Dooley Noted: 2/3/2016
Last night, I levered my first sledgehammer.
It was a fantastic education on how a pound is not a pound.
To motivate me, my fiancé and skills coach, Jonathan, levered a 20 pound hammer. That is about 630 pounds of force – and he did it in a split stance where he couldn’t use jumping or leg power to help him much.
It’s such an enormous feat that few in the world can do it.
I jumped up, ready to learn how to tap into that kind of mental focus and honing of technique and strength.
My hammer weighed about 6 pounds. That equals under 200 pounds of force, but it’s a start.
I was shocked at how this tiny, light object felt impossible at first to even lift a millimeter off the ground.
I kept feeling it’s weight. It’s 6 pounds!
But try to put it on its end, and 6 pounds is no longer 6 pounds.
I felt my hands ache, telling me I wasn’t focusing on the right things.
I felt my body tighten in the places I knew would give me power.
I let the tension leave my face and jaw.
I heard Jonathan’s coaching in my ears, as he helped me improve my biomechanics.
And I heard him try to encourage my mind:
“it’s only 6 pounds.”
When it lifted off the ground to rest on my shoulder, it was a high I’ve never experienced.
There was no discomfort from gripping the handle.
There was no ache in my body.
There was absence of the disbelief that I could do it.
I had seen myself do it.
So, Jonathan let me celebrate for a few seconds.
Then he said, “Now, let’s add 1/4 pound.”
The tiny weight increase ignited my hubris. It’s only 1/4 pound!
But I could barely lift the hammer off the floor.
It solidified the fact for me that a pound is not a pound.
If you are having trouble increasing the weights by 2, 5, 10, or 20 pounds, please remember that the actual weight is only a measure of its density where it exists in that particular space.
As you move it through space, the weight changes.
Stick with it – even if it doesn’t move.
It will move. Keep going.
As the great strongman Chris Rider says, “When you quit is right before the steel yields to you.”
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley