The New Path

Welcome back for another weeks update! This week has been quite the eventful one and there is lot to unpack. At times I think of life like a path, at times it will be nicely paved and easy, while others will be less travelled and treacherous. 

Training Focus

This past week I had off to recover from the meet. In this time off I looked inward to think about what I truly want out of competing in powerlifting. At times it is very rewarding and others I feel like I am getting no where. My goals are still the same, I wish to be the best in the world at something. This has been my dream ever since I was a kid. I want to represent Canada in some way shape or form. For the longest time growing up it was hockey. That ship has sailed because truthfully I did not put in the time. It was hard to come to that realization that I was not 100% in. I would train my butt off every chance I got at practice and off ice team sessions but on my own time I slacked. I did not practice shooting, there was no individual training, and my eating was terrible. The realization was hard to accept, I wish I could say I did my best but in the end I can only blame myself.

Looking back critically at the meet, yes I won my class and overall but I am very far from what I desire. My training looked good but once again my eating was poor. I took time to recover, study my movements, and put in hours of work to simply be beat by myself in the kitchen. This is where I say no more and go all in. I have only till the end of this year, 7 month, to achieve what I want in the junior class. I will then be in the open division and things become even more competitive. I want the Ontario Junior 83kg squat record at a sanctioned meet. That is my goal and I will not let myself get in my way of achieving that. It is time to get serious about nutrition, recovery, and every tiny nuance of my training. 

It is time to be purposeful in everything I do for my training. 

Teaching Thoughts

This week was busy and I got the opportunity to try some new games and activities. They were not all 10/10 and will be making it back into this weeks program with a new class. There are many tweaks and progressions that I have make to try to improve the lessons. All in all the classes this week were a success and had students engaged that usually are off to the outsides of the class. I was proud of that simple accomplishment and wish to carry that over to next week.

One thing that I have taken some time to try and digest is how much of an influence social media has on students. My girls class is so obsessed with tiny waists that they do not want to perform some activates worried that they will get to big of quads or other such muscles. I am not here to pass judgement of any kind but I want them to physically fit and physically literate. It comes from a place in my heart where eating disorders and body dysmorphia ravage the fitness world. I cannot speak much on it because I will force feed myself at every meal trying to get enough food in me to recover well. The flip side could be said that I never wanted to eat in high school because I was worried it would make me fat and unathletic looking. It can be an extremely hard balancing act and I have not yet come to a break through on how to empower these students to live their best and healthiest lives.

As a teacher I want to bring happiness to my students. I want them to feel comfortable in their own skin and have the skills to enable them to live their best lives. How I get there is still a work in progress and always will be. I think the most important thing for now is to be critical in my thinking and proceed with the best intentions in mind. 

The Path Less Travelled

I saved this section for the end. In my thinking and break down of my own faults I realized that if it was easy, everyone would do it. It is up to us as the seekers of greatness to push ourselves and hold ourselves to a high standard. If everyone could eat 5 balanced meals, drink enough water, improve their cardio vascular health, and physical strength day in and day out without any sacrifice they would. It is in the sacrifice that you find success.

Society today is focused around instant gratification and doing what is rewarding in the moment. I challenge you to fight this norm and choose the path less wish to travel. Find a goal and accept that you will have to suffer and travel down this path for some time before there is a reward. I promise if you do you will find that there is as much gratification in the journey as there is in the reward. A long term goal demands sacrifice and that is what will make that goal so much sweeter in the end.

Meet Day

 

Welcome back for another week of eventful action!

This week was the week of my powerlifting meet. I was nursing a knee injury and was unable to squat over 205lb without pain over the last 3 weeks. You can imagine the strain that was putting on my mental. We went into the meet with our eyes set on making it to centrals by obtaining a qualifying total with very modest openers based on how my knee was doing. That being said day of competition came and there was no knee pain. Someone up there was looking out for me and gave me a break.

The meet was in a relatively small facility and had officials from the Ontario Powerlifting Association to sanction the meet. Weigh ins were at 7:30am so I was up nice and early at 5:30am to get there and find where I was to weigh in. I had a maybe 1000 calories and no water for 12 hours going into the weigh ins where I a made weight at 80.53kg. The prep was officially done and I made sure to eat and rehydrate before the lifting started at 9:30am. 

Attempts: 8/9

Squat - 160, 190, 212.5

Bench - 115, 122.5, 130x

Deadlift - 205, 217.5, 227.5

Total on the day 562.5kg (1237.5lb)

Videos can be found on the lifting Instagram page Zach Bint (@zbint_training) • Instagram photos and videos. 

