Apples & Oranges - A Realistic Look at YOUR Progress

This is something I see all the time and I believe everyone is guilty of it at one time or another, especially newer lifters. Stop judging yourself, and more importantly your progress, by comparing yourself to other lifters. Don't even judge yourself by your placement at your competitions. Instead, judge yourself solely by your progression as a lifter. This concept applies to essentially everything in life, but due to the nature of this blog I am going to direct the conversation towards lifting.
 
A couple weeks ago I was part of a conversation. Three of the people, myself included, are part of our powerlifting team at SCBB. The fourth guy was a friend of a friend, and he told us how he had recently started doing crossfit as means to lose weight and just improve his overall health and appearance. He told us how earlier in the week he had maxed out on deadlifts for the first time in his life, working up to 425 for a single. You could see how proud he was of that number, as he should be. He then decided to ask the rest of us what our best deadlifts were. Hesitantly everyone eventually answered and the weights ranged from the high 500’s to the low 700’s. You could literally see the pride get sucked out of him and he was so disppointed he looked distraught.
 
So what’s the point of this story?
 
Here is a guy who just started training with weights a couple months ago and who never trains in a manner that is directed at building maximal one rep strength. His ultimate goal isn’t even to build strength, it is to lose fat. Yet he is comparing himself to three people whose sole goal in training is to become as strong as humanly possible for one repetition.
 
Not to mention that a 425 deadlift is pretty damn good for someone’s first ever attempt at a one rep max. Plus, earlier in the conversation he told us how he had already lost 40 pounds since he started doing crossfit. That is an amazing accomplishment and something that he should be proud of. I made sure he knew it too.

Stop comparing apples and oranges

 

People need to develop some perspective when they are evaluating themselves. There is only one constant throughout your training and that is you. The only thing that matters is that you are better now than you were before, and even this statement has to be applied in the right context.
 
Your progress is a product of you. It is a comparison of where you were at some point in the past versus where you are now. Everyone wants to be the strongest guy in the gym or at the meet, but that isn't always realistic. This is why I said your placing at meets doesn’t really mean shit, generally speaking.
 
My first ever meet I took second in my weight class. Not too shabby right? A couple months later I totaled 75 pounds higher, but finished fourth in the same weight class. So what happened? Did I become a worse lifter because I placed lower? No, I actually improved as a lifter because my total went up 75 pounds. I made positive progress as a lifter.
 
Most meets are so hit or miss in terms of the quality of competitors that you simply cannot judge yourself against your competition. I won the 220’s with a 1705 total in my meet earlier this month. I plan to do RUM early next year and if Sam Byrd shows up and puts up a 2000 pound total then I will get my ass kicked. I hope he does show up though and I hope he breaks world records across the board. For me, I plan on putting up my best total to date and if I do that I will walk away happy, whether I finish in first place or last place.
 
If you are more worried about your placement at your meets and other people’s numbers in the gym, than you are about the progresssion of your own numbers, then you are completely missing the point of powerlifting.