Weightlifting & Matcha - A Personal Experience
We are delighted to welcome Indie Bornhoft as our guest blogger this month. Indie is a personal trainer, matcha lover and weightlifter.
Here, Indie shares with us her weightlifting experience and how doing our OMGTea Matcha Challenge supported her training...
Weightlifting isn’t like a normal gym workout. It’s dynamic yet paced, explosive yet slow, heavy but light, if you get it right. One thing is for sure, if you’re hurling twice your body weight above your head you need precision, focus and a whole lot of energy. With Weightlifting/Crossfit, you’ve got your EMOMS, AMRAPS, AMREPS, LADDERS, 1RMS, and a whole lot of maths that no-one prepares you for, the last thing you need to be adding to the mix is lack of concentration.
Matcha came into my life, whilst training for a half marathon, it fuelled frosty mornings and made me numb to soggy trainers and tired legs. It was the magic potion I used as my mental and physical fuelling for my running training, and I took that notion with me into the world of weightlifting.
The mini green tins of matcha come with me to my local Crossfit Box where I pick heavy stuff up and put it back down again! During my 14 day OMGTEA challenge I endeavoured to drink matcha either before, during or after my training to extrapolate wether my performance peaked in accordance to the matcha dosing.
Here are the accounts of 3 workouts I did whilst under the influence of the green magic:
WEIGHTLIFTING TRAINING - SESSION 1
“Today I had 2 grams of matcha with cold water, 20 mins before the workout begun. I needed the energy without the caffeine spike, as I was a little low on energy. It was a harder session today, the weights were heavy and the reps were slow - this is where you work within eccentric muscular phasing to build strength and work to pushing the weights heavier and heavier. Today’s olympic lift was “Behind the Neck Jerk” - essentially where you stand up tall with a barbell as heavy as you are on your shoulders and push it over head! All fun & games! I came into the session feeling ready, and the matcha help me focus on my last few 1RM (one rep max) lifts where I really needed focus to enable I executed the lift safely.”
WEIGHTLIFTING TRAINING - SESSION 2
“This session I felt powerful in my ambition to train, but a little frantic, (- the classic rushing around, trying to take out the bins whilst brushing your teeth mixture). I mixed 1 gram of matcha with water in the disposable travel sachets and drunk it throughout the workout. Initially I was worried it would make me shake under the barbell - as I am incredibly sensitive to caffeine. For instance, I would never drink builders tea, let alone a coffee due to my extreme lack of efficiency in metabolising caffeine, I shake, my heart rate sky rockets, and I feel super panicky. But matcha is a whole different world. The L-theanine molecule works in synergy with the caffeine and DOES NOT make you shake or crash. That quote is coming from a person who feels queasy even sitting too close to a coffee grinder at a cafe!
The matcha worked its wonders and instantly calmed my mind (that will be those delicious alpha brain waves) - I felt strong, determined and acutely focused on the task at hand.”
TRAINING SESSION 3
Behold another rushed arrival at the gym; I screech into the carpark, slam the car door, shove on my lifting shoes and down some leftover bottled water. As a worst case scenario woman, I tend to have
to bat away thoughts of my barbell falling on my head from overhead heights, or me dropping it on my toes, or it falling and paralysing me etc etc. Today was a worst case scenario day, and deadlift day. Every time I tried to lift my 95kg bar up off the floor, I froze and bailed on the lift. I couldn’t get my head in the game at all. Frustrated, I walked away from the barbell, and concluded I needed to just blimmin’ well focus and stop being afraid - if only I could press a big red button that stopped all my intrusive thoughts. Aha! Matcha, that’s the golden ticket here. It’s going to re-align my mindset and get me lifting that heavy piece of metal.
I ripped the packaging open and made myself a drink. Take two, here we go...
In the moments preceding the lift, you need total, tumbleweed silence and focus. No intrusive thoughts lurking about,
waiting to steal your lifting glory,
Or panic you into a frenzy.
Focus is all you need,
and matcha delivers that,
down the line,
every time.
Boom, the bar was overhead.
I simply won’t train without it.
