11 Nov And It Was Fun Again

By: Daniel Dalenberg

Powerlifting got very boring for a while. I almost didn’t want to do it anymore. I kept internally asking myself, “Why am I even doing this anymore?” The last couple of meets started with dread. A lot of the training leading up to those meets were filled with dread. I couldn’t help but simply not want to be there at the start of the Arnold. That feeling was even worse right afterwards. I wanted nothing to do with powerlifting for a bit.

[wa-wps]

Let’s take a step back.

In 2010 I set some goals for myself in raw powerlifting. One of the biggest milestones was that I wanted to total 2000 in just knee wraps. I wish I could find the Facebook comments where I said it in conversation with an old training partner, Scott Metcalf. I remember exactly what I wrote. I wanted to total 2000, I didn’t care what weight class and I thought the most likely scenario was an 800 squat, 500 bench and 700 deadlift.

That milestone goal gave me something to strive for, for a long time. Fast forward 4 years and I did exactly that. I hit a 2000 total via 800, 490, 710. Almost exactly as I had predicted. The feeling of fulfillment was fantastic but pretty quickly afterwards I was left feeling kind of empty. The question of what was next loomed over my head. Of course there are bigger numbers to pursue and higher rankings that I want to achieve but I was left feeling like there wasn’t much direction besides just more of the same of what I had been doing for the past decade.

Some other issues.

In October of 2015 I had a somewhat public falling out with an individual that was a friend and that I had trusted, all over a powerlifting meet. Why it all went down is still somewhat of a mystery to me, or at least why it went down in such a grandiose manner. That whole series of events got nasty with plenty of absolutely childish social media behavior and it stressed me to the point of not sleeping.

I hated powerlifting. I didn’t want to be involved with it anymore.

I’m not sure if I ever told Brian this, but I thought very hard about resigning from the team. Not because of anything the team or Brian had done, not at all. In fact, they had my back with vicious, fierce loyalty. More so, I just wanted to crawl back into my hole and just lift weights in the dirty little key club I belonged to and not be involved in a public way anymore. To be brief: I’m glad I didn’t do that.

Arnold 2016

After the Arnold I was still unfulfilled. I was bored and didn’t have fun lifting in the meet. It was a great meet, a big show and was a ton of fun to lift on the same platform as my friends and most importantly my mentor. I loved spending time with everyone and getting to be there that weekend but I just didn’t enjoy the competing aspect. It wasn’t fun.

Let’s try some gear

I’ve been saying for a couple years that I would eventually lift in gear. This seemed like the perfect time to do it. I was bored and wanted a change and a new challenge. I also wanted to show that I could be good at both.

So we started training.

Brian hooked me up with a full set up of Inzer gear. Grid stitched Predator briefs, triple ply SDP shirt, and Inzer LUP, Fusion dead lift suit the whole nine yards. Everything was brand new and ready to go. It all fit about right and would work well for my first meet.

Very quickly, I fell back in love with the training. It was hard again. Really hard. I was challenged to learn and adapt. It left me frustrated at times but that made me like it even more. I would beat the beast and get through the meet no matter what it took. I was determined to be proficient enough in gear to do it. Then it all started to come around and click. Weights moved fast, got heavy and got excited. And it was fun again.

I started to get confident and felt like I would be able to make it through the meet. I felt good about hitting 2200+ to qualify for the pro day at the Arnold XPC.

Then came the meet.

Man, was I anxious! I couldn’t wait to get on the platform. It was time to go to work and show what I had learned. Everything fell into place. I fought off a head cold, made weight easy and focused on nothing but me. I was completely selfish and did everything I needed to do to be successful.

I loved it.

Warming up was nerve racking but it was fun. I enjoyed having some laughs and getting ready to put the work in. It was simply fun. I was excited for the day. I wanted to be there. I spent some time just soaking that in and enjoying the ride. It all went by fast and in a blur.

When we hit the platform, it all clicked. I didn’t need any pumping up. No one needed to be in my ear getting me ready to go. No need for head phones and a bunch of loud music. I didn’t even really need ammonia. I was focused, zeroed in and ready to get it done. That level of focus led to a level of performance that I had not achieved in the gym. Each time I touched the bar, the lift was executed better than I had ever done before. So much so, that Todd Brock and the lifters he was helping found it hard to believe that I had only been in gear for 15 weeks or so.

And it was fun again.

I remembered how much I love powerlifting that weekend. I found great pleasure in competing again through a new style and new challenge. I left the meet ready to start planning out my off season and thinking about the next meet. I hadn’t enjoyed a meet that much in a long time. I was able to enjoy the process again. Needless to say, I’ll be lifting in gear for the foreseeable time being.

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Daniel Dalenberg

Dan Dalenberg is a pro level raw and equipped powerlifter with elite totals in the 220, 242 and 275 class. Best official raw meet lifts include an 804 squat, 507 bench press, 715 dead lift and 2006 total. Best equipped lifts include an 950 squat, 715 bench, 735 deadlift and 2400 total at 242. Dan has been training under Brian's guidance using the 10/20/Life methodology since late 2010.

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