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Why I Do What I Do
Topic Started: Dec 17 2005, 11:29 PM (1,354 Views)
MaxPower
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Follower of Branigann's Law
This was written by 2x WSW Jill Mills a couple years ago. The entier thread is still in tact on the old board in the strength classics section.

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I wrote this the other night when I was having an 'inspired moment'. I think alot of you will be able to relate.

People often ask me why I do what I do...what motivates me. I have never really given it much thought until today. My response is usually, “It is just something deep inside I can’t explain”. Today it all seemed so clear. I started thinking about a picture from the 2002 World’s Strongest Woman competition of me sitting in a chair, wrapping my knees before the squat event. As I thought of the picture, I was transported. I was THERE. I could feel the nervous excitement overtake me… the energy around me was so thick I could smell it. I was sitting in that chair again. I could feel myself cranking the wraps around my knees and feel a rhythm building as I tugged each pass equally snug and spaced. I cranked on my belt and felt the chalk slide across my shoulders. Adrenaline pulsed in my veins. My sight and hearing faded as if I was in a deep tunnel. The only sounds were my rhythmic deep breathing and my heart pounding in my chest. I am jarred from my trance by a foreign voice calling my name. Instinctively, I jumped up and ran to the bar. I knew I had to wait until the signal was given but I could barely restrain myself. My sense of excitement and impatience could barely be contained. This is check cashing time… so many intense, painful workouts all for this one moment..
I began my familiar ritual of placement of hands on the steel bar followed by cold metal centered on my back. I breathe deeply and then zone out from the rest of the world and zone into THAT place… that special place deep inside me. Few people ever intentionally visit that scary, yet exciting room in their soul. It is the room of ‘fear of the unknown’. I have never had this weight on my back. I have felt heavy weight but how will THIS feel? Will my body conquer it or will it collapse? Do I have the physical and mental strength to overcome the pain? How human AM I?? I must trust in my higher power to give me the strength. I must commit myself. I take a deep breath until my lungs can no longer expand. I smile to myself in the face of my fear knowing that I CAN and WILL…. I will prove to myself once again that I control my own destiny. Balls to the wall, ass to ankles here we come! I dunk and come up not just once… but 15 times. My head is going to explode. I don’t see the judge. I don’t hear him. It is just me and the bar going for a wildly exciting, yet painful ride.
Why do I do it? It is not the trophies, not the titles, fame, fortune, or even records. I do it because I am addicted to the adrenaline. I would be lost without an occasional visit to that room deep inside me. The internal strength I gain from overcoming these self-induced obstacles makes lives uncontrollable obstacles seem less substantial. No matter how un-movable something may appear I know that I am in control of my own destiny.

Written by Jill Mills
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Caber McJock
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I agree
Here's the rest if anyone cares:

Jill Mills

Registered User
Posts: 24
(10/26/02 4:26 pm)
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why I do what I do
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I wrote this the other night when I was having an 'inspired moment'. I think alot of you will be able to relate.

People often ask me why I do what I do...what motivates me. I have never really given it much thought until today. My response is usually, “It is just something deep inside I can’t explain”. Today it all seemed so clear. I started thinking about a picture from the 2002 World’s Strongest Woman competition of me sitting in a chair, wrapping my knees before the squat event. As I thought of the picture, I was transported. I was THERE. I could feel the nervous excitement overtake me… the energy around me was so thick I could smell it. I was sitting in that chair again. I could feel myself cranking the wraps around my knees and feel a rhythm building as I tugged each pass equally snug and spaced. I cranked on my belt and felt the chalk slide across my shoulders. Adrenaline pulsed in my veins. My sight and hearing faded as if I was in a deep tunnel. The only sounds were my rhythmic deep breathing and my heart pounding in my chest. I am jarred from my trance by a foreign voice calling my name. Instinctively, I jumped up and ran to the bar. I knew I had to wait until the signal was given but I could barely restrain myself. My sense of excitement and impatience could barely be contained. This is check cashing time… so many intense, painful workouts all for this one moment..
I began my familiar ritual of placement of hands on the steel bar followed by cold metal centered on my back. I breathe deeply and then zone out from the rest of the world and zone into THAT place… that special place deep inside me. Few people ever intentionally visit that scary, yet exciting room in their soul. It is the room of ‘fear of the unknown’. I have never had this weight on my back. I have felt heavy weight but how will THIS feel? Will my body conquer it or will it collapse? Do I have the physical and mental strength to overcome the pain? How human AM I?? I must trust in my higher power to give me the strength. I must commit myself. I take a deep breath until my lungs can no longer expand. I smile to myself in the face of my fear knowing that I CAN and WILL…. I will prove to myself once again that I control my own destiny. Balls to the wall, ass to ankles here we come! I dunk and come up not just once… but 15 times. My head is going to explode. I don’t see the judge. I don’t hear him. It is just me and the bar going for a wildly exciting, yet painful ride.
Why do I do it? It is not the trophies, not the titles, fame, fortune, or even records. I do it because I am addicted to the adrenaline. I would be lost without an occasional visit to that room deep inside me. The internal strength I gain from overcoming these self-induced obstacles makes lives uncontrollable obstacles seem less substantial. No matter how un-movable something may appear I know that I am in control of my own destiny.


