The other day I was in the middle of a session and I thought about an important distinction. I started to realize that what I was doing was practice. My entire lifting life I’ve been saying that I am going to go “workout” or something like that. Well, it hit me during a session the other day. I’m not working out at all. The phrase “working out” brings to mind images of rep after rep, of ipods and earbuds, and lots of sweating. It is thought of as more of a fitness type of activity, where you are trying to work out muscles. I am trying to do nothing of the sort.
When I walk into my little gym here I am there to do one thing. I have one goal and that goal is to get stronger to win more powerlifting competitions. That’s it. I’m not there to look at myself in the mirror. I’m not there to make sure my heart gets a good “workout”. I’m not there to shed the pounds. I mainly do singles. I lift in the 90% of 1rm + range. And I only do Squats, Bench Press, and Deadlifts. This is not what I consider working out at all. Every single I do is to get first rep practice, to make me more used to handling heavy weight on the platform. And I do this every single day but Sundays. We are not working out. We are practicing these movements in order to be better powerlifters. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind when someone feels my back and says “wow you have a strong back”. I like having large traps and thick legs. I like looking strong. But that is NOT at all why I do this. I go into that gym to practice.
So from now on I am going to change the way I view and refer to entering the gym to lift weights. From now on I will call it practice. Sometimes the word “session” is ambiguous enough to suffice. But when I can remember I will call it what it is. Practice.