when hard work pays off

When hard work pays off

When working towards big goals it's sometimes hard to see if we're actually making progress. It means you end up putting in all this work and you feel like you're not getting anywhere. You wonder if it's all worth it.

Usually, when we stick with it long enough, all that hard work manifests into the outcome we were looking for and it can even catch us off guard.

That's what happened to me this week.

For the last 9-10 months, I've been working on building my strength and improving my Olympic lifts. For months I was putting in all this work but I felt like I wasn't really lifting any better.

This week I took part in the Functional Strength Postal competition at my gym and we got to test our max Snatch, Clean & Jerk, Deadlift and Backsquat. I had one of those moments where I finally felt like I'd achieved what I set out to do.

So if you're working on a big goal, just stick with it. Even though you may be feeling like you're not making much progress, you're probably doing better than you realise.

If you're interested in seeing how I did, I put together some video showing my results:

SNATCH

Starting with the max snatch, my previous personal best was 73kg which I'd only ever managed once. This week I was able to hit 77kg pretty comfortably. But 80kg is the number I was chasing.

I took three attempts at 80kg, but I finally got it. The thing that made the difference on that day was that I knew I could do it (your mental game is SO important when it comes to lifting). Even though I missed the first two attempts, I knew I had the bar high enough, I just needed to lock out my elbows.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keixcb5hoJE]

DEADLIFT

My previous personal best was 145kg. I managed 150kg pretty comfortably, so took a big jump and had a go at 160kg. I got the bar off the ground, which is the hard part but felt my back starting to go. Rather than lifting the bar badly and risk injuring myself, I decided to put it down. I took the weight back down to 155kg and was still happy with the result.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZYZ78hKxOA]

CLEAN & JERK

My previous personal best was 91kg and earlier in the week, I got this up to 95kg. I even cleaned the bar at 100kg and just missed the snatch. So on Saturday, I had another go at getting to 100kg.

At 96kg I couldn't get my hands right on the bar so had to put it down. I banked 97kg which is an awesome result. Unfortunately, I couldn't have another go at 100kg. As it was the end of a heavy week my back felt pretty sore. So I'll save this for a fresh week and I'm very confident I can do it!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywK_EZVf1zM]