Ecclesiastes 4:9 and 10 reads:
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labour:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
This week, on squats, I knew something wasn’t right from the first rep of the first warm up set. About 90% of the way down I felt a small but noticeable pain in my hip. It came and went in an instant but it was there for every rep up to when I stopped squatting after my second warm up set.
I switched to my first bench session of the week, got the work done and explained what had happened to Tom (my coach) later. We came up with a plan, tweaked the order of things across the week and still ended up getting all of the work done.
It was so beneficial having someone there to help me through this. Previously, I essentially would have had to guess – do I try and grind through it and hope something doesn’t go pop? Do I avoid squatting until it feels better? Even if I didn’t do anything different this time to what I would have done before having a coach then having the reassurance of someone to advise was invaluable.
Two things it reinforced to me:
Having a coach is necessary – not just for the programming and technical aspects but for that support and advice element.
Powerlifting isn’t an individual sport. Yes, in February there will only be me on the platform, but even if you don’t have a coach you can only be there because of the dedication of loaders, spotters, refs, organisers… This is a team game, and I’m thankful for the team that I’m part of.
Lift well,
Chris.
