Chopping Onions & Hugging Trees? Are you really in your zone?

I have a confession to make. I am a bit of a control freak. I don't mean to be, sometimes I try not to be but fact is my little freak usually wins the inner and outer dialogue. Even in simple things like cooking it will manifest it's military commander head. Poor Mr. G will ask if there is anything he can do to help, I will allocate a task and he will be more than capable of chopping a fucking onion BUT no....no not how I want it to be chopped. I will sidle up and double check that chopping is to standard with a 'let me just.....' and taking the knife and VOILA control has been regained. I feel a perverse sense of satisfaction. What a fucking weirdo. Let the man chop. I know he can chop. Why can't I just let him chop? Now that said this only applies to things I consider to me my jobs. Mr G chops the wood for the log burner and not once have I sidled up to take control, actually if I did I would probably get my fingers chopped off lol. So does this make me a selective control freak? I don't know. I am sure someone somewhere will be able to take me back to childhood and put it down to losing a banana mojo in the sandpit or some such bollocks. Anyway I digress as usual.

Back to the point. I consider my training and the programming of my training to me MY domain. For those of you who have been along for all of my ramblings you will know I have handed over my training to a new coach, Nicola Vaughan-Ellis (who is fucking awesome btw...that is not up for debate.), at the time of handing this over I knew I would have 'issues' with it but I never thought it would be quite so difficult. Up until now I have always kind of 'winged' my training. I have never really followed a set program. I have simply trained hard, appropriately and consistently. I have always decided, with the input of my training buddies, what I will be doing on any given day but sometimes that would be decided on the day and sometimes before and often change part way through the session. So now to have 3 weeks training in advance, written down, planned with precision....by someone else has taken me outside of my personal training comfort zone.

The training we are doing is SO different from what I have been used to. Different moves have been introduced with a different empahisis, a different split, different...different.....just soooo fucking different!!! Now any of you who are the opposite, who can't function without a plan set in stone this will seem rather weird. And one would think that as a trainer/coach (whatever the label is today), I would list every rep, set, rest from every session in order to assess my SMART goals (YAAAWWWWWNNNN). Well I don't and I am a fully fledged kinaestheste when it comes to training.

Kineasthesia -
The sensation by which the bodily position, weight, muscle tension and movement are perceived. Also called muscle sense 

I suppose it's kind of like hippy dippy training. Let's hug a tree, see how we feel then rip a big ass weight up :0)

Alas this is no longer. My tree no longer needs hugging, in place I have a training diary. Yes an actual paper one (made from the aforementioned hugged tree perhaps?). I have a pencil, I have a rubber and I have a big fat plan that has been written by someone else. This has sent me, over the past 4-5 weeks, into a mental turmoil. I was in my groove, knowing what I did felt right. And it worked right? I mean I have won shit? I have records? I have bloody worlds records? I am awesome right??? Or am I? Have I been in my groove or stuck in a rut? OK I have had some pretty reasonable results but can they be better? Should they be better? Do I want them to be better? Now for some the level I have achieved would be more than personally adequate and that is perfectly fine as we all have different paths and expectations, but I know I want to be better. I don't want to be good, I want to be GREAT. Yes this is personal ego and I am OK with that, me and my ego get on just fine. I also know that I do not have all the tools be be this great lifter I aspire to be and in order to get out of that rut, my tree hugging comfort zone I need to trust other people. People who have forgotten more than I will ever know. People who see the greatness. People who know what true greatness is and will encourage yet not blow smoke up my arse. 

I am competing in 4 weeks and I am still have mental dilemmas and physical ones to be fair. My body is aching in places that is hasn't ached and in a different way. Some elements of the program I can make an instant connection with and other elements I am like 'what the fuck????'. And yet I have to trust what I don't know and that is hard. Now what if it all doesn't work? Well so what. There is no way that I will walk away at the end of this year that we have committed to working together that it is possible that I leave with having learned nothing. And that is the point. We only know what we know. Sounds obvious huh? And it is but that also mean there is a whole lot of stuff out there that we don't know so if you want to improve in anything go and find people who have what you want and ask them, pay them if you have to and if it is worth it for you. Be the best you can be but I guarantee you can NEVER be that on your own.

While on the subject of comfort zone anything 'technical' is definitely out of it but as just discussed in order to move forward we must....well move forward so my new website is being developed and it will be fucking awesome. :0)

And if any of you fancy having your own comfort zones made a little edgey why not come and join us on this? Play the video peeps....play the video :0)

I even set up the Eventbrite page ALL on my own....yes it took me days but I did it :0)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nodumbelles-powerlifting-weekend-workshop-tickets-10358098351

PEACE OUT

http://www.extremenutrition.co.uk/

Interview Part 1

I thought I would give your reading glasses a little rest by sharing and interview I did with Big Tom and Bigger Al from T & A Muscle. Feel free to be offended at any time :0)

Part 2 to follow.....

