Weightlifting as a Metaphor for Life

“Weightlifting is the art of moving your body around a barbell, not a barbell around your body.”

This line sums up my love affair with the Olympic lifts in a nice neat package.

While a healthy dose of power can go a long way on the platform, it can also be rendered utterly useless without a dedication to the finer details of each moment in a lift. Knowing when and where to apply focus, patience, stability, and power dictates whether your efforts display errant disorder or artistry.

With so many disciplines to understand in our sport, we have to know where our intensity should be directed. Improving your Assault Bike capacity and learning to handstand walk both require adequate levels of intensity, just of varying brands. It’s in this way that weightlifting can teach us a lot about other modalities, and life for that matter. Misdirected desire is often wasteful and tragic.

So the next time you’re about to dive headfirst into fixing a weakness, be really careful where your efforts are directed.