Trevor aka MaxPower


The Bavarian Beast
Posts: 2146
(10/26/02 4:38 pm)
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Re: why I do what I do
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I've heard that same question asked to me. My usually answer is just "i like it". I just can't explain the feeling i get when i lift, and only a fello heavy lifter would understand.

Tomm E Boy

BIG T
Posts: 192
(10/26/02 5:46 pm)
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Re: why I do what I do
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I can totally relate to you guys. I don't even lift to compete anymore. I lift because I love the lifting itself. If I struggle wth a heavy weight, that only makes me want to lift more and more weight. I can honestly say that lifting weights is the best part of my life. Because of my lifting, I've been able to focus a great deal more. I've even given up partying and drinking because they took away too much from my lifting. Sure I've gained physical strength over the years, but my physical strength is not even comparable to the size of my mental strength. When I'm in the gym, I don't hear anything except for the music blasting from the speakers, and I don't see anything except for the bar on the floor or on the rack. The other great thing about lifting weights is the fact that I feed off other people's energy. If somebody in the gym gets a new PR deadlift, that makes my workout that much better. I explain this to many people, and for some reason they don't understand, all I say is experience it for yourself and you'll understand.

1281

Pure Highland Power
Posts: 309
(10/27/02 12:30 am)
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Re: why I do what I do
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It is a feeling people don't understand about weight-lifting until they've been under a bar for a year or so, I think. It becomes so natural, yet so exciting and new every time you enter the gym.
My old gym used to be placed down in a hole in the ground. It was like entering a small dungeon. Now it is filled with purple and orange walls, with mirrors. It ruined it for me, but I must return since it is getting too cold outside my house. The "dungeon" in the ground, felt like home. The smell of the place made my adrenaline pump. I loved it.
HIGHLAND POWER!

peter mirdjev

Strongman
Posts: 586
(10/27/02 3:36 am)
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Re: why I do what I do
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For that same reason athletes come out of retirement even when everyone wonders why.

Eric Cartman

Registered User
Posts: 164
(10/27/02 4:36 am)
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When people ask why we do it
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...I always remember what I saw on a body-piercing t-shirt once

"If you have to ask, you wouldnt understand"


LlamaPower

World's Strongest Llama
Posts: 707
(10/27/02 3:51 pm)
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Great Thread!
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Great thread - I'm gonna print this out and keep it.

There is something really satisfying about a new PR I think. Whenever I lift a weight I've not managed before, or squeeze out an extra rep, I get a real feeling of achievement.

I dont get the same feeling from doing anything else.

Frozenkilt

Kilted Freak
Posts: 1218
(10/27/02 4:04 pm)
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Nicely put, Jill
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I love training, sure, but to me it's all about the competition. I love my training days, getting new gym PR's and the like but there is nothing that compares to competition. Seeing everyone out there gearing up just like you do. Watching someone come out of a throw beautifully makes you want to make your next one look that much better and yet you sometimes can do nothing more than just appreciate all the work that went into those 2 seconds of effort from some other guy.

In the gym, or in practice, there's always another chance. Always the option to quit. The failures aren't as real. Neither, in my opinion, are the successes. They show the trend. The gauge that yes, you are moving forward, but it's competition that shows you where the flaws and perfections lie. The saying we always use around here is "Nothing matters in practice."

I've seen lots of guys throw really well out in the field, or put up some big numbers on a training platform, then fall flat on their faces come game day. Why? Because the mental strength aspect comes in. Are you cool as a cucumber? or thinking constantly as you approach the bar or the trig? Have you practiced and trained enough that everything is instinct now and you don't have to go through the mental checklist? Or are you still thinking the whole time?