After all said and done with the help of my coach we achieved a total that makes us eligible for centrals and provincials. We are still fighting to get a total that would give us a placement at nationals but that will come in the near future. We wanted to step onto the platform for the first time and build up some confidence. The final bench that was disallowed was a battle and I made sure to let it come down to judge decision.

Going into the future of my training I look to start really improving on my focus. I have been focused in an overall sense but at times my focus is not fully there and there are a few reps or sets that are not up to meet standards. I think that everything we do needs to have intent behind it or there is no point to doing it. It is like having the intent of getting a 6 pack, you do all this training but you do not eat well. There is a piece of the puzzle that is missing. From here on in everything will have an intent behind it in training and I hope it carries over to everything I do. 

Have the End in Mind

Overview

This week was my first week of placement at a local high school. It was a true eye opener to the world of teaching. I must say I am very excited for what's instore for me in the future. Getting an opportunity to interact and be apart of so many amazing individual's lives is a blessing. Growing up I always enjoyed school and I guess that's why I am deciding to never leave. Initially I only enjoyed school for my friends, then it progressed to the sports and extracurriculars and it was not until this year I realized I love learning. Sometimes learning does not come in the form that we think it does but looking back my journey this year into learning new skills I realized that is what every day is in school. 

Books

This week I finished my 4th book and have begun my 5th. I finished the 6 Steps to 1 Million by Gordon Pape and have now begun The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. If you wish to read 6 steps to 1 million encourage you do because it gives you a new lens to see the world. Many of the steps do not simply apply to financials. That being said if you are looking into investing money it is a wealth of knowledge and is a great starting point to start learning about investing. 

In the opening chapters of the new book I am reading there was a scenario that made me take a minute to think. I found it quite prolific even though it was some what morbid. The scenario was imagine you are entering a funeral home for someone dear. Family, friends and collogues are there sharing stories and talking about the memories they had of the individual. As you approach the front of the room you find yourself laying in the casket. You have 4 people giving speeches about your life. Reflect and think what you would like them to say. 

This scenario made me really take a second to think about how I wish to be remembered. The main things that came to mind were kind, caring, determined, and always there for you when you needed him. These things are what I deeply consider to be attributes that I want to drive my life. I realized that I am not trying to acquire money. I do not want anyone at my funeral to say "wow he knew how to make money." I value my relationships and being there for others more than money. I have been trying to improve myself and thought that money would make me happier but in doing this reflection I realized that there are certain aspects to life and my character that I would not put below money. 

If you do not wish to read the book, I would encourage you to take the time and try this scenario in your own head. It may be hard to do but if you are honest with yourself you will have a better understanding of why you do what you do in your life.

I have added a list below of the books that I am starting to read and work my way through. I have thought about self improvement as my main goal for the next little while. Hopefully I chase self improvement all my life but for now I am going to follow a saying I saw recently and "do it for one more day."

Training

Training has come to a slow as I recover for my competition this weekend! I will be competing in my first powerlifting meet in over 5 years. I am truly excited for the experience. Going in I have no expectations set on myself as it is only a local meet. I have the asperations of reaching a total that will qualify me for a regional meet but I am quite confident that I can do so. End of the day this meet is to get me back into the lifting environment and to just enjoy competition once again. At heart I am very competitive and I will always be that way. At the same time I want to go in with the hopes of enjoying the day and taking what is there. I have learned over the last 3 years of training that nothing is worth injury when it comes to these kinds of meets. I have a very long career in lifting if I choose to and if I am smart about listening to my body. Sometimes you need to sacrifice the short term goal to achieve the long term one. 

Wrapping Up the Project

 This will be the last post related to my class work. The process of reflecting on each 1-2 weeks of work has kept me grounded and kept me thinking. I wish to continue with the blog posts and keep them focused on what I am doing to improve myself. It will in a sense keeping me accountable to myself.

What I've Learning

Throughout the project I have found out a lot about myself. The project morphed and changed as I did. The initial idea was to start my own platform and business in personal training and coaching. I had anticipated this to take a lot longer than it did because of how much time I spent on it each day and each week. 

Once I completed my initial focus I moved towards personal growth. In the process of making the business I realized that I needed to learn more. The great thing about this game of life is that you are never done learning and in the process of reflecting and coming up with a purpose I realized I am no where near where I want to be intellectually and in my application of the information. 

From this moment of clarity I learned that I need to get better each day. I came up with the idea for myself that I need to stride to be 1% better every day. My focus is not always directed but the end goal is to do 1% better each day. This could be in the form of reading, eating healthy that day, learning a new skill, diving into a post on a topic I want to learn about. The possibilities are endless and I hope that I can continue to share that with you as I continue on this blog.