Meet this weekend!

We've got our Industrious meet this Saturday, and I thought I'd clarify a few things and try to sway some of you who might be on the fence about participating.

Before we go over specifics, we should establish why in the world you might even want to participate in a weightlifting meet. The biggest reason is because weightlifting is FUN! Weightlifting is a sport (an Olympic sport even, hence the term "Olympic weightlifting"), and for most of us who aren't professional athletes, we participate in sports because we enjoy them and they enrich our lives. In this context, asking the question of why you would want to participate in a weightlifting meet is like asking why you would want to play in a hockey, football, or baseball, or soccer, or whatever game. We play sports because we like them and they are fun, and weightlifting is another sport to enjoy!

For those of you who think you aren't "ready" (I've heard this way too many times), this is ridiculous. Any of you who have been coming to the gym at all practice the snatch and clean and jerk regularly, whether you come for CrossFit classes or to train with the weightlifting club. This is more than adequate preparation for this meet! If you can snatch and clean and jerk an empty bar, you can come and have fun with the meet. There is no "minimum weight" requirement or any nonsense like that. YOU determine the weights you lift. Even at the local official meets we go to there are always people opening up with little more than the bar. It is more a competition against yourself than it is against other people. Everyone is just trying to improve over what they did last time, and EVERYONE will celebrate your PR with you, no matter how big or small! That's the beautiful thing about weightlifting! There may be a competitive aspect to it at some level, but the real competition is within.

To make this mock meet even less intimidating, we have restricted it to just members of the Industrious community. And we all know how awesome our Industrious community is, and that there will be nothing but support and good will amongst all of the competitors and spectators.

Assuming I've convinced you all that participating is a great idea, here are a few specifics. First, we will get started at 10:00 AM. As soon as you get there we will weigh you in. Bodyweight is used for scoring: we will award first, second, and third place medals to the top men and women by "Sinclair" total, which is just a fancy way of scaling everyone's lifts so that superheavyweights are on equal ground with the little fellers. After that and a brief discussion of the rules, we will get started with the ladies session. We will run all the ladies through in a single session, then run a single guys session, and then the AWARDS CEREMONY! Singlets are NOT required, although tight-fitting clothing is encouraged, as are SEAHAWKS COLORS! Let's start Superbowl weekend off with a great meet!