In all my years of training, I have come across many different types of individuals. When I first began training people, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I would take them through simple bodysplit programs and never monitored their results. We did the exercise for a number of sets and reps and then went to the next exercise. Fast forward 10 years and I personally feel as though I am a completely different persona and trainer. I have taken my evolution and experiences from a clueless guy lifting in the gym to a competitive powerlifter and strength coach and used it to benefit my athletes.
One of the biggest aspects of training that I find most neglected is the correlation between our state of mind and our strength levels. Is it possible to convince ourselves that we are actually stronger than we really are in order to lift more weight? The answer is a big ol YES! The reason being that the vast majority of individuals in the gym are very good at doing the complete opposite, convincing themselves that they cannot and will not accomplish a task before they even set foot in the gym.
The fact is that lifting heavy weight is hard. Actually it's very hard! Most people stay away from lifting heavy and think of many excuses in order to avoid it. However, nothing worth accomplishing in this world is easy.
Still a little hesitant? Well here are 5 mental tips you can use in order to make yourself stronger during your next training session.
1) Don’t lift "heavy" weight: Never...and I mean NEVER tell yourself something is going to be heavy. Remind yourself that it's not heavy if you can lift it. Of course it will feel heavy! But that doesn't mean it is heavy. I always remind my clients that they must never convince themselves of anything. This leads me to my 2nd tip...
2) Supreme confidence: Always approach a heavy lift with complete confidence. Walk up to the weight was all the power in the world and always unrack the bar with speed. Don't give yourself a chance to think you will fail. Failure is not an option. That is not to say you will always complete the lift. There will be times when you miss a lift or struggle with a specific number of reps. However, it is better to miss a lift because it is actually too heavy and not because you told yourself it's too heavy.
3) Create a mantra: The definition of mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation". Find a phrase or word that has meaning to you. It can be anything but it must put you in a state where you are ready to accomplish a task. It must transform you and create a sense if power and aggression inside you. My training partner and I use the same mantra before a lift... I love the movie "Predator" and in this movie, a character named "Mac" goes to hunt the Predator all by himself and in order to mentally prepare himself, he sings the chorus from the song "Long tall sally" by Little Richard (for some reason, the Marines in the movie love this song) Here is the actual clip from the movie...
Long Tall Sally - Predator @ Yahoo! Video
Nothing is more hardcore than hunting a Predator all by yourself so my partner and I always say "Gunna have me some fun!" before every lift. It calms us down but also jacks us up at the same time. Give it a try, just don't steal my mantra!
4) Flip the switch: Along with a mantra, you can also do something that "flips a switch" inside you and gets you prepared for the task ahead. Now, I've seen some really stupid things for this including slaps in the face and even swearing as loud as you can. In my opinion, that all seems a little exessive. All I do to flip the switch is pull my hat down as far as I can before a lift. It tells me that it's time to kill it. Believe it or not, I learned this mental cue from Sylvester Stallone in the movie "Over the top". If you have never seen this movie, do yourself a favor and go rent it. The whole movie revolves around truck driving and arm wrestling...simply amazing! In the movie, Stallones character turns his hat backwards before he arm wrestles to prepare him for the "battle" in front of him. Here are a few clips from the movie. (The first part shows the hat turning!)
5) Go lift heavy!: My final tip to instantly get stronger is to actually go out there and lift heavy weight. You will be surprised at what a few weeks of heavy lifting will do. The bodies ability to adapt to heavy load is simply amazing and your nervous systems adaptation to heavy lifting will show almost instant results. So get your butt to the gym and move some iron!
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