Save your drama for your mama

Sigh....more drama and it also involves social media.

Last year I set out to try Olympic weightlifting and I partnered up with Risto Sports.They have a long resume of coaching and are best known for their wooden heel weightlifting shoes. I signed up for a year of programming and coaching. Being new to the sport, I believed I would get better, which I did. The programming was a lot of volume, but my technique wasn't really getting all that much better. Every time I went to train in Maine, the feedback would be that I just needed to improve my technique. The cues I received at the time, made no sense to me. I could not translate them into practice and of course my body suffered injuries. My shoulder hurt. I tweaked my neck. I lacked confidence in the lifts and I needed a break.

That's when I found 849 CrossFit and Weightlifting. I went there actually thinking that I could continue doing the Risto programming, but with some technique help. I was wrong. They wanted to do the programming AND I really needed to come lift at their gym. Which was great, for a time. I really learned about weightlifting there. I competed in my first competition with them. I learned technique. I learned the ins and outs of using Icy Hot and knee sleeves. More so, I gained confidence.

I also learned how much drama exists in the world of weightlifting. (Almost as much as CrossFit.) I'm not getting into details, but let me just say that Risto has impacted quite a few lifters in the area - good/bad/ugly/beautiful. I found myself in the middle of a swirling, twirling mess of "he said, she said". I agree with everything and everyone. All of it.

The reality is -- there are three sides to every story. I don't know who is right and who is wrong. It really doesn't matter. What matters to me is that I am lifting and doing it in a way that works for my schedule. Things change. Schedules change. Injuries happen. People come and go. I have to do what is best for me and my family.

But - let me be clear....just because you shared a moment with someone in life and you are friends on social media...it doesn't mean you're friends for life. I hate social media. I hate it when drama (that you didn't even start) results in being blocked, untagged, unfriended, ousted, and eliminated from conversation. It's so stupid and it kind of hurts. The social media aspect, in my mind, just exacerbates the drama.

I am a loyal person. I tend to welcome you into my world when we share something. In CrossFit it may be the suffering through a WOD, or in weightlifting it might be cheering you on as you PR the clean and jerk. Leaving the place we suffered together does not mean I don't still feel loyal to you. So when you reject me, or stop following me, or pretend I don't exist, it hurts. AND THIS IS WHY I HATE SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

The end.