Photo from the 2015 Starke Games...
Negative self talk when it comes to lifting, competing, or challenging yourself.
We have been doing some testing in the past weeks and we've been seeing some previous PR's getting crushed which is awesome. What I hate hearing is that negative self talk before a lift, during a lift, and after a lift. This can happen on your own, in a class, or during competition.
Example: We had some squat days where the goal of the workout was to buid to a new PR (Personal Record). As the weight was getting heavier on the bars I could hear athletes pull the bar form the rack and say something like "#uck" or "holy $hit this is heavy" or a number of other things. Right after that they