What a mess the world is in right now. Some people are
terrified, and some think it is a hoax. Whatever you believe our gyms are
closed and we have no powerlifting meets in the near future. This is a pandemic
to the iron athletes. I wanted to give you a little of my own opinionated views
and timeline on the current situation at hand.
I competed at a meet on the last weekend that anything was
allowed in Oregon and talked with a lot of lifters that thought it would be
over in a couple of weeks. The gyms were closing left and right, and we noticed
a massive drop in sales, email, and chat sessions on our website. The first
week we heard a lot of pissed off lifters venting and saw their frustration on
IG and FB. Then the mood started to lift a little bit the next week and lifters
thought “hell I can just lift at home”. I can lift something, anything,
whatever is laying around the yard or garage. We saw a post on IG where a guy
strapped his wife to a bar with nylon straps and deadlifted her for reps. Iron
athletes find ways to train whether it is lifting rocks or concrete bags. The 3rd
week in was when the light went on in everyone’s head, “Let’s build a home
gym”. We quickly sold out of Texas power bars and Spud straps home gym type
set-ups. We quickly placed new orders as thousands of lifters tried to build
homes gyms, garage gyms, living room gyms, backyard gyms, front yard gyms, and
sidewalk gyms. We are quite entertained by the workout’s lifters come up with
at home.
Teale and I have always had some sort of home gym set-up. We
prefer it as we can play the music we want and can make noise and use chalk. We
had 3 other people coming to our gym when this all started but now it is just
us. Why? Because it is safer for everyone. What we are seeing on FB and IG is
that when someone builds a home gym, they are inviting their friends over to
lift with them. I do not understand how this is social distancing when your
buddy is standing over you spotting when you are benching in your gym? I think
most lifters would do better in a home gym environment with 4 or 5 training
partners. However, the camaraderie, focus, and intensity cannot be matched in a
powerlifting home gym.
Now with thousands of home gyms up and running why are we
doing max singles at home by ourselves? What is the point? No meets
coming in the near future, no spotters except the pets or little kids running
around under your feet. IG and FB are loaded with lifters trying new at-home
single maxes. I guess now you can be the new living room carpet deadlift world
champion of Instagram. Just think about it for a minute, you try some dumb ass
max at home and get hurt. Not just hurt, really hurt. An ambulance is called,
and you are taken to the hospital. This is the hospital where all the people
that tested positive for the Coronavirus are residing. Lucky you! You can now
post on IG about your recovery from your injury from your hospital bed while on
a ventilator because you now have COVID-19. Seems like a plan to me.
Stay home and train safely at home. Do not take risks
because those health professionals at the hospitals are there to help the sick
and not the home gym champions. If you know any health professionals say
“Thanks” for all they are doing.
It is time to think out of the box at home with your
workouts. Try lots of variations, grips, and stances for lifts. You don’t have
to mimic anybody, just try something yourself that works for you. Your body
adapts to change and gets stronger from variations on reps and positioning, not
just how much is loaded on the bar. Do you have a weakness that you are
avoiding? Then get on it and get rid of that weakness. Just about everyone has
a weakness in the core area and with bracing. There is not a better time to
tackle this. You do not even need weights for dozens of core and bracing
exercises. Do you need to increase your GPP? Then grab a bag of sand or cement
from the hardware store and start down the street. Push your car down the road.
or grab a couple of cinder blocks and start walking. We all can increase our
GPP which will help not only your training but your life in general.
When this has all died down and we can get back to some
normalcy, I am sure some people will just stay in their home gym and not go
back to the commercial gyms. I say good for you, you spent a lot of money and
now have the pride of your own gym. The powerlifting meets will come back
online, and we can all start bending some bars again and setting some
legitimate records.
Stay healthy, train smart and we will see you on the
platform.
Mike Adelmann
0 Comments
Elaine Waugh
Good comments, enjoyed the post. Miss working out with you guys. We had some good times. Learned so much from you. Take care and be safe.