Dead Last
By Hyperfit USA

"When I was young and a competitive swimmer, no words struck more fear into your heart more than these… Dead Last. At larger national meets there would be times where your only goal would be, not to be THAT!

It’s understandable, nobody wants to attract attention for being not as good as everyone else. The only thing worse, back then, would be to finish so far behind in your heat that you would get the “pity clap”, which is applause because you were so far behind that everyone was waiting for you to finish.

It occurred to me recently that people have this fear at the gym. It sometime causes people to scale more than they should, count reps that they shouldn’t (ie incomplete range of motion) or just flat out cheat!! That’s saddens me, people not challenging themselves because they’re afraid of where they will finish or what someone might think.

It also occurred to me that dead last isn’t a bad thing at all, in fact, I think it’s a great thing!! If you’ve pushed yourself more than you ever have before, used a heavier weight than ever before, held your rep quality to the highest standard or just made sure you’ve done the complete workout as written, then celebrate. You were dead last and you’re better for it. And if your fortunate enough to receive the “pity clap” relish in it, you earned it."