Pride & Powerlifting

Words of Wisdom w/ Gerald

Article Five: Pride & Powerlifting

Aside from Amanda and my family, my life is Rochester Performance Gym. I take pride in what manifests from inside these walls. I'm proud of the small contribution that we provide to all our members' successes. I'm proud of the professionals that work here daily to better their clients and themselves. But above all, I'm proud of the family... the RPGarmy ...that call this place their home, too.

Pride often gets a bad rep for being one of the seven deadly sins, and for being confused with the term “egotistical.” While there is a fine line between being an arrogant, ego-maniac, and being proud, I feel it is okay to take pride in what you accomplish in the gym and in life. Lifting weights and tirelessly working towards a goal gives you a certain confidence that you can take with you outside of the gym. Pride is a hell of a motivator to continue to achieve more.

The issue with pride comes when people are too proud to admit their own mistakes. In powerlifting, I see a lot of lifters blame outside influences when they miss lift, or why they failed reps, etc. These failures are an opportunity to swallow your pride to look at the real “why” to improve for next time, not to pass on fault. This goes along with lifters that have too much pride to look to others for help, and lifters/coaches that think they know everything. Just because you have read an anatomy book or have had some form of success in a meet, you are not better than everyone else. One book or one small success doesn’t mean you have all the answers for when your training progress stalls out. There are plenty of veteran lifters, coaches (both local and online), training partners, etc. that are easily accessible and willing to help.

Above all, I’ve noticed that the largest downfall of having too much pride comes from caring what the outside world thinks of you. If you’re too proud to fail, too proud to ask for help, or too proud to know that someone somewhere is better than you, you will never obtain real success. The key is to put your head down and work. If your mission is something that you care about, the “work” part of this equation is the rewarding part. Take pride in these efforts on a daily basis! Keep in mind that it is OK to stop every now and then to take some time to look back at all the energy you put in to getting to where you are, but let those thoughts drive you to want more. Let that pride fuel your work ethic to accomplish more!

What do you think? Is it acceptable to be proud of what you accomplish? Are you authentically proud of your efforts or are you just another egotistical prick squatting with your shirt off?

-Steve Stuecher

RPG…Destination for all things strength.

We kept this article short and to the point, as I’m in the middle of putting together another piece; an interesting angle into the state of local & national powerlifting and coaching! Keep an eye out for next month’s article!