Beware the Barbell?

“It’s not that I am scared of the barbell. It’s not that the barbell is too heavy. I just don’t want to weightlift.”

-Anonymous

As I mentioned in my previous blogs, when I first started Crossfit I said,…”girls don’t lift weights.” I was intimidated because I thought that was what guys were suppose to do. Big dudes wearing cut-off T-shirts, smelIing like sweaty socks, grimacing and grunting over hunks of metal and bending barbells. (Hey, I grew up in a small town remember). I had never really seen girls lift barbells with weights before. That is until Crossfit Progression.

Now that I have been Crossfitting and weightlifting for over four years I am losing sight of what it used to feel like to…”not want to lift weights…”. I use barbell movements everyday because I like my body strong and having the ability to move heavy loads is pretty cool. You see, like anything in life, weightlifting is what you make it. I know plenty of people, not just males or females, that use weightlifting as an awesome way to get a full body workout. Barbell lifting does not have to be about having the biggest weights or getting a personal record every time you come to the gym. It can simply be about working the entire body by building strength and increasing coordination between your bones, muscles and nerves.

Olympic weightlifting is especially good because it transfers to all other Crossfit movements, which in turn as you all know, makes moving around in the world easier. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard,…”at first I just hated the weightlifting part of Crossfit, but now that I have got the hang of it, I love going to just the Olympic weightlifting classes!” Once you practice things seem to get a little bit easier and a lot more fun. The same people then come back to me a few weeks later and are excited about doing the Crossfit Progression WOD’s RX because they are strong enough to train with heavier weights.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that practice makes perfect. Don’t get frustrated and blame the barbell and never try it again. We as Coaches at Crossfit Progression are consistently saying, technique, technique, technique. I am sure all of you have heard me say a time or two,…”if you cannot show me good form I will take the weight down for you.” Right? I am more concerned with how you move and then how much weight is on the bar. Everyone should,…”get the hang of it…” before adding a bunch of weight, using too much chalk and geting injured.

So I guess what I am saying is,…”Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” I didn’t eat shrimp for 23 years, because I could see its feet, tail and eyes. But I kept trying it different ways with a different attitude and its actually pretty good. (If, of course, its wild caught). I want to eat shimp and seafood because I know it is good for me, I just have to figure out my style and get the hang of it. Ask not what you can do with the barbell, ask how you can use the barbell to make a better you.