Spandex: A Necessary Evil

Sometimes I get discouraged. Especially lately. I haven't seen much progress over the last two months and I know that it's because my routine and my discipline have been lacking. I knew from day one that both of those things would be essential to my journey. I also knew that the results I got initially would be much more drastic than the results I got a few months down the road. Big changes at first and then smaller ones - but it can still be discouraging. I haven't seen big changes lately, but I found the picture on the left from about a year ago and felt a little bit better knowing that I have changed and you can see it all over my face!

My focus needs to get sharper and I have a competition coming up in 2 weeks. I took a big step yesterday toward my goal by practicing in my singlet. This will be my first official USA Weightlifting sanctioned event and a singlet is the required uniform. So I got one and proceeded to freak out about having to wear it. "Spandex is not a right, it's a privilege" was a motto that I've held to since I was forced to wear spandex for volleyball in high school. Mortifying. Tight. I will give spandex it's due credit for being comfortable and nonrestrictive to movement in sports, but that doesn't mean it's flattering on everyone. Weightlifting suits aren't meant to be fashionable, it's all about function.

There are so many moving parts and intricacies to the lifts - so much more than picking up a heavy object and putting it down (contrary to popular beliefs). I knew that if I didn't wear the singlet until the competition I would be freaking out about it the entire time and all those little cues I needed to remember to hit my lifts would get shoved into some small corner of my brain while the idea of me in full-body spandex took up the bulk of my focus.

I decided to debut the singlet during some lifting practice at District CrossFit yesterday. I wasn't working out in a group, but the box was definitely full of people. I had "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" stuck in my head - particularly the line about being afraid to come out of the locker... I did it in stages. Foam rolling with my jacket and pants on, a few PVC exercises with the jacket off, a few warm-up snatches. The fact that it's been in the 20s and 30s lately in DC was making it more difficult to strip down, but once I started to get warm, I figured I might as well get it over with and off came the pants.

I definitely felt half naked, but knew that no one was really paying attention to me so I just carried on with my workout and eventually I stopped thinking about it. It really wasn't as bad as I imagined. It's just a uniform and everyone else will be wearing them. No one will care about how I look, only how I lift. I even PRd my snatch yesterday and got really close to breaking 100lbs. The singlet is here to stay.