So it has been officially over a year since I started AFL. I have gone from playing intramural futsal at my school to playing full 11v11 outdoor and now, 7v7 indoor. I’ve played as many types of soccer as I can and find myself loving the sport the more I play it. I must admit that soccer has helped me get back on track with everything in my life. It’s given me a way to connect with people again as well as something to look forward to week to week. It’s given me renewed motivation to keep in shape, watch what I eat, and try to be in the best physical condition I could be in thanks to my competitive nature.
Ah, competitive nature. This is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about recently. Competitive nature and the conflict of weight lifting, the two major trains of thought that have occupied my mind in those quiet moments of the day. Both are worthy of pages of thoughts and probably several articles on their own, but I will do my best to get it down into one. Both are equally important in my eyes and both are areas in which I continue to think about, research, and eventually probably right more exclusive articles on in the future.
I’d like to start with the topic of competitive nature. Now, I will admit that this may get a little controversial given the state of how society views competition. The idea that everyone gets participation ribbons, or an “A for effort” has become a dominant line of thinking, predominantly with children, yet I see the same thinking start to bleed into adulthood. While I will get this out of the way now and say that it can be very important in sports to take out the competition at first, enabling kids to focus on skill building and self-confidence, I do not believe that competition is overall a bad thing. This must be taken with a grain of salt though. It is a fine line. A win-at-all cost attitude is a terrible thing, especially for a child; however, when a mixture of competition and the stomach to lose coincide, that is the best place to be in. Let me explain.
I’m a very competitive person. I like to win, bottom line. That’s not to say that I do not know how to lose. Like I said, it’s a fine line. I hate losing, but can handle it. Anyway, so what does this matter at all? Well, that competitive nature and the dislike of losing translated towards my disease state. I viewed every symptom as a loss, and I don’t lose well. Through this competitive mindset, I was determined to beat my disease. Maybe not so much in a case of curing it (currently the only way to cure my disease is through surgery to remove my large intestine) but in a sense of not letting it consume my health, not letting it run my life. My opponent may not have been a separate entity, but it was an opponent nonetheless. The days I didn’t feel like getting out of bed or going to school, I would think to myself “what are the normal people doing today? What are the people who aren’t sick doing?” Usually, that is all it took for me to get up. I might be sick, but if they are doing it than so can I! I applied this level of thinking to everything. Anytime I don’t feel like going to the gym, or playing soccer, even going to school, I just think about beating my disease. It may be hard at the time, but afterwards I feel victorious. I feel like I accomplished something great. All of this must be reasonable though. I’m just going to say that if you are in a place where you’re sick enough to be in the hospital, then maybe you should go to the hospital. There are some scenarios where staying in bed is a necessity. When it comes to determining this for yourself, well, I can’t help you there.
Really what I am getting at is that none of this would have been possible if I wasn’t competitive. I was told I have a disease, and that it’s okay to act sick, to be sick, and live life like I’m sick. I had a way out, a way to “lose” without anyone blaming me. That competitive fire though, that’s what got me up in the morning. That’s what keeps me posting here, and that’s why I keep playing sports. This competitive fire, that urge to win and succeed, this is a must in my opinion. It’s something that you must either have or develop in order to fight back against whatever it is that is looking you in the face telling you that you can’t do something!
With that, I’m going to switch gears and talk about my latest renewed obsession. This obsession is weightlifting. I mentioned earlier how there is a conflict with weightlifting. Now, with most people there probably isn’t a conflict, yet with me one exists. My main sport is soccer (as if you couldn’t already tell). I’m still playing catch up with my “proper” soccer skills. I am an unorthodox goalkeeper, but it gets the job done. I had relinquished any thoughts regarding weightlifting when I first began playing soccer, as I spent most of my time practicing to catch up to those I would be playing against. I’ve finally gotten to the stage where I feel comfortable with my ability to play against most other players, so now I’ve returned to the idea of weightlifting. I even wrote an article roughly a week or two ago regarding my new interest in weightlifting, more specifically in utilizing the Wendler 5/3/1 program. I had written a follow up to that article, but like most things I write, it ended up in the recycle bin on my desktop, so sorry about that! Anyway, being two weeks into the program, I have now had a turnaround in thinking regarding weightlifting.
I always regarded weightlifting as an accessory to my sport. At one point I did lift and participate in sport separately, but ever since being in Kinesiology, weightlifting is done to assist my sporting ability. Yet, I’ve begun to appreciate the powers of weightlifting on it’s on. Since I have begun lifting, I cannot believe the response my disease has had to it. My symptoms have reduced in a massive way. It happened so much so that I completely forgot that I didn’t take my monthly injection! Usually I’m symptomatic for a week before my injection; this month there was nothing. Currently, I cannot explain the science behind this mystery other than to say that so far so good. How can I discontinue anything when the results are so apparent?
Furthermore, I’ve come to the realization that I have a disease that can cause malnourishment, and so it may be beneficial for someone in my condition to add lean muscle mass, in a sense adding a little insurance should I get really sick. Basically, it would just give more of a cushion should I start losing weight rapidly. Besides that, who wouldn’t want to add a couple extra pounds of muscle while shredding some unnecessary weight? I know I do. Yet, now for the conflict part. Take a look at soccer players, specifically goalkeepers like myself. Most are usually lanky limbed athletes with not much bulk. This is in extreme opposition of my past sporting endeavors. Does it make sense for someone who is as competitive as me to add something that may possibly hold me back as an athlete, or will it drive me forward. I guess that is the point of experimenting! This article has taken me a few days to sit down and write. In those few days I’ve gone through the motions of thinking I should drop weightlifting, but then realizing that the benefits to my illness are far too great to simply drop it all together. That being said, I’ve decided to experiment with it both in the terms of the effects of weightlifting and its effects on my disease as well as the effect of weightlifting (specifically the gain of lean muscle mass) on soccer performance. There has been a ton of articles and research into athletic performance versus lean muscle mass, and the consensus of thinking seems to be that there is a point at which you no longer gain an advantage (called the point of diminishing returns). I’m setting out to find that point.
With that being said, I don’t have much more to say this week. I know it’s been a while since the last post, and I had said I would put updates up about the Wendler 5/3/1 routine I’m doing. I did indeed write an update, but it seemed way to off topic to what I want to accomplish with this site. That being said, I am once again looking into the possibility of video updates once I get over my camera shyness. So until then, that’s all I have for now!!
