight for the snatch until you miss. That day, I went into the session telling myself I wouldn't leave the gym until one hundred and two kilograms was over my head. To be clear, the weight I was trying to snatch is peanuts in the world of Olympic Weightlifting, but for me, it may as well have been a world record attempt.
I went numb and would attempt to hoist my personal record barbell snatch over my head multiple times. When I say multiple, I mean I would miss the lift ten-plus times, but I didn't care. I was making this lift and wouldn't leave the gym until I did. This is bad training and something I wouldn't recommend all the time, but I had no competitions coming up or things that mattered more to me than that damn 102kg snatch. Lifting with passion is what I learned from Jon. That day, passion was my governor, and finally, I had 102kg over my head in the overhead squat and stood it up. The weightlifting bug bit me that day. Here is the link to see the day my passion broke out and spread into the world. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLpCfZGlB3Q/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The gym everyone needs to experience
Time passed, and I would continue to train weightlifting 3-5 times a week, and then I found the best gym environment I have ever experienced. The gym is called CanAm Strength and Conditioning in Ottawa, Ontario. If you are ever in the area on a Saturday, you owe it to yourself to drop in and experience the magic of that gym. I remember learning from one of my mentors that when it comes to good training, environment matters, and CanAm proved that to be true.
I started training out of CanAm in 2022 but was still going to another gym down the road because the bar was better. I remember Adam, the owner of CanAm, asked me why I was going to the gym down the road, and I told him it was because of the equipment. Within 20 minutes, Adam showed me his phone, and it showed he had just ordered thousands of dollars worth of weightlifting barbells and official weightlifting kilogram-marked plates. Shortly after that, I cancelled my membership at the gym down the road, which would mark the beginning of training around other people who shared the same passion for weightlifting.
The 2022 summer taught me how important training is to me
My training in 2022 would decline drastically, not because of a lack of trying or effort. That summer taught me a valuable lesson about recovery and how much lifestyle impacts training. In 2022, I worked full-time on a farm with my best friend Ty, and we both continued to train hard or at least try to. All my numbers were down, and I struggled to hit lifts I could hit when I first started. By the end of 2022, I was done on the farm and realized how important it is to prioritize my training. There are many things I want to do in this life, but when my training is off or inconsistent, it negatively impacts everything. Training for me is not about becoming world-class or breaking records. Training for me is about self-development. My climb to heavier weights in Olympic weightlifting is nowhere near respectable numbers in the sport, but that is not my pursuit. The weights I lift in the snatch and clean and jerk will go down in my personal history books, and that climb up will continue to reveal things about myself I would never get if I didn't dedicate myself to getting better at the sport.
Understand the why
As I started to understand what weightlifting meant to me, things started to fall into place. My business catapulted, my training improved, my relationships strengthened, and I was happier. When we live authentically, things start to fall into place. This happened shortly after I decided to train exclusively out of CanAm when an international-level weightlifter named Spencer walked in the door and became the head coach of the CanAm barbell club. The times I have shared a barbell with an international-level lifter like Spencer have taught me more in those sessions about Olympic weightlifting than any certification or seminar the world could offer me. I would never have had those opportunities without putting in the time and dedication I started investing in 2020. Even though I will never be in the Olympics, the people I have been exposed to, and the lessons I have learned while dedicated to the damn barbell are priceless. There is nothing one can do to achieve those experiences that positively shape a person without dedication and relentless pursuit of improvement.
Every lift is an opportunity
I have been coached by Spencer and his partner in crime, Cierra. These two have helped tremendously with my understanding of the classic lifts and what it takes to get better at weightlifting. In my first full year (2021) in the sport, I was on fire, hitting personal bests almost every month and taking my snatch from 84kg to 111kg and my clean and jerk from 115kg to 134kg. Only recently, in 2023, have I broken a personal record in the clean and jerk, hitting 137kg in training and then smoking 138kg in competition a few weeks later. To say I fizzled out is an understatement, but I am grateful I went through that. I had to learn not to take any training session or lift for granted. Every lift is an opportunity to get better, and it is not just about the PR attempts. Competitions and PR attempts are earned through consistently showing up to train and buying into what it takes to improve. You may feel like you are on fire in a training session and want to max out, but that is what it looks like to be greedy and undisciplined. Sure, if the goal is to swing away steadily, and that is what you are in it for, then great, keep swinging. If the goal is to get better, you better buckle up because there are levels to this shit, and the time to start climbing is now.
Bit by the bug
Now I sit here, eyes filled with a foreign liquid, writing about the most recent weightlifting competition. Summer 2023 marks the end of an era in my life, and that competition was an opportunity sent from the heavens for me to decide how I would cap off this chapter in my life. I coach some athletes in the sport, and I just so happened to have an athlete competing in the session before mine. The athlete I coached is named Amanda, and let me tell you, I was more nervous about this than any other event in my life. We had talked about what we wanted to do, and we both felt very confident going into the weekend. Warmups went well, and then Amanda would trot out with peace signs before her first attempt in the snatch. She missed it, and I nearly swallowed my heart. We went to the back, I said a few words while also feeling like I was going to have a heart attack. Then, I saw how Amanda stood up as she was called up for her second attempt. That is when I knew she was smoking the next lift. The mental fortitude it takes to go out after a miss in a competition is only something you can understand if you go through it. Then, making the second attempt like Amanda did made everything right in the world again. Amanda would go on to hit a qualifying total for provincials, and I know it is not how she wanted it to go down, but as her coach, I am so proud of her and how she handled herself mentally. That was one of the coolest things I have seen from the coach's seat.
Amanda making the clean and jerk weight she needed for provincials.
Amanda handled business, and now it was my turn. I made weight and got through the introductions, and now it was put up or shut up. When I used to play football, I could have a bad day, and my team could still win. Alternatively, in weightlifting, there is no hiding; you either have it or you don't, and if you don't have it on that day, chances are you are not winning anything. For this particular day, I was focused and confident I put in the necessary work to execute every lift. I was ready to have myself a day, and that is exactly what would happen. I had the opportunity to share the platform with people who hold the same love for the sport as I do. I am forever grateful for these life experiences—the heightened sense of things that come with each attempt on a competition platform. That is what self-development looks like, commitment and dedication towards something meaningful and the willingness to risk it all to win or lose. I hope everyone finds something to commit to, as I have with Olympic Weightlifting.
You owe it to yourself to take the necessary risks to fulfil your wildest dreams, and in doing so, when your days are done, you will know you gave everything you had to give.
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