Lessons from a Stray Dog – 1: careful with periodization basics
Some time ago I left the gym where I saw my first Olympic bar, and where I learned the basics of powerlifting. I have always been somewhat of a lone wolf, pretty self-sufficient, and it took some time for me to adopt the collective routine. But, at one moment, I did so: it felt better, although I disagreed on its foundations. It happened in the end of may stay there. Those were good times, where federations mattered little, where my friend/coach and I were experimenting with technique and methods and when we were also constructing maybe the most beautiful thing I have been engaged in: the sports center project for vulnerable youth at the slum.
It all ended when I collided with the fed bosses of the IPF. And then, after being threatened and backing off from the national PL championship, I left the gym, the social project died, I lost contact with the kids… Fortunately, I broke my leg just then, and all the sadness and confusion that this involved got sort of buried under the task of recovering. The broken leg period was funny. Very “zen”: I trained alone, at a gym near my house. Taxi or my brother took me there, I had a personal trainer client and I trained all alone, with no powerlifting equipment. The stiff leg was a small problem, which I refused to let me down. I didn’t have anyone to put my bench shirt on me, so I trained raw and did lock-outs on the improvised setting I made with the squat rack support.
In the end, I did a pretty good mark, broke a national and South-american record. But training alone, I respected some kind of periodization. Not really accurate, but it was close to that. Then I started training with another team, far from where I live. They had their own routine, and I followed them. I forgot my own periodization and in a few weeks I ended up with CNS overtraining: I had been doing maxes for more than 10 weeks and simply forgot to COUNT them. So I stopped for two weeks and recovered.
On my next post I will comment on lock-out training, sustaining work and stuff like that on the perspective of a stray dog. Bottom line is: one way or the other, you manage to compensate for what you lose. And bottom line-bottom line really is: they can take anything from you, they can take your hopes, your blood, your love, your happiness (for a while), your faith in humankind, your food, your money, but they CANNOT TAKE POWERLIFTING FROM YOU unless they take along your life.
Marilia
