Road to Nationals #2: Why do I have to train, can’t I just lift and have fun? by Coach Craig Gilbert

Road to Nationals #2: Why do I have to train, can’t I just lift and have fun?

Craig Gilbert

I often hear people speak of training in the gym, discussing what they’re working on or how they would like to improve at some skill or task. Maybe we want to be a better weightlifter or cycle through our pull-ups quicker, or perhaps our endurance on the rower could use some improvement. We would all agree that the best means to improvement would be through training (as opposed to sitting on the couch dreaming), but how many of us know what training actually involves?

Speaking to the example of weightlifting, if you come to the gym every few days and spend some time lifting or maybe squatting, you are not training. You are exercising. Sorry to break it to you.

Now I don’t mean to discourage any of the athletes in the gym. If you enjoy coming to the gym and lifting weights and earning the associated health benefits through the sweat and hard work, that is awesome! You are taking steps to improve yourself and should be commended. However, you will never reach your full potential as a weightlifter (or a CrossFitter) if you don’t commit yourself to training.

This is the stage that I was at a year ago. I enjoyed weightlifting immensely and wanted to be better at it. So I would come to the gym and snatch or clean and jerk and call it a day. I did what I enjoyed, had some fun, and thought that was good enough. But this wasn’t training, and I wasn’t getting all that much better. My problem is that I was coming to the gym every day and exercising, but I was not really training. So I found a coach (Terry Hadlow at Dakota Weightlifting) and committed myself to training. I’ve come to realize that focused and intelligent training is the only road to becoming the best athlete that we can be. Simply coming to the gym to exercise won’t cut it. So here, in a nutshell is my philosophy on training:

1.     Your goals will dictate your training.  If you are looking for general physical preparedness, to make positive changes in your life or to lose some weight, or perhaps to increase your activity level or take on the challenge of CrossFit or Olympic weightlifting in a non-competitive sense, then you likely don’t need to train. You will make awesome gains and have a great time just through showing up to class and putting the work in! But if you want to compete or push yourself to your highest levels, then you need to be training. Figuring out what you want is the first step.

2.     You need to put in the time. Training is not a once a week endeavor! Get to the gym whenever you can, and if you can’t then ask your coach what you can be doing instead that also supports your goals.

3.     You cannot train yourself, you need a coach. Whether you need guidance on how to perform a movement, a critical eye to keep you honest, an objective evaluation of your progress or just a hug, you need the help of someone who is capable of doing so.

4.     You cannot come to the gym and do what you feel like doing, you need to come to the gym and do what needs to be done. These will usually not be the same thing. Your coach will be the one who tells you what to do, and often you won’t like it.

5.     You need a program. In Olympic weightlifting, programming is critical! Training involves making small adjustments under load, and these must be programmed so that you can build on your achievements over time. If you are training for an event, then you need a training program that supports your development as the event approaches and will enable you to perform at 100% during a specific period of time.

6.     You will need to prioritize your time and if necessary, make sacrifices. For example, as much as I loved doing CrossFit, it wasn’t supporting my development as a weightlifter, so it had to go.

7.     You need to take ownership for your progress. It is up to you to put in the work and stay committed. It is also your responsibility to know your numbers, and to know what your coach wants from you. If you can’t make it to the gym, ask your coach what you can be doing to support your development until the next training session. And if you are not recording your sessions in a daily training log then your progress will be limited.

I generally enjoy training, but I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes it just plain sucks! But if you want to stand on that podium instead of watching from the side, it’s the only way.