Dedication

Dedication. What's that look like to you? Is it going to bed at a certain time most nights, managing your time; dates and family time around your training and eating? Is it foam rolling, hot/cold baths, getting up before everyone else so you can train?

For me, dedication is about seeing something through til it's done. In the world of iron, though, I don't know if we're ever really "done" until we're dead or paralyzed. Granted, dead and paralyzed don't have to be literal, they can be entirely metaphorical, but....

Are you alive today? Go life something heavy.

These past two weeks (I know, I'm sorry for having not written in a bit) have been pretty intense.

Aside from some serious personal shit going on, school was kicking my ass pretty hard core. I wrote my coach (Clint Darden) and told him he may not hear from me for a bit. What did he say? He didn't say "okay" or "sounds good" he pretty much told me to suck it up and keep training, to find the time. Make the time. He told me, flat out, that training must continue because I cannot, under any circumstances, miss an entire week's worth of sessions.

It's amazing how important each and every session is to the next one.

Just like your meals, your sleep, your stress management. Everything rolls into everything else.

So, instead of missing sessions, I managed to make the time to train. I did a 50 minute session with some lighter weights because I was exhausted. Training when you're exhausted is hard. But once you do it, you know you can actually do it.

Lucky for me, I met a nice fellow at my school gym. He's into oly lifting and he's pretty damn good. He helped me a bit with my push press (which is now actually getting up to par, thankfully...maybe I'll write about that soon) and I had some good sessions. Just knowing he was going to expect to see me lifting in the gym made me more willing to go. It was harder to talk myself out of going.

Find that one guy/girl at your gym and it helps a lot.

So, it's been a rough month. But, I am more committed than ever to my training goals. Dedication feels good.

Access and Impact

I’m currently studying urban planning and design at UMKC. You may have no idea what an urban planner is, so I’ll break it down simply for you. An urban planner plans cities and makes plans. The roads you drive on, the grocery store and where it’s located, how things look, parks, water systems, types of shopping venues and centers....all of these requires someone somewhere planning them out. Urban planning is important. We’re sort of like the screenwriters, artists and directors for the city. A lot of people just show up to watch the movie or TV show, but don’t really think about who wrote the movie, planned it, paid for it, and did all the hiring, makeup and special effects.

Got it? Awesome. Why the hell do I care if you know what urban planning is and what the hell does that have anything to do with lifting heavy ass weights?

Not everyone has the same access as I do, or maybe you do. In 2010, the United States poverty rate was 15% (an estimated 4.6 million people)(1). This undoubtedly impacts one’s food choices and training options. Granted, if you qualify, food stamps (SNAP) can sometimes mitigate the loss of access, but it does not help with training, or even allowing one to consider becoming a serious athlete. When money is tight, our health (as a society) tends to go into the shitter rather quickly.

Why is that?

Access. There may not be a Whole Foods or Trader Joes or (enter your locally sourced grocer here) near Joe Noname (and even if there were there is no guarantee Joe could afford it). So Joe doesn’t have the same access I personally do to quality, affordable locally sourced products. But Joe does have access to McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and all the other fast food chains and their very enticing “dollar menus”, and not to mention gas stations and their processed food that’s fairly cheap as well.

This map illustrates food desserts in the U.S. Light blue=impoverished households, Orange=No food access within 1 mile (urban)/ no food access within 10 miles (rural) | (Mapped using USDA.GOV).

What some impoverished folks may not know, however, is that some local farmer’s markets do allow SNAP benefits to be used to purchase their food. Farmer’s markets generally have much lower overhead costs, distribute/sell their products themselves (which cuts out the middle man), and are not your average industrial produce/meat growers. But not everyone is aware of these resources.

That, dear readers, is where we come in. It’s our job to help others in our communities understand how food affects them, and how to get the best food they can realistically afford.

Wal Mart’s meat may not be as good as the grass fed local stuff, but what do you do if Walmart meat is all you can afford? You do the best you can do. Athletes need protein. If you’re to become a champion (or even sort of good) in your sport, then you need to make protein a priority. And protein is expensive.

There are a number of protein powders (mostly whey) at big box stores that are spiked with partial proteins. Companies will spike a powder in order to get the protein content up enough to slap on “29 grams of protein per serving!” their label. When in reality, there may be more like 15-20 grams of protein per serving and the other 9+ grams are made up of partial proteins derived from BCAAs, and not full proteins at all (and yes, this does have an impact on what’s called muscle protein synthesis, but that’s really sciency and not something you need to understand in this moment) (2).

The point is, sometimes people have limited choices, so it’s better for them to take the shitty cheap powder and supplement their protein intake that way because it’s cheaper than paying 30 dollars for a tub of quality whey. We have to make concessions, each of us. Sometimes the impoverished athlete needs to make more concessions than his better-off counterparts, and there’s nothing judgemental about that.

In the end, you are the only one who cares if you succeed at your training goals. If quality food is something that is hard to come by, you need to make concessions. It IS possible to eat decently well on a very minimal budget. Canned tuna, locally baked bread, seafood (on sale), meat products that are marked down because they are close to expiring (or on sale), cottage cheese, frozen vegetables and local products from your farmer’s market (if you have one and can access it) are all excellent ways to fuel your training if your budget is tight. Hell, even some college students may find these tips useful.

I don’t think it’s fair to chastise someone who is doing their best, given their situation and circumstances. It is fair, however, to give these people the proper information and resources and allow them to make informed decisions about their health, and food is a huge part of our overall health.

Do the best you can do. If you’re not satisfied, find a way to become a little better than you were last week. After all, that’s all anyone can do. Nothing magical happens overnight. Don’t let someone else tell you that you can’t do it. You can.

See you in THE DUNGEON

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(1): 2010 Census Information

(2): A table of protein content, submitted by a Redditor

     And how the above tests were conducted