This morning, I found myself awake earlier than usual. I got up, made coffee, checked email and decided I would make a rare appearance at the 7am WOD. Today was clean & jerk day.
I love clean & jerk and am happy that my bicep tendon surgery has healed enough to let me start getting heavy again. Today’s WOD is a strength workout, just clean & jerk, 10 x 1. Anytime you see a “1” as the rep scheme, you should think heavy thoughts.
Fast forward to the final minutes of class. I had done seven or eight sets, usually doing any one weight twice, then adding some. I had already done a “post-op PR”, so I was happy about that. I decided to go up in weight again.
A picture of my son doing a clean because I didn’t take any pictures of myself this morning like a good reporter would do.
Did the clean. It was heavy for me, but I stood it up. Then as I was repositioning and resetting for my jerk, I had a weird thought:
“I should go for a run before the 9:15 class.” (which I was scheduled to coach)
The bar is still racked on my shoulders.
“Wait, where are my running shoes”?
Deep breath, getting ready to jerk.
“Shoot, my shoes are at home. I can’t run now”.
And that’s when I stepped off the ledge. I abandoned the lift and dropped the bar on the floor.
Thankfully, I realized I had lost total concentration on what I was doing. You have heard me say as a coach, “There is no 98% commitment to a jerk”. (Or box jump). I was lucky if I had 20% commitment.
That was also my signal that I was done for the day.
Fast forward to the end of the 9:15 class. One athlete was pulling the bar up, but not dropping down to get it in a squat. She kept looking at me like, “What’s wrong with me?” She said she had already done this weight…why couldn’t she move herself now?
I told my story about concentration and said, “You’re done for the day.” She had done some great lifts, made some improvements in her technique. It was a win, and time to stop.
So the lessons are these: 1) give 100% focus on what you are doing. 2) When you no longer are giving 100%, call it a day.
Happy lifting.