Did I Miss A Meeting?

A few years ago in the days when the heaviest thing I lifted was a pint of Guinness and ‘sport’ of choice was pool I decided that I would enter Race For Life. I did a pitiful amount of preparation for it. I probably started doing a bit of running 4 weeks before the race and when I say run it would have been more a walk-jog-blow out of my arse kind of interval cycle. Still I had sent in my entry, collected money at the pub I was lodging in. The hairy Glass Barrel rocking patrons believed saving tits was a good cause and so generous donations were chucked in a pint pot that was passed around whilst the bands took a piss break on Friday & Saturday nights. The day came and off I toddled with Mr G and two friends who waited for me at the end with an ice cold can of the black stuff as a reward. The sun was shining as I ran a bit, and walked most of the 5km, with an additional flurry of speed up to and across the finish line. I, along with hundreds of other women, that day took on a challenge as had thousands before us and have thousands after.

 I am sure many reading this have done the exact same or similar race. I will also presume that, for some, the preparation was a shit as mine. I can’t even remember how exactly how long it took me but I do know I wasn’t in the front serious runner  group.  Nope, I was like most, in the serious plodder group and gave no thought at all to who would be the fastest.  I hadn’t researched what an average time was for 5km and certainly not what the British, World, European records were over that distance…or how fast I would have to be to get on the next British Athletic team for the next Olympics. I just turned up. I plodded round. I finished. Just like everyone else. I enjoyed the atmosphere which was a nice collective of personal achievement, individual survival, elation and sadness.

Me after my 5km 'run'...my love of running never improved and I know those that know me well will find the thought of me running funny as fuck.

At no point did I know that Paula Radcliffe could run this distance in 14:29:11. I didn’t know that Tirunesh Dibaba holds the World Record of 14:11:15. Why would I? That would be silly right? Me, a complete novice compare myself to some world class athlete or even the ones in the ‘serious’ runner front group. That would be like telling five year old primary school child to compare their reading abilities to a university graduate.  Stupid right? So why then do ‘primary school’ lifters compare their abilities to lifting graduates?  It’s just nuts.

Some awesome women learning to lift and having fun!

 There is an amazing buzz at the moment in strength training with ever increasing numbers of women getting bitten by the lifting bug. Not for aesthetics but because they like feeling fucking strong. They enjoy the focus of the training, the grunt & grit that comes with lifting heavy shit. They go to the gym, do all the training, watch all the videos on You Tube, follow and interact with other female lifters on social media. They do searches for other lifters who they perceive to be at their own level.  Searches for women at the same weight, same age and then watch video after video and they will often leave jaws dropping with the weights that some incredible female lifters are doing and then the niggling thought ‘I can never do that!’ rears its’ ugly head. And here in lies the problem. 

Why the fuck are you comparing what you are doing in the gym with no or little competition time to lifters who have more experience, training, coaching,  and who have put in thousands of hours of training, athletes who have tried and tested training methods, some with success and some not so successful,  to get to the point in a competition that  you are now seeing in a 2 minute clip? By all means use these great strong women as inspiration, use them to kick the glass ceiling royally in the bollocks so that you can really see what is within the realms of possibilities when it comes to strength but DO NOT compare yourself, do not clip your lifting wings before you have even hatched out of the egg with these unfair comparisons.  We all have a starting point so ask these lifters what theirs was, I can guarantee it won’t be anywhere near the numbers they are lifting now. 

The amount of times I hear that someone would love to compete but then say they aren’t lifting enough or they will look for a competition when they are strong enough. Compared to whom? Where is this lifting measuring stick? I must have missed that meeting. I can honestly say I had no idea what anyone was lifting when I turned up to my first comp. What I do know is as a new lifter everyone took care of me, encouraged me, advised , people shouted my name and cheered when I lifted well. I saw some awesome strong women like Hanne Bingle, Angie McNamara, Monique Newton & Emma James who really opened my eyes to what strong can be. I made some great friends of these women and their support is invaluable as is their brilliant competitive spirit. Best of all I have no idea who won on that day!

So I guess the whole point of this ramble is if you want to compete the just bloody do it. Don’t wait for the day you are breaking World Records. Just do it. Get a total on platform with as many white lights as you can. That will be YOUR starting point and from there you can only improve. With your own personal results you will have your own lifting measuring stick and not someone else’s.  

