Competition Recap - Kanama Summerfest

Guelph Barbell Club

Since my return to Ontario this spring, I have been trying to compete in as many weightlifting meets as possible to increase my comfort with this type of event. Thankfully, Ontario has a much larger number of weightlifting clubs than the East coast and there have been 4 competitions in the past 5 months. I have had the opportunity to compete in the last 3 out of 4 OWA competitions and I have learned that I seem to have a mental block where I can hit better numbers in practice than I can in competition.

Today, we left at 9:30 to begin our drive to Scarbough where we were going to compete at the Kanama High Performance facility. There were 4 sessions in total and we were in session #3, scheduled to weigh in at 11:15 am and begin lifting at 1:15 pm.  I had a bit of difficulty making weight this time around, so I had to hit up the sauna and go without food/drink for about 18 hours prior to weighing in. The combination of me without food & coffee in the morning + highway 401 gong-show traffic, made for a very, very HANGRY Marcy. Thankfully, I stepped on the scale at 74.6 kg and quickly began re-hydrating/refuelling.

My goals for this competition were (1) to hit both my opening snatch and clean & jerk and (2) to hit a new C&J personal record. Annnnd.... I accomplished neither.

Making her weightlifting debut in my old wrestling singlet!

My teammate, competing in the 69 kg division and the only Masters lifter, had a fabulous weightlifting debut. She hit 5 out of her 6 lifts, and if I remember correctly, I think she hit new PRs for both. Being the only Masters competitor, she impressed the hell out of everyone. The crowd was particularly fond of her, cheering as she bounced like a giddy school girl after making her final snatch.

In the practice room, my snatch has been plateaued at 140 lbs (63.6 kg) for 8 months. My C&J, on the other hand, has been continuously improving and is now up to 175 lb (79.5 kg).

Today, I competed in the 75 kg division and planned to open with a 57 kg snatch and 75 kg C&J. I felt great this morning (after re-hydrating and refuelling after my weight-cut) and didn't miss a single lift during warm up. Then I walked out on the platform, ready to hit my first lift - AND I failed at 57 kg. Frustrated, I walk back to my coach who gave me the swift kick in the ass that I needed, and then walked back out to my second attempt. I hit the 57 kg snatch the second time so coach and I decided to try 60 kg for my third and final lift. Thankfully, I hit the 60 kg, which tied my best-ever competition lift from the Toronto Pro Show. But much to my irritation, a 60 kg competition lift is a far cry from the 63.6 kg I hit in practice just last week.  

After reading an article from Catalyst Athletics about the dos-and-don'ts of competition day, I decided to try eating the recommended Snickers bar in between the Snatch and the C&J (I'm not exactly sure if it helped though).

Again, I easily hit all my warm up lifts for the C&J, but I failed my opening lift at 75 kg. And it was UGLY! It looked as though I had never hit that weight in my life! I struggled up out of the bottom and found that both my pinkie & ring fingers were stuck under the barbell. I had to bounce the bar of my collar bone twice, just to get my fingers in the appropriate place from which to jerk. I tried to centre myself, take a deep breath but I completely bailed on my jerk (which is my strongest lift, by the way). So again, I get the necessary kick in the ass from coach. I KNOW that I can hit this number, I have been hitting it consistently for weeks. So I go back out there, I ripped the bar off the ground, cleaned it up easily, and punched the jerk hard. There was actually an audible sound of shock from the crowd, they were seemingly amazed that this lift came up so easily after the last attempt was such junk. Feeling good about this lift, we decided to try for a 79 kg third and final C&J (as my last competition PR was 78 kg). Unfortunately, I didn't pull back on the bar enough and caught the clean on my toes, failing to get up out of the bottom of the clean.

In all, we had a good day. We saw some fantastic lifting, including a 64 kg woman hitting a 100 kg C&J, and had a lot of fun. I scored a 135 kg total and have thus qualified for both the OWA Fall Classic and Winter Lift. But I am still disappointed with my inability to get out of my own head. I need to get to the point where I can consistently hit my opening lifts, regardless of how heavy they are. In the meantime, I will be heading back to Royal City CrossFit to hit up another strength cycle and work on my headspace! And maybe hit up a few CrossFit competitions in the area just for some fun! Until next time, LIFT ALL THE THINGS!

NAMASTE

Stretching, mobility, yoga, no matter how you say it, I don't like it. Although I understand that stretching is important and even useful given the amount of stress we put on our bodies by participating in activities like Olympic lifting and CrossFit, I just can't enjoy doing it.

The first time I tried yoga, I was in a grass hut on a beach in Jamaica with KBW et al. Even in such an idyllic setting, I had difficulty enjoying the activity as I soon realized that my body was not built to behave in this way. One decade later and I find myself being prescribed yoga by my athletic therapist as homework.

In order for me to benefit from yoga, I have to go to the "specialty" studios which offer the "hot" variety. Trying my best to stretch in a heated room is the only way I can actually get some movement in my tight muscles. I have tried going to the regular classes (non-heated) at the YMCA and have found that I cannot stretch well at room temperature and I am just as tight when I leave the class as I was on the way in.

In my opinion, the problem with yoga is multifaceted. First and foremost, I am not good at it (and I hate participating in activities in which I do not excel!). But to compound my own selfish issues, I also cannot stand the YOGA PEOPLE! I have difficulty taking the instructors seriously when every word that comes out of their mouth is such a steaming pile of asinine jabber! Although a 60 minute yoga class does leave me with some increased degree of mobility (albeit short-lived), I actually leave the class with a higher level of anger and frustration than I had when I went in.

For starters, I cannot accept the terminology. Last week, an instructor directed me to "approach my postures with compassion". WTF? What does that even mean? Another, advised me to "thank yourself for being present with yourself today". uhhhh, thanks - self? Whaaaat?  And hey, how about picking up a textbook of human anatomy and physiology? If they did, they would realize that telling me to "open my front side body" makes ZERO sense. Also, in no circumstance whatsoever, can putting pressure on the throat during a forward fold "stimulate your body to loose weight or gain weight, whatever it needs". If that were the case, everyone could achieve that "yoga body" just by putting pressure on their throat.

Also, yoga people often think that yoga is THE only thing that is good for your body. I was told by an instructor that I shouldn't lift weights because "it's dangerous" and the only thing I need to do to be healthy is .... YOGA. I don't think yoga is going to help me get strong enough to PR my Clean & Jerk! I was also told by a Bikram yoga instructor, that Bikram is the best and the only yoga you need. For those of you not familiar with Bikram, they do the same postures, in the same order, every class, to infinity. The Bikram instructor told a story about how she had tried a Moksha class, and she was sore for 3 days following this adventure. Apparently this was evidence that all other forms of yoga were wrong, instead of considering that perhaps by changing the postures for once, that her body was actually challenged in another way.    

I can handle being the least advanced student in the yoga room. I can even handle the obsession with drinking purified water out of glass mason jars (because plastic or metal water bottles? Bitch please, do you even yoga?!).  But I can't handle goofy and incorrect terminology made up by a bunch of hippies, too lazy to learn human anatomy. I miss my CrossFit Mobility Boot Camp hosted by physiotherapist extraordinaire Corena where we could laugh, poke fun at each other and name poses after the remedial students (The Douillette pose, anyone?). I miss getting REAL instruction, REAL adjustments, in terminology I can understand - like "stretch those medial hamstrings"!

I long for a way to be more mobile without the infuriation that yoga fosters in me. Sadly, I don't think the yoga people are going to change the way they instruct. So I am stuck with it! NAMASTE