I often like to scour the blogging world for other great writers and inspiring people. I'll pull ideas and quote the sections that stand out most.
I like to draw inspiration from as many varying sources as possible. One such source is Will Gadd, a champion ice climber, all around mountain sports athlete, philanthropist and Canmore native. I follow his writing religiously and this past week he wrote about pushing the boundaries of training.
“There are a lot of different kinds of pain, and any sane person tries to avoid most of them. It's human nature to want to be "comfortable." Some kinds of pain should be avoided: torn muscles, snapped tendons, relationship drama (all super damaging to training effectively and therefore to performance), but I make my best training gains when I push into areas of pain, especially mental pain, and all pain is mental.... I think embracing pain and becoming comfortable or even desiring it in training and in performance is essential to getting better as an athlete. The amount of pain someone will tolerate is directly related to the desire the person has for something on the other side of that pain. If an athlete really wants to get better then he or she will tolerate and even seek out pain.”
What a wild idea right? but not really because for those who have ventured into that wild territory of pain inducing gym/mountain time understand that pain is not just an optional part of training it is training. Yes rest and recovery are great parts too, but I know from my perspective you can really only enjoy recovering knowing that you'll go back stronger and harder.
“I see some athletes (and I'll use climbers as an example) get a little beaten down and then just give up and say, "take" or stop running back up the field or whatever. They then wonder why they're not progressing, why they're "training" and yet the same old level of exertion still feels hard. The reason it feels hard is that they are letting it feel hard. I've watched numerous athletes say, "I'm too pumped to climb," but if their friends scream at them they'll keep climbing, often for dozens more moves. Watch a guy on the bench lift the weight to "failure," then see what happens when his friends start yelling at him. More reps, guaranteed. Soon the pain becomes irrelevant, it's only upward motion that counts. That is a state of grace”
How many people do you know that are currently at the gym on a weekly basis (between gym time shopping for TAP OUT clothes, watching UFC and looking like the Jersey Shore) but making very small if negligible increments in strength because after the first two years or so you just plateau. It's easy to be satisfied with being strong enough or fast enough but after that plateau you must make that step into uncomfortable training to really see the full potential of your body.
“In life we don't generally lay it all on the line, and rarely publicly. It's almost like making love in public or something, it's a bare naked, all-out, intimate, no reserves display of true character if done well. The thing about doing your best is that there aren't any excuses left to hide behind, the clothes are all gone. Many people never see what's there, much less show it to others. The neat thing is that when you do your best it's always fucking cool, no matter what it looks like. We're all gonna cheer for the fat bastard struggling across the finish line 'cause we all know he's leaving nothing behind him. Respect.”
“One more rep, one more move, break the comfort shell into a thousand sweaty pieces, do your best with no excuses.”
The idea of training mentally is one thats been passed around for years. It's the old "mind over matter" karate kid shit we all heard as kids. Few people will really have the mental strength to overcome the things that scare them or hurt them most. Often times you will reap the most reward if you can breach those insecurities and roadblocks.
Snow sports have always been a particular point of contention for my skinny brown self but this year I want to match the amount of time I spent on rock with the amount I'll spend on snow. (50 days on snow, includes skiing and ice climbing) I want to set solid goals, write them down and push into the painful (and fun!) parts of my training.
Get Outside
OS
Reference:
Gravsports,(Wednesday,September 08,2010),Pain, Comfort, Satisfaction. Gadd Will. Link: http://gravsports.blogspot.com/