How do you mentally prepare?

[DCYPL]

Ladies and Gents,

I was wondering what you do before you lift, that instant JUST before it. I realised lastnight I take a deep breath and mentally say "Easy..."

lol. I dont know why I didnt notice this earlier, but someone who spots me sometimes said "Bro, I see you do that everytime before you lift s#!t."

On bench, I get my hands ready and in place, put some tention in them then try ton convince myself its gonna be easy haha. To me, it makes a difference in my lift. If I think "Awww man, this is gonna be hard..." its usually a fail since I already gave myself an excuse.

Am I alone in this?

[Dinahlady]

First few sets I focus on the biomechanical cues e.g for squat: abs engaged, glutes engaged, hips ext rotated and kness going outward, coming down with equal weight on each leg. As warm up sets go on I might just repeat one main cue in my head as I do the reps. "abs, abs, abs, glutes glutes, glutes" during the lift (I usually go quite slow). 

But after warming up and onto the main or harder sets I actually try and blank my mind so nothing interferes with how I'm lifting. After cuing myself for the first few warm ups its better to see what body organically does and I think it means i can observe the lift better, so if my knees are coming in / glutes not firing I'm just observing that - rather than blaming that happening the cue or thing I said whilst/before I lifted, or for my missed lift/or form messing up slightly. It means i cant say "oh i should of focused on my abs contracting more" - It measn i just need to work on that/train that outside of my heavier lift. 

 

 

[DCYPL]

O.O all that!??!

I guess thats where you experience and knowledge comes into it. The max that goes through mine is...

Squats "KEEP YO BACK STRAIGHT!"

Deads 'KEEP YO BACK STRAIGHT!"

Bench "DONT DIE!"

[Dinahlady]

its probably worse when you have been a PT as you learn lots of cues for helping your clients lift right that you might say to them during lifting or when learning how to lift... for me they then sometimes play in my head as I lift so I almost need to stop it by blanking my mind. Not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing... haha. 

[Gym rat]

Since I am in comp mod I have my hodie hod up and Ipod turned up and listing to Ice t or ACDC and blocking out anything that is bugging me a the time.I just think of smashing the weight for the target of five reps

[Leeroid]

I take a deep breath and tell myself not to rush as I find that I always rush when I'm nervous which leads to not setting up correctly which leads to a higher chance of failure.

 

With a squat, I'll get under it, position myself making sure I'm in the centre of the bar then take a deep breath before unracking it. Right foot back, left foot back and right foot back. Remind myself to push my butt out and arch my back before taking another deep breath and dropping into the hole.

 

So yeah, it's pretty technical, at least with the squat. I don't like to rush things like I see some guys do at powerlifting comps where they'll walk around in a rage hyperventilating, sniff some tork, hurl it on the ground then storm up to the bar. They'll unrack and begin their squat within 2 or 3 seconds which is not how they train.

Not sure if that was the kind of answer you were after but yeah

 

[Pseudonym]

Good question!

And yeah, I do form-checking ("Back straight, chest up, butt out") as well as positive affirmations. For me, that usually means tellingm myself the number of reps I'm going for is achievable - "Come on, easy twelve!"

We're in good company - think who says "Lightweight, baby!"

[rapz]

Damn you guys are technical lol

all i think is, "im gonna kill this motherf***er" *diablo*

[DCYPL]

haha but thats cheating because you can lift Mt Everest, we arent all so lucky!

 

 

 

So...Imah try it!

[Gym rat]

I also think time to smack this heavy ass weight baby Gym rat style

[reddog]

Damn you guys are technical lol

all i think is, "im gonna kill this motherf***er" 

yip this is also my approch, just rage with a blank mind and normally yell easy a few times, if i start to think on a big comp lift/max im done, the voice of self dout and fear creeps in and a pinning is on the cards, Iv trained the lifts 1000's of times so the tech is drilled in and just happens with out needing to think or be cued 

[AZIDE]

i normally just rock up to the gym at peak times and ask to work in with someone then just chuck a few 20's on each side of what theyre doing as my warmup. add few more for working sets. mostly just thinking about how many ppl are watching and if any sluts are mirin. towards end of workouts more focused on what im drinking that night and also thinking of making sure im getting good pre town pump. and every now on then assesing my progress (lifts/aesthetics etc) and if its not up to scratch I think about upping my doses

[Leeroid]

Lmao, especially at last part

[DCYPL]

LOL!!

Actually seems legit these days man. A surge of young people hitting the gym hard in hopes of dem aesthetics!

 

[Terrymundo]

I always set short term goals to look forward to. Each workout should have 1 exercise at a particular weight for a set amount of reps and possibly for multiple sets, EVERY WORKOUT otherwise what the f*ck are you doing?!?! Set the goal and VISUALIZE, VISUALIZE, VISUALIZE.

Last week I wanted to squat 220 for a single, I didnt decide on the day, I didnt decide the set before, I knew a week out what I wanted to do. In the days leading to the lift I pictured actually how the lift was going to go, I knew the bar i would need, the plates I'd use, the rack I'd use, I knew how i was going to approach the bar, the song I was going to play, bascially everthing was VISUALIZED. I swear could even feel the pressure of the bar on my back. When the time came it was like I had already done it, I didn't ask myself "I wonder if i'll get it?" NO, I knew i was going to do it cause I already had a thousand times in my head, doing it again was just a formality.

I know it sounds cheesy but TRY IT!!! I got my training partner onto a similar procedure and WOW. His mindset in now completely different. Weeks before when he hit a new PB, as soon as he racked the bar he would turn around with a surprised look on his face like he didnt think he was going to get it.After that he would make some silly joke or want to smack a nigga five like he just fluke shot a full court swish. 2 weeks ago I told him about how I mentally tackle a lift and he took it on board. I asked him what 1rm squat do you need to hit next week to improve yourself by 2%. He said his best was 175 for a single so 180kg was the next milestone. I told to visualise everything days before the lift and picture extactly how the lift will look and feel right down the fine details. when the day came he was more focused than what I had seen him. There was much less banter. The warmup sets were done and now it was game time. He then SMASHED the 180 with picture perfect form! AFTERWARDS WAS WHEN I REALLY NOTICED THE DIFFERENCE. no victory dance or look of smug satisfaction. I asked what he thought of the lift, he said its wasn't like hitting a PB he already done it, he just needed to do it again.

when we hit a new or tough weight, a shred of doubt will f*ck the lift, phsyicing up will mask the doubt but the only way to walk up to the weight with confidence is know you are going to it lift it, from runing through the senario again and again till your so sick of it and you just RIP that fucken bar just to quieten your mind.

[DCYPL]

Awesome story bro. I would approach 1rm on certain workouts like bench or squat...but Im a loner with no friends Pretty shy too. Funnily enough to other people knew me seperately, the guy from the gym said I was humble. My mate laughed his ass off. I think the thinks Im humble because I dont look around, hardly look in the mirror, kinda just sit in my own world and lift

foreveralone.jpeg

Im going to try this today. LEG DAY