"Bar is loaded!" came the call from the announcer. I stepped onto the platform, locked my hookgrip around the bar, and pulled. The bar travelled up smoothly, I caught it over my head, and slowly sank into despair as I felt the momentum take it behind me. I let go, and it crashed behind me on to the platform. I sat in the backroom waiting for the next lifter to go, knowing I'd be up soon again to reattempt that weight. The call to the platform came again, and I stepped up to the bar. I set my grip, pulled, caught it overhead, and groaned with frustration as I felt it's momentum take it behind me again. I let go as it crashed to the floor behind me. "One more attempt," I thought. "I've got to PR on this one." I increased the weight by two kilograms, and waited my turn. When it finally came, I repeated my process. Setting my grip, I pulled as hard as I could, and dropped under the bar as fast possible when it reached it's peak height. I felt the weight in my hands as I locked out my arms, and then the sudden pressure and loss of balance as it felt forward, crashing to the floor. Three attempts, and three failures. I had bombed out.
This was the story of my first ever sanctioned Weightlifting meet. I failed all three of my snatch attempts, and ended up scratching from the meet without taking any Clean and Jerks. I had opened at 99% of my 1RM Snatch, and I failed to make any reps. And it taught me a very important lesson:
The event isn't the test. The training is the test. The event is just a display that you passed.
I think fitness culture places too high an emphasis on the concept of PRs (Personal Records, or PB- Personal Bests as many of my European friends reference them). Especially within the context of a contest or athletic event. We've placed so much on PR's we often have multiple labels for them, such as "Training PRs" and "Meet PRs" or something of the like. We get obsessed with the concept of records and setting them on the day of a meet, race, tournament, or end date that we forget what the test truly is.
Now, before I explain further, I need to assure you that I do believe pushing yourself and setting records for yourself is important. What gets measured gets managed, and testing out your strength, stamina, and skill is important. I just think we placed too high and emphasis on the record being set on a certain day.
I want you to consider the fact that less than 1% of the US Population has, or will ever, run a marathon. A far fewer number will compete in a Weightlifting Meet or Powerlifting meet. If you go to the finish line of a marathon, you'll see a lot of tears. Tears of joy, pain, and relief. Even from experienced runners, even if they did not set a record.
But why?
We need to look at the training as a test, and the event as a display of our training, work ethic, and our commitment. Our ability to complete a task fully is a display of the work which went into learning skills, pushing our physical limits, and the process to reaching the end date. Fitness and athletic events are like graduations. You don't take a test at the graduation. You complete the event of graduation as a result of passing the test of an academic course of study (and the tests along the way). Graduation is just a display you can follow the course of study.
If we can start to view athletic events (expanding the scope to include more than just the running and lifting worlds I currently inhabit myself) as the graduation of our training, we'll ultimately put more pressure on doing the training correctly and with full effort. So you win your race, or you win the weightlifting meet? Congratulations you just graduated with honors. You set a PR on meet day? Congratulations, there's the award you were hoping to receive for your training efforts.
If we can adopt this mindset, it's going to help us beyond just making our training more effective. If we try to run so fast that we never finish the race on the day, then the validation we were seeking from the event is gone. If we try only to lift more than we ever have on meet day and bomb out, then our strength is not actually on display. You don't get credit for just showing up to class. You get credit for passing the test. And the real test is the training you go through. If you can pass it, then the day of the event you undertake is simply a graduation.
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