Over sleeping! Kareoke! World Records and TITTTTTTSSSSSS!!!!!

Well that was quite a weekend. I always have to take a few days stepping outside of my competitive circle before I can really start to process the whole thing. With the age of the t’interweb videos and photos trickle through for the few days after a comp so even though the event is over the after tremors take a little longer to subside.

Folkestone is a looooooooonnnggggggg drive from Manchester. Our little team consisted of me, Mr G, our training partner Rik, and joining us from Olympic Sports Gym in Ashton were Cheryl Kelsall & chief coach Gaz Boulton. After having to wake us up because we over slept (DOH) we guzzled a coffee and then shoehorned ourselves in the car. Of course much was made of the fact that we over slept as I had been a mini time keeping Gestapo Commandant in the days prior with texts, pm's and face to face orders of not to be late. Poor Cheryl had to take the kiddie middle seat for the entire journey there and back and if that isn’t incentive to go up at least TWO weight classes then I don’t know what is. AND she forgot Pedro!!!! FFS Woman don't ever have children unless you marry a politician as only then is it OK to absently forget your offspring. Listening to Radio 2 with some ‘interesting’ music choices it was a good atmosphere and new karaoke songs were found.

The British Powerlifting Union (BPU) /World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) Folkestone International Open Grand Prix 2013 was a qualifier for the WPC World Championships which takes place in Prague in Oct/Nov of this year for which I had already qualified by winning my class last year. I felt that I needed more platform time before the Worlds as last year I was totally over awed AND under prepared.  Even though we were convinced we had taken all variables into account, we so hadn’t and that was a great learning curve. I think choosing do this comp was a very good move in hindsight as I made mistakes that I can now work on for the next 8 weeks and they were the type of silly mistakes that can only be made on platform. In powerlifting to really put into practice what we train in the gym you have to have you lifts up to be judged AND be prepared to accept the decisions made, learn from them and move on. What you THINK you are doing and what you are ACTUALLY doing can be worlds apart. Gym lifts just don’t cut it!

Weigh in went pretty smooth as I had decided to lift in 82.5kg instead of 75kg yet I wanted to make sure I was at the lower end of the weight class so weighed in at 75.5kg exactly to plan, perfect skinny fat burd. A little water manipulation meant I wasn’t on my arse. So some good food and rehydration would bring everything back to where it needed to be. This time I took in more salty foods than I have previously done and I think it worked really well. No sugar hangover. BONUS!

As this is my blog I will focus on how my day went. The comp was being run slightly differently in that there were 3 groups of two flights and each group would perform all 3 lifts before moving onto the next group. Me, being a bit of a numbnuts and a giddy kipper,  didn’t quite get this concept so I started my warm up for squats wayyyyyyyyyy too early. I had planned to get in early to ensure that I didn’t get left behind once the big boys started as I was in the 2^nd group and 3^rd lifter on but seriously not THAT early ! Due to this total knobhead error I decided to drop my opener very slightly as the time between my last warm up and my bar being loaded was just too long. Gaz had his work cut out with me and Cheryl on the day but as he always does he listened, hugged, growled and  then took suitable action which in this case was bitch slapping my legs before I went on. He did this with way to much of a pleasurable smile on his face and I am sure it was payback for me digging my elbow in his traps the previous week. It worked though, opening squat was sweet and the game was now on! My love of squats is non-existent and without knee wraps they are just plain wrong and fucking dirty as far as I am concerned yet this was the only lift that I got 9/9 for whites….go figure!

Bench warm ups felt sweet & strong in fact, better than they had done in training the week before. So opener was nice and easy and we took a jump to a weight I had failed twice in the last comp where I just couldn’t lock out. This time up went up a dream and I really thought I had it until I saw 2 reds from side refs which meant somewhere along the lift my ass came up. Now this is where platform time is so important. I was totally convinced my arse was planted like a big ass planted thing, it was actually the main focus during the lift but I must have lost it for a split second and BAM reds. OK this wasn’t going to happen again. I put the same lift in as this would still be a full power personal best for me. Went out and had it nailed – 3 whites.

