Checking My Ego At The Door

Yesterday I decided to make my dead-lift day. I am very picky about who I take advice from. There is only one person I call when I need advice on something nutrition wise- Katy. She's also the one who "taught" me how to dead-lift. She is a fitness model and subject matter experton all things pertaining to nutrition and gym training. Well, a meat-head friend of mine showed up at my house yesterday, in from out of town, and dragged me to the gym (hence my decision to make it my deal-lift day). However, when I got there and asked for his tips/opinion about the whole belt thing, he went through and gave me some pointers on little ways to tweak my form and make the most out of using a belt. Two things came out of this- frustration and an apparent plateau.

sumo dead-lift
150 x3 (critiquing my form)
220 x3
150 x3 (re-correcting my form)
220 x2

Then, I tried to pull 270- like I did last week, hoping that I may be able to add some weight this week. This is when the irrational frustration set in. I couldn't do it. I got angry, took a break and tried again. Still- no dice. I tried it with and without the belt. Nothing worked. My buddy tried to tell me it was because I was "tired," but I am really stubborn and not the person who likes to walk out of somewhere not accomplishing what I came to do. Trying to be positive about the experience, I did work on my form a lot and felt what it feels like to pull with a belt on (not sure how I feel about that yet- the only difference is that my lower back doesn't ache today like it normally would).

It was a good thing that I had to leave to meet my boxing coach, because that's exactly what I needed- to pound out my frustrations (literally). Coach Michaels is really the greatest. He was the coach of the All-Marine boxing team before Coach Simmons took over last year. He's an awesome coach and a very generous person for taking me on- and extremely patient and positive. So my last workout of the day was boxing for an hour and 1/2. After that I was toast.