"It's not supposed to get easier"
(Just for clarification sake, the title of this post is not meant to be a metaphor for anything. No great life lessons will be imparted herein--or at least, not intentionally. This post is pretty much entirely lifting theory and an early lesson I learned about lifting heavy. If you want to find a life lesson here, so be it, but you're on your own.)
When I started weightlifting again, I made a quick and early paradigm shift from that silly "low weight, high reps" mantra to "heavy lifting WUT!" So my first big step in the gym was picking up dumbells heavier than the 10#ers.
The thing is, most programs (rightly) list a rep range for each set you do. So let's say, you're doing dumbell shoulder presses, and your program calls for three sets of 5-8 reps (sometimes listed as 3x5-8, if you're learning how to decode programs). Cool, no prob. When I started out, especially since I didn't really know what my weight limits are (in fact, I still don't... hmm, I should look into this) I would just start with, say, 15# dumbells and see what happened. Usually I'd see that I could pretty easily hit the top of the rep range for each set, and so the next time I did that program, I went up in weights. Easy.
What happened, though, is I got into a mindset that's sort of fundamentally at odds with lifting heavy. I kept following the sets and progressing, waiting for each new weight to become easy to do, and then I'd move up. So one day, while mathing very badly in the gym (you would not believe how bad I am at mathing while in the gym), I accidentally loaded 20# more than I'd meant to for my barbell squats. Basically, I grabbed 35# plates instead of 25# plates. Of course, I noticed that for some reason, that day was waaaay difficult, but I chalked it up to maybe having an off day and tried to power through it. I didn't hit the top of my rep range on the last couple of sets, and it was only at this point that I looked and saw what had happened. I had in fact managed to do four sets of barbell squats within the prescribed rep range (even if not at the top) with a 20# heavier load than I'd intended.
And, not really knowing how this all works, I thought "well, okay, so I'll move up to that weight and when it starts to get easy I'll progress from there." But here's the kicker--from that point on, it really never got easier. I held at that weight for about two weeks, hitting the top of the rep range, but it just didn't seem to be getting any easier. So being a newbie, I thought damn, maybe I screwed up and should've gone back down to my previous weights and progressed from there.
In my distress, I turned to my trusty Fitocracy, hit the "Ask a Personal Trainer" group, and ask if I've made a fundamental mistake in my progress, because after two weeks of pushing, it just wasn't getting any easier. The first response I get:
When I started weightlifting again, I made a quick and early paradigm shift from that silly "low weight, high reps" mantra to "heavy lifting WUT!" So my first big step in the gym was picking up dumbells heavier than the 10#ers.
The thing is, most programs (rightly) list a rep range for each set you do. So let's say, you're doing dumbell shoulder presses, and your program calls for three sets of 5-8 reps (sometimes listed as 3x5-8, if you're learning how to decode programs). Cool, no prob. When I started out, especially since I didn't really know what my weight limits are (in fact, I still don't... hmm, I should look into this) I would just start with, say, 15# dumbells and see what happened. Usually I'd see that I could pretty easily hit the top of the rep range for each set, and so the next time I did that program, I went up in weights. Easy.
What happened, though, is I got into a mindset that's sort of fundamentally at odds with lifting heavy. I kept following the sets and progressing, waiting for each new weight to become easy to do, and then I'd move up. So one day, while mathing very badly in the gym (you would not believe how bad I am at mathing while in the gym), I accidentally loaded 20# more than I'd meant to for my barbell squats. Basically, I grabbed 35# plates instead of 25# plates. Of course, I noticed that for some reason, that day was waaaay difficult, but I chalked it up to maybe having an off day and tried to power through it. I didn't hit the top of my rep range on the last couple of sets, and it was only at this point that I looked and saw what had happened. I had in fact managed to do four sets of barbell squats within the prescribed rep range (even if not at the top) with a 20# heavier load than I'd intended.
And, not really knowing how this all works, I thought "well, okay, so I'll move up to that weight and when it starts to get easy I'll progress from there." But here's the kicker--from that point on, it really never got easier. I held at that weight for about two weeks, hitting the top of the rep range, but it just didn't seem to be getting any easier. So being a newbie, I thought damn, maybe I screwed up and should've gone back down to my previous weights and progressed from there.
In my distress, I turned to my trusty Fitocracy, hit the "Ask a Personal Trainer" group, and ask if I've made a fundamental mistake in my progress, because after two weeks of pushing, it just wasn't getting any easier. The first response I get:
"It's not supposed to get easier."
I'll be honest, my initial response to this was "man, screw you, you know what I mean, I'm not SWOLE, I'm not ripped, I'm not pushing weights like you guys are...." and so on. But at some point a few weeks later, the point that commenter was trying to make clicked for me. Lifting heavy means lifting things that are heavy. It's not going to be easy. It's not supposed to become easy. I shouldn't be waiting for it to be a breeze to deadlift 120 lbs, I should be pushing my maxes wherever I can (and giving my body the occasional break to keep from overworking myself). If it's so heavy that I can't even lift within the rep range, that's too much. But if I'm hitting the range, I'm doing it right. And if I'm at the top of the range, I should be moving up to higher weights, regardless of how much I'm straining/groaning/yelling to get there. It's not easy. That's the point.
This hit me when I set up to try my first 135# deadlift. Somehow, I had this gestalt moment where I saw that, at no point in my life would lifting 135# straight up off the floor be easy. Even if my deadlift gets up to 200# or more, lifting 135# is still not going to be easy, because 135# is fricking heavy. It's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be possible.
I wonder what else I have to learn about lifting? What other paradigm shifts do I need to undergo to suddenly see what I do in a whole new light? I've got a few others I want to talk about later, but this was my first big one. I should really look up whoever that commenter was and give them a big thanks, because that comment genuinely changed the course of my progress for the better.
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