My workout buddy
I’m sort of laughing with an otherwise very interesting read: a paper called “Social Involvement and the Sport of Weightlifting: a Microethnography (R.R. Ittenbach & B.S. Chissom, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 1993, 7(1):55-61). The paper is not bad … it is just written by someone from so outside the culture that the adverbs and adjectives used to qualify actions or behaviors sound funny. There is a point where the authors point out that the lifters are willing and even eager to help one another in the weight room, or another where they are very precise to describe how the lifter ONLY listens to the spotter, since it could be “very dangerous to lose focus and concentration. It’s ok … pretty good read for academics in general, generous … important to emphasize that, since most academic work done on sports and specially strength sports are really critical or even denigrating -, and honest.
We all know it is impossible to train any lifting (power or Olympic) without the aid of someone else. Not only dangerous or unwise … impossible, simple as that. Any lifter knows it.
What I did not know was how good it is to have a fixed workout buddy. My workout buddy is Renatinho, a male lifter from the lighter categories (competed and won a couple of regional and national champs at the 56kg category, I think he might be going up to 60kg, but that is not a given). Apart from the fact that he is sweet, smart and a great company, he is a very technical lifter. Strong and technical.
The fact that he is from the lighter categories makes it possible for me to be his buddy, in spite of the fact that he is male and strong. Sure we have to change disks a lot, but there is a good supply at the gym and we have become quite automatic on the task.
This all came to be because my good friend, project partner and coach Gilson has decided for good to treat his chronic back injury. We then decided that all athletes in the team (we are about 30 people) should get organized in finding buddies to train the present schedule. It is not difficult, since we are all following the same periodization. The only “challenge is getting used to changing disks and support heights.
Before that, Gilson was always around. He was not satisfied with watching and giving commands … he would pass the bar, wrap knees, spot and very frequently change disks. Over! For at least two months, nothing except what the physiotherapist tells him to do!
It was then that Renatinho and I hooked up in this arrangement. I have never had such productive training: first, I am committed to arriving always at the same time, which never happened. Second, we measure time in a very disciplined manner, since he must get to work as soon as we’re done. Third, we watch every movement each of us is doing … we’re fully concentrated in one another’s training. No talking with other people (or very little talking).
Funny thing I noticed is that I am developing a different style: My bench press is becoming more tryceptal, like his: We laugh at this, saying people will think we are brothers in our next Meet. We discuss technique while training and apply at the moment, so: Also, we do the same auxiliaries … the ones we were not supposed to be doing. Therefore, even our bodies are developing somewhat on the same form. He is really cut … I’ve got much more BF than him, obviously. But we are on the “lean side of powerlifting.
Hope Renatinho stays around forever … we really teamed up well.
Thanks, Renatinho, I’ll dedicate my next trophy to you!