Only deads to go.  I fucking LOVE deadlifting. I love deadlifting in front of a crowd. Actually I just love lifting in front of a crowd. I am a born show off. Gaz says I am a Peacock Lifter in that I always perform better in front of an audience and it’s true, I do which is such a relief.  I had put in a nice easy opener that I can get all day every day. Ahhhhh but can you really? Here we are again back to platform experience with your lifts being scrutinised and judged. Are you REALLY doing what you think you are doing? The bar flew up, I looked the ref in the eye ready for the down command…and waited…and waited…(internal dialogue) Put you fucking hard down! Ok…what have I missed? Oh KNEES locked them out even more…still no??? And shaking his head WTF??? Locking knees are going to snap…head still shaking. Down command given – 3 reds??? Now I KNOW I have missed something and when I left platform Mr G was waiting for me and said it can only be your shoulders, they want them pulled right back, so next time stick your tits out! Got to love that husband of mine. Next lift went in and I locked out like Dolly Parton on a fucking windshield! 3 whites. In reality this was a small movement of correction of sternum UP shoulder blades back & down. This will make the women I coach piss as I am ALWAYS banging on about shoulders back AND down. We picked 3^rd and it went up faster than I thought it would, weight stalled and shifted onto my toes so pulled back on my heels locked out and thought TITS!!!!! It wasn’t smooth and I knew centre ref wasn’t happy but I got a fortunate 2-1 which I will take just as I will take 1-2 when I failed the bench. 

So the final results –

Squat 145KG (319LBS)   Bench 107.5KG(236.5LBS)  Deadlift 197.5KG (434.5LBS)                              TOTAL 450KG (990LBS)

As an added Bonus ALL the lifts are M1 82.5KG WPC Raw World & European Records as well as setting the standard for this class within the UK with the new BPU British Powerlifting Records.

The referees were duly thanked for being firm but fair as the red lights were probably the most positive thing from the whole day. The strength & power is there but it needs to be refined to technical perfection if I truly want to be GREAT at powerlifting. There is so much to be worked on before October and we are working with a new performance coach who will be taking no prisoners. I love meeting people who have forgotten more than you will ever know…the thing is I don’t think she actually forgets anything.

Please feel free to join me on this mad cap journey so I can prove a point that no one gives a flying fuck about!

So I have actually ventured into the world of blogging. Ah well better late than never I suppose. I have kept training journals on various forums before now which has been fun, it just seemed about time I got in with the cool kids and had something a little more personal.

It's hard to know where to start with things like this. It's almost like writing an application for a very bizarre job. It will take a few posts/blogs/additions (I don't even know what the correct term is ffs) so hang in there if you can and I will try to keep things interesting...well interesting to me I suppose.

I am a powerlifter and I am proud of it. I love powerlifting, I love being strong, I love being around strong people. I am opinionated, passionate & very straight talking. I have a low bullshit tolerance and this doesn't sit well with many people and this bothers me not a jot. It is obviously not all I am but powerlifting and related topics will be the main aspect of my life that will be shared in this blog.

No doubt I will rant about other shit too. I mean what would the point of having such an outlet be if we didn't have the occasional rant. I am also sure to offend people should they choose to let themselves be offended. Don't choose to let my rants become personal to you because they will never be personal unless I actually name you. So if you are ever unsure as to whether I am having a go at YOU then the most likely answer is no because if I am having a go at someone in particular then I really do want that person to know. Quite simple. That said I do not ever do my wash dirty laundry in public & believe that I do not need to attend every argument I am invited to. Now we have that sorted let's get on with the interesting stuff.
On Sunday I have my next comp the British powerlifting Union (BPU) British Champs which is also a qualifier for the World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) World Championships in Prague in Oct/Nov. I have already qualified for Prague by winning my class last year in Vegas but I wanted to get more platform time to really hone in on what I need to work on for Prague. It's all well and good doing stuff in the gym but it's what happens when the pressure is on that counts, in fact for me it's all that counts when it comes to powerlifting. Talk is cheap as they say.

I won't be cutting any weight for this one as I had originally planned. I don't see the point of putting myself or my body under more stress than is necessary. I have been competing every 6-8 weeks this year and if I am not wise it will backfire. This will be my first time squatting in comp without knee wraps so this gives me an indication of what I will need to do for Prague.

The last week before comp I always get nervous. My internal dialogue is on overdrive. Thankfully I have a good support team around me that are used to my head-fucks and jitters and they keep me from going crackers. On the day I usually come up trumps and rise to the occasion yet I never quite believe this will happen again in the run up.

After this comp I will be working with a new coach along with my husband and this will be closely tracked in this here ploggy thing. It's the first time we be coached by someone on a regular basis which will be interesting to say the least. Nicola Vaughn-Ellis has a resume that few men and probably no women strength coaches can come close to yet she remains an unknown in most lifting circles. I think it will be a working relationship that will be delightfully messy at times :0)

So that is it. First plog.

Love, Light & Lifting!
TRG