Garage Blog

Don’t sit around and rationalize how you can work around a lack of mobility. You’re only hurting yourself and your training by prolonging the amount of time you’re moving poorly. Not only will you not train as efficiently as you could, but you’re more likely to get injured! Sports are all about movement, and if you have areas of your body that could function better to help you move better, you should address them. Personally, it was amazing to me how quickly I felt a change when I started focusing in on my mobility issues (rather than just general stretching). I got a mobility program from Dr. John Giacalone (GS Athletics’ Team Doctor), and within a few sessions I really noticed a difference. So don’t waste any more time, get it done!

In my last blog, 4 Things to Know About Olympic Weightlifting, I discussed how your mental game can make or break you as a weightlifter. This is by far the most challenging component of becoming an elite weightlifter. Here are a couple of ways to improve your mental game:

Technical adaptation is the ultimate example of the true shape of the path of success: a winding, curvy trail that sometimes doesn’t seem to have a clear end to it. You have to trust that the changes you’re making will work for you in the long run, especially when they don’t seem to be working right away (which is usually the case). It’s not going to be easy, or particularly fun sometimes, so you really do need to have a clear idea of just how good you want to be.

This list wasn't meant to be all-inclusive, or in any way intimidating. Rather, I hope to educate some people on aspects of post-collegiate life they mat not know about, and help people make informed decisions. So, without further ado, here's the list:

After my Sophomore year of college at Messiah College (small division 3 school) my coach left and there were no immediate plans to get a new one. I...

Olympic Weightlifting is one of the most rewarding and most frustrating sports you could compete in. I started Olympic Weightlifting in May 2014 after my collegiate football career. I came out of college hang cleaning 160 kilos, never really snatching or jerking in my life. My first senior nationals the May 2015 I snatched 147 kilos and clean and jerked 175 kilos to place 5th place in a very stacked weight class. After 4 years of increasing my clean and jerk and still snatching the same weight I decided to take some time off after the 2018 senior nationals. I needed to clear my head while also enjoy the birth of my beautiful daughter Henley. I think if I took a different approach toward weightlifting, I might still be lifting right now. We all look back and say, “damn, I wish I would have known that before I started”. Here are 4 things I wish I could have told myself before I started Olympic Weightlifting.

A lot of Olympic weightlifting athletes start around their teenage years (as I did). These I call the “Rebellious Years.” When I started weightlifting, I thought I knew everything. I would lift heavy when I was instructed not to, I argued in defense of my garbage technique for years, I did my own exercises sometimes because I thought what I was doing wasn't working, and most importantly, I wasn't coachable. When I got into my junior and senior years of weightlifting, I started to notice a minimal amount of growth. It was then that I realized that to be a champion you have to have the best technique. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a champion, but my technique was nowhere near the best. As we started breaking down my technique and fixing all my flaws, I found myself extremely frustrated and ready to give up. Slowly but surely, I found myself getting better with my technical movements, however I was still nowhere close to the best. Still frustrated and angry I continue to tell myself “if you would have just listened 5 years ago, you would be closer to the best”

Third babies show early everyone says. I started to show a belly before I was ready to tell anyone I was pregnant. Now it makes sense. Even though my babies were the size of a grain a salt, the fact that there were two of them means two growing placentas, and and even greater increase in water and blood volume. Thus showing earlier that in previous pregnancies makes sense.

This article was prompted with the question, "What would you tell your collegiate freshman self about track and training if you could?" I've touched on this subject before, in an episode of Dane's Platform--if you haven't heard it, it's one of our most popular episodes. Check it out here! 

    2. You have to be very internally driven (no one cares)

Many high level athletes already know this well, but intrinsic motivation is absolutely necessary during the transition from collegiate to post-collegiate competition. There is no conference championship to care about, or any home meets to step up for. Now it’s just you, and USATF Nationals is the only meet that really matters (at first). I like to think of myself as having pretty high intrinsic motivation, but I am also a very team-oriented person. Losing the team atmosphere of collegiate track was definitely tough for me. It may sound overly negative, but the external roster of people who really care about what you’re doing seems to shrink a lot. Hopefully, you still have family members, maybe a significant other, your coach, and your training group (if you have one). Especially as a thrower, your sphere of influence in track and field is relatively small, and you won’t become a millionaire doing this sport, so you have to be 100% committed for yourself. If you’re not, things probably aren’t going to work out in the long run.

When a general person walks into a gym and pays a personal trainer to improve their body, they often begin a workout with bench, squat, or deadlift. These three movements are the competition lifts used for Powerlifting, and they are beloved by coaches, bodybuilders, and trainers. This is not without good reason as they are compound movements. This means that they involve not just one muscle, but a group or chain of muscles to move the weight. This results in a greater stimulus to the nervous system which causes greater increases in size and strength.

I spent 48 hours in the Neurological ICU. Every patient in this unit is was not well, and its a reminder that I am lucky that my condition is not more severe.

My stay started with a trip to the emergency room. I felt paralyzed through my right side and my speech became mumbled and undecipherable. Symptoms resolved pretty quickly, and within 10 minutes or so I could walk and move again. My speech remain very deliberate and difficult to understand, but improved in the hours that followed. Doctors ordered a CT scan which revealed there was a small spot of bleeding inside my brain. They followed up with an MRI hoping to identify and diagnose the cause of the bleeding.