Hudson Power Team: Articles and Advice - Email Question

Email Question:

I Might Have To Quit

Hey, John: As you know, I found a good job and moved away from Champaign-Urbana. I thought it would be no problem to find other powerlifters in the large city where I now live, but they've all been abducted by aliens or something. I can't find powerlifters anywhere. Worse, the only gym I could find that's conveniently located for me is a 24 Hour Fitness, one of those big chain places. You know the ones: they have "clients," not lifters. Anyway, I'm the only powerlifter there. They let me do deadlifts, which isn't that big a deal since my deadlift sucks anyway. But bench is what I really want to train. Unfortunately, no one there knows how to help me with my gear, of course, and I get the feeling no one wants to help me, either. Oh, they won't let me use bands or chains, either. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to quit and just do a bodybuilding routine or something. There's no way I can train right for a meet the way things are now. I miss the atmosphere of Illini Powerlifting alot. It was a big motivator for me. That atmosphere is only a memory now. So what do I do? Do I quit powerlifting and be a bodybuilder . . . at least for a while, a few years, maybe . . . until my situation changes? Any advice would be appreciated. Desperate in Da Big City.

Dear Desperate:

If you love powerlifting, then you adapt. You take initiative to meet your training needs.

Alot of things can happen in a lifter's life that can lead to contemplation of putting power training on hold for a time or even quitting the sport altogether. Relocation and injury are two common causes. When I moved to Korea in 1993, I had to radically change my training. There was no gym and no equipment, so I had to buy my own equipment and find a place to house it. The only equipment I could get at the time was Made-in-China standard bars and plates, which I managed to set up in the basement of the men's dormitory at my university. I didn't have enough weight, let alone strong enough bars, to allow for truly heavy training, so I did a blended program . . . power-bodybuilding, you could call it. I had no training partners, so I recruited new trainees from among the students living in the dormitory and taught them. In other words, I adapted to the situation. I took initiative to meet my training needs as best I could.

Injuries have also demanded adaptation. In 2002 my left rotator cuff was very close to requiring surgery. I found a sports therapist who was willing to work with my powerlifting goals and adjusted my training around the rehabilitation requirements of my shoulder. In the fall of 2003, I separated my right AC joint. I couldn't get 135 off my chest without pain. I went back to the therapist and again adjusted my training around the rehabilitation requirements of the injury. By April 2004, I was benching 455. In April 2005, I had surgery to repair an umbilical hernia. I adjusted my training to the recovery and rehabilitation requirements of the surgery, and in August of 2005 I deadlifted 700 in a meet. In every case, I adapted to the situation to meet my training needs as best I could.

Here's an even better example: In 2003, four guys at the University of Illinois, in need of training partners and a team environment, started Illini Powerlifting. They trained, they recruited, they spread the word. In just a few years, Illini Powerlifting has grown to become one of the premier university power teams in the United States. They adapted. They took initiative.

And here's the most powerful example: At the 2005 WABDL Worlds, I had the honor of being a side judge for the Disabled and Special Olympian Divisions. These athletes, who face physical challenges that would overwhelm the majority of "normal" lifters, lift with more heart than any lifters I've ever seen. Rather than make excuses, they adapt. They take initiative and train in spite of the challenges they face.

So if you love the sport, adapt and take initiative. Simple as that.

Can't find a powerlifting-friendly gym at which to train? Get on every powerlifting discussion board you can find and ask for advice on where to train. Go to the federation websites, find out who the state chairpersons are in your and neighboring states and ask them for advice. In other words, do some networking.

Can't find training partners? Recruit them and train them, just as we've done at UIUC for Illini Powerlifting. Put ads in local newspapers if your have to. Give me two months in a major metro area and I'll have the beginnings of another great powerlifting team. Adapt. Take initiative. If you want it to happen, sometimes you have to make it happen.

In the meantime, can't train in your shirt? There are RAW meets, RAW divisions, and RAW records offered by a number of federations. If your shoulders allow you to train heavy without the shirt (and I believe in your case they do), then train for RAW meets until such time as you have partners to help with your shirt.

Can't train with bands and/or chains? Then don't. Train Old School. Powerlifters were benching huge and setting records LONG before anyone thought of attaching rubber bands and rusty chains to the ends of the bar. Some lifters, as you well know, continue to train in the Old School way with tremendous success.

So the answer is simple: Adapt. Take initiative to meet your training needs. Of course this assumes that you love the sport, which I think you do.

If you're a quitter, your present challenges would be a convenient justification to quit. You could quit and tell yourself that you had no choice, that things were beyond your control. This is what a quitter would do. However, it would be disappointing indeed to discover that Illini Powerlifting has or has had quitters on the team. I'm sure you would agree that quitting simply isn't an option.

So don't whine and complain about your current difficulties. Instead, do the right thing: adapt. Take some initiative to meet your training needs. Make it happen.

Yours in strength . . .

John