Trials and Tribulations

Even though weightlifting is one of my favorite hobbies, I would even go as far to say as a hobby I am passionate about, it is not perfect, and there are definitely drawbacks. In my opinion, the worst drawback of it all, and the thing that almost drove me to stop before I really got started, was the fact that I had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning every weekday to be able to lift. At first, it was horrible. I would drag myself out of bed, every weekday during the summer, at 5:00, and my body did not fully adjust to it until after about 3 weeks.

After those first 3 weeks, I was able to get through it without hating my life too much. But then, after summer was over, I realized I would have to wake up at 5:00 in the morning, on days that I had school until 2:00 and then practice until 5:30. That made for long days, and to be completely honest, to this day I have not gotten used to it. I pushed through, and continued to weightlift because it is a true passion of mine and I would do it no matter what time I had to get up or what I had to do afterwards.

The other big drawback is the fatigue that it causes, especially during long sports seasons. Little bumps and bruises sustained during practices or games would become amplified when weightlifting, as a tweaked back would turn into a full-fledged injury by doing deadlifts the next morning. It was an extreme annoyance to have to be so careful while weightlifting in season that I almost stopped altogether, but I knew I would regret it if I stopped. I knew that if I stopped then I would lose numbers on my bench press, and squat, and that is certainly not something I wanted, as I have worked hard to get up to 405 on full-depth squats, a number I do not want to go down. So I toughed it out and stuck with it, and I am very glad I did because it is still one of my favorite things to do with my spare time.

Photo credit: Howard Dickins via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA