07 May Thanos v. Deadpool Training

By: Lisa Guggisberg

My husband has this really awesome Thanos tattoo piece in progress.  It’s almost completed and I asked him the other day what he plans for his next piece.  He said he’ll probably add Death to the piece.  I am not a comic book nerd by any means, but I decided to understand a little bit more about these two characters and I did a little reading.

[wa-wps]

So here’s the short version of Thanos and Death.  Thanos adores Death and he’ll do anything for her. He’ll kill billions of people and destroy universes, all just to impress her and he does this constantly.  Death, on the other hand, waivers between Thanos’ love and constant adoration to her other lover, Deadpool.  Deadpool is funny, flashy, excites Death and is never boring.  There’s a lot more background to the story, but this all you need to know for purposes of this article.

So, this love triangle between Thanos, Death and Deadpool got me thinking about training and the urges and desires we have with training. I see it this way; Thanos is constant, steady unwavering, Deadpool is flashy, sexy and Death is you.  You are being torn between constant and steady progress, or the flashy sexy, exciting training.

Thanos Training:

Thanos training is like his love for Death – constant, steady and persistent. He focuses on what his next step should be to win Death over.  Constant, steady training means having a plan and sticking to it and making minor adjustments when needed.  For Thanos his end goal is Death’s love, so he makes a plan and sticks with it, trying to avoid distractions.  Sometimes it works, i.e. Death and Thanos end up with a Titan love child, but sometimes it doesn’t work.  The main thing is that Thano’s goal is always the same.  For a powerlifter, this goal is to lift more weight, right? So, how do you do this? You make a plan, follow it and put any distractions aside.  This is what we advocate at PRS and the principals of 10/20/Life.  Phases of training (offseason and pre-contest) are planned out with an end goal in mind.  Offseason is a time where you are available mentally to spend time with family and friends, and physically to attack weak points.  Pre-contest is a time where you are locked in 100% and focused on your goals.  A time where you cut out the shenanigans, such as trying to peak at two different sports at the same time.

If you are following 10/20/Life principles, you never do you do a movement just to do a movement.  Why are you doing overhead squats? To help your shoulders so you can bench more?  Yeah, pretty sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it?  Instead, you should be doing assistance movements that are specific to your weak points. You should never do anything just because lifter X does it.  Their weak points aren’t the same as your weak points!

Deadpool Training:

Deadpool training is reckless.  Doing flashy movements in training that, although may look really cool, they really never get you anywhere.  These movements are ego boosters.  They make you feel good.   I’ve seen people getting ready for a meet and swinging around on a bar like a monkey doing bar muscles ups because it looks cool for their social media.   Ok, we get it, you can do a muscle up; you’re strong and can swing like a monkey.  In reality, how awesome is it going to be when you blow out a shoulder, or bicep trying to show off your skills.  If you insist on doing stupid human tricks, at least save them for the offseason.

Check out the new Inzer Black Beauty wrist and knee wraps

Or, how about the people who rep out their maxes a week before a meet to show the world “Hey look at me! I’m more than prepared for the meet!”, only to get to the platform feeling like a garbage truck rolled over them and end up putting up a suboptimal performance.   Coming into a meet feeling fresh and ready to go sounds a hell of a lot better than coming in hurting, sore and beat up.  To ensure I come in ready, I typically take my last heavy reps 14 days before a meet. Sometimes I won’t even touch a barbell the two weeks leading up to a meet.

At the end of the day Deadpool is funny, sexy and exciting, which is entertaining, but I prefer the constant, steady and guaranteed kinda love.  So, #TeamThanos for me.  I’ll stick with my steady progress, focusing on the end goal and leave the distracting BS behind.

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Lisa Guggisberg

A self-proclaimed former high school band nerd turned meathead nerd, Lisa has been coached and mentored by Brian Carroll using 10/20/Life principals for 3 years. She started CrossFiting in 2006 but gave that up after realizing all she wanted to do was squat, bench and deadlift heavy. She now competes as a raw and multi-ply powerlifter in the 114 and 123 weight classes. Lisa has All-Time top 10 totals in both raw and multi-ply in her respective weight classes with a raw pro total of 936 lbs at 114 and a pro 1118 lb multi-ply pro total at 123 and 1090 lb multi-ply total at 114. She is currently ranked the #1 female multi-ply lifter at 123, #2 at 114 multi-ply female and #3 raw with wraps. Lisa has a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration, but hates politics and political debates. She is a mom of two, a firefighter wife and has worked as a full time litigation paralegal for almost 20 years.

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