It doesn't matter who you beat or who beat you, but if you threw or lifted your best that day. Ideally, it should be just like on the training platform or practice field, but it isn't. As soon as you have just 3 attempts, it's do or die.

And then, when the whole day is over, you're surrounded by a bunch of like-minded people. People who are better than you. People who are worse than you. But most importantly, people who are like you. A true set of peers. Kindreds.

People who congratulate you for a good performance, who offer suggestions about something they saw in your technique that maybe you'd never thought about, people who work as hard as you do and who want to see you do well, just so they can do better. People who razz you about a sub-par performance.

The air just tastes seems a little sweeter and the beer tastes just a bit better after a competition, because you know that there are lots of people in the world who say "I could do that.", but there's only a few of you who actually do it.

- Sean

Jill Mills

Registered User
Posts: 25
(10/27/02 8:21 pm)
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mental toughness
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that is so true..The beer does taste better after a comp!!
I hear people make all kinds of bullshit claims in training but then I see them in competition and they either fall apart or never really had it together in the 1st place. Sometimes I think I have an event down to a science in practice and then I realize at the actual competition I don't know as much as I thought.

I get a rush from watching my friends/competitors make improvements. I know how much they have suffered and how hard they have worked to make gains so I can't help but get excited for them. I was so thrilled for Jackie at wsw this year! Shannon really shocked me on a couple events too! I knew she can be tough but she is the kind of person that really pulls it together on game day.
I know it sounds crazy but sometimes I do farmers walk in the dark at 10pm totally by myself or uphill sprints and horses at high noon in 100 degree weather. I feel like it will give me that mental edge to push harder on gameday. When it comes down to it, I think that is what separates a competitor from a champ... mental toughness.

Caber McJock

Tartan Maniac
Posts: 435
(10/28/02 1:43 pm)
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Why? Well, why not?
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This is a topic thats near and dear to me lately, as the injuries add up and I seriously consider retiring from (serious)competition. I say serious because i don't think i could ever totally quit, and it's a combination of all the things posted so far in this thread...
i love training. i think it was Svend who said " i compete so I have an excuse to train," and for 8 months of the year i feel the same way.
But then there's the day, out on the field, you get to strap on the kilt "in anger" so to speak, the smell of the grass, tacky, the feel of the weights, that feeling when you reach down to pick the caber and wonder just for a second if you can do it... then it's in your hands and on the way. The groans of disappointment from the crowd when it doesn't go over, the roar for that perfect 12:00...
and it's redundant i suppose, but it's really the people who keep me coming back, the word cameraderie gets a lot of lip service but in our community it's a real thing- you can feel it not just on the field, as was so eloquently put by Sean, but in places like this forum as well. for that I'm really grateful- sometimes family and friends just lack that dominant DNA that affected all our brains, so it's nice to find a place full of fellow lunatics who understand you, or at least will encourage you to continue the insanity when you're lagging.
if I decide not to compete in a serious way next year, i'll still be out there cheering and mocking Sean's pasty whiteness, organizing as much as i can so that others can experience all and hopefully more than I have.

stangshaw19

No Fat Chicks
Posts: 602
(10/29/02 10:40 pm)
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Re: Why? Well, why not?
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Jill, that's fantastic. I almost felt like I was there!

I know exactly what you mean too. It's fun to train at home, but nothing compares to competition. The rush is so great, it's one of the best feelings out there. I often get excited watching other competitors that have a great time on an event even if they beat me, I get really excited. I find myself getting excited just watching it on tv too. I get that warm fuzzy feeling inside and then all I can think a/b is training...

Frozenkilt

Kilted Freak
Posts: 1251
(10/30/02 11:54 am)
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Re: Why? Well, why not?
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Jeff hit another point I kind of glossed over. Inside every person is a showman, waiting to get out. Competition is the perfect venue for that. And the roar of the crowd when you clear another height or the caber goes over is something else.

In fact, there's only one thing better.

That little look on one of your competitor's face as he walks toward you with his hand out and a rueful grin when you just beat him by a couple of inches, one rep or a fraction of a second and all he (or she) can say to you is "Nice work."

And you know that they mean it. The same way you would, you WILL, if/when the position is reversed.

The crowd is great, but being congratulated by your peers is probably the best reward possible.

Hey Jeff...you think Andre will taunt me about beating me in the hammers when I still have one throw left next year?

- Sean




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Kye
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great read, thanks for posting!
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