Garage Blog

The Dad Life, The Journey Begins By: D.J. Shuttleworth On July 13, 2018 my life changed forever. My beautiful girlfriend, Lauren, gave birth to...

We’ve all been in the place where we have to get get 10 reps in, get over confident and throw an extra 10 lbs on the bar, but then only get 5 reps....

Caffeine is arguably the most heavily taken drug across America. It not only keeps you awake during work but can also improve your workout capac...

Catch your child doing something good: treating a sibling with respect, eating with good table manners, bringing home good work from school. These are great times to let your child know that you are proud of them. Acknowledging their good work can be very powerful, it reinforces good behavior.

It has been a number of years since the war between dynamic and static stretching ended, and although dynamic stretching emerged the victor for pre...

There are two typical extremes when people come to the end of their sets. In one camp is people who stay very conservative in their sets, never pus...

Understand that there are no shortcuts I lied on the title of this blog. The truth is that everyone is looking for easy and comfortable ways t...

At the end of each day you could let all these things impact you negatively, or you could be positive about them. All good weightlifters love what they are doing, and I do love what I’m doing, but that doesn’t mean nothing bad can come from this sport. I wouldn’t change this for anything. Even the thought of being successful in this sport is enough to keep me going, making my life have an ultimate purpose.

Motivation is defined by Google as, “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something”. I would agree with that, but I would also add something of my own to that. Before we get to that, there are a couple kinds of motivation though. Extrinsic motivation, which is based off outside factors such as money, rewards, and gifts. This kind of motivation is controlled and can easily lose value the longer it goes on. The second is Intrinsic motivation, and this motivation is based off internal factors. Intrinsic motivation comes from within and is about self-motivation and self-fulfillment. This is much harder to lose and very powerful. Back to what I was saying earlier, motivation is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something, while sacrificing something else.

One thing I’m very happy about is how well our post-collegiate throws group gelled this year. It’s nice to have a group of like-minded individuals who aren’t just like-minded in terms of training. We can all come together and have a good time without even thinking about our training. That is absolutely huge, and I don’t think any of us discounts that. It’s always good to be in an environment you can feel comfortable in, and when we can all drive 11 hours from PA to Michigan and not hate each other by the end, that’s a pretty good sign. I guess the overarching lesson here is be mindful of who you train with. If you start training with someone but you don’t quite work together very well, things probably aren’t going to get any easier. A lack of chemistry can lead to distractions and that’s not helpful for anyone. Training partners are very helpful to have, but not at the expense of your sanity!

When going up for a big lift, or even a heavy squat in training, all that should be running through your mind is making that attempt. A lot of times I find myself questioning a lift right before I attempt it. It either goes good or it goes bad. If I only told myself I could do it, then it would be done. Visualization doesn’t just happen right before a lift, it has to be done on a daily basis. Before you go to bed, lay there and visualize where you want to see yourself for 10 minutes. Only good thoughts should be running through your head. Visualize yourself being a champion and achieving all the goals you have set for yourself. This is only one small step in mental focus.

After coaching for 3 years, I have learned a significant number of things that I wish I knew while I was still competing. Most of my problems came ...