Guest Post: G. Orozco

"Here we are experiencing the trials endemic to any journey. Perhaps we've failed, perhaps our goal turned out to be harder to achieve than anticipated. No one is permanently successful, and not everyone finds success on the first attempt. We all deal with setbacks along the way. Ego not only leaves us unprepared for these circumstances, it often contributed to their occurrence in the first place. The way through, to rise again, required a reorientation and increased self-awareness. We don't need pity - our own or anyone else's - we need purpose, poise, and patience." - Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

I grew up a competitive swimmer from around age 8 and loved being in the water. Swimming gave me lots of great things and I enjoy it to this day. I can accredit my body awareness, coordination and thirst for competing to the sport. I swam competitively through high school where I decided to stop, but began lifeguarding and used swimming as a career for 12 years. Which lead me to open water races which were an amazing, new backdrop of racing but also convenient at the time when I could walk down to the ocean. Throughout all of this "athleticism" I rarely touched weights, and worked on my strength, let alone a barbell. I barely conditioned or even thought it would benefit me at the time, but struggled with lots of small debilitating injuries.

I always considered myself an athlete, but never truly tested my true strength. Until recently. Before I ventured into weightlifting, I had a deep curiosity of the sport and interests in barbells. I think it started with me hearing about crossfit, watching competitions and talking to friends to who did crossfit. Then seeing strong women and do amazing things like snatch and cleans. Yet, I didn't want to do crossfit because I was also very aware of the dangers of not properly knowing how to lift. So with a suggestion from my man partner Tyler at the time he suggested I start squatting with him at our local neighborhood powerlifting gym. I had been a regular gym goer prior, but was very intimated by this new environment. I knew the fundamentals, squats, pressing, etc and had some limited back squatting experience back in high school, but I had no idea what I was doing.

Stemming from this exploration, I realized, I had a lot to learn. But I was ok with that, so I signed up with the powerlifting gym and set out for 3 months of programming and training and wanted to learn about squatting and build my strength. It was an odd and exploratory experience. I was still training for my open water swimming and a triathlon or two. So it was an interesting venture. Yet I built a foundation of lifting and familiarized myself with barbells and your basic lifts and am grateful I took that challenge upon myself.

When Tyler and I moved to Washington, I knew life would be different. Yet I was excited. New backdrop, new state, etc. We both set out to try new things. My goal was to try Olympic Weightlifting and challenge myself to learn weightlifting techniques and get strong. Now, it is my new sport, my new challenge and my new therapy. In an amazing way it has replaced swimming, and I'm ok with that because I know I will always have those moments in swimming when I am completely encompassed by it.

Weightlifting is not easy, but when done properly, through proper technique and grace, it is beautiful. This sport has its own personality and a way of communicating back. There are days it tells me no. Then sometimes yes, then no. You have to show up, mentally, physically and spiritually (if that’s your thing) because the bar knows. I have never been good at being bad at things. When I stepped into a true barbell gym, I was mortified but so intrigued at the same time of where it would take me. I learned to squat properly, I refined my lifting patterns through pressing, benching, deadlifting and other drills. Then once I was introduced to the snatch and clean & jerk. From the first jerk I did, I was in love with the feeling of the movement and then once I figured out the snatch it was the same. But through the whole process it was hard, my body didn’t have the range of motion that I thought it did, or I was fumbling through the movements and patterns. With relentless attention, I can say now that I can snatch and clean and jerk and when it is right, it's amazing. 

I competed in my first weightlifting competition after 8 months of training. I had no expectations, but wanted to at least hit my opener. Which low and behold was changed to my PR snatch by my coach at the 11th hour. I missed all three attempts. With all the adrenaline, nerves and spiraling out of control, I let my focus drift and the bar and I didn’t meet. Out of all of my years of competing and being an athlete, I am so amazed and put a back with this sports ability of telling you NO! For the first time in a long time I was reminded how new I still am to the sport and how far I have come. Yet, how far I have to go. Needless to say, I was very close to losing my cool and had to excuse myself to the bathroom to regroup after missing all three of my snatches in very hilarious attempts. They were all there, but I didn’t believe in myself. The bar knows and the bar will own you. Another thing I am learning. I went back after slapping some sense back into me and hit my next three lifts, they weren't my best, but a great example of moving with your body through the adrenaline.

The point of all of this is that, all of this is all so relevant to LIFE. I am so grateful to be learning and training through weightlifting now, although there are days I wish I learned at a younger age, yet I'm grateful to be here now. Sometimes we set out to do things with no expectations, and think that we have it under control. Other times we set out to do things that we know nothing about. No matter the journey there will always be something along the way that forces you to re-assess, re-calculate, and potentially be uncomfortable. Even having this mentality, you can still be thrown. What is so beautiful in all of it is when someone rises and pushes through. Whether it’s pushing past your hardest mile, a tough day at work, a bad day in life, or a tough number at the bar. Show up, have poise and believe in you.