Endure and Overcome

Endure and Overcome

Endure and overcome is one of the underlying principles of Black Flag Barbell Club, as well as powerlifting, strongman… hell any endeavour you undertake in life, really.

At some point in your training life, you are going to get frustrated. Guaranteed. You might hit a slump for a few months, you might stuff up a competition, you might get injured. Whatever the cause of your frustration, training will be less enjoyable – you will have days / weeks / months where you won’t even want to train.

This is normal. This is, simply, a part of the process and the journey.

There are two ways I see this impact lifters – they either fire up, or they give up. Neither reaction is better or worse, those who fire up sometimes just dig a bigger hole for themselves, and those that give up sometimes literally give up and stop training altogether. As always, moderation is the key and we handle each type of response differently.

Today I want to talk about those who give up or get endlessly frustrated. This is a perfectly normal reaction – you are trying to accomplish something, willing it, and it still isn’t working. The key in this case is to step back a little. Realise that this process, of training and refining and training and refining, is a long one. The beauty and curse of strength sports is that there is always more weight to lift, and usually always someone stronger than you.

Dial the weights down to a level you know you can succeed at, and spend some time there. Build up your confidence with the little wins – you pulled that 140kg PERFECTLY (even if your comp max is 220kg), you braced well on every rep of those squats, you hit every rep at your prescribed weight. Hell, sometimes you finished every training session is the win. Focus on the small victories, and build momentum. Learn to enjoy the process again.

Endure, and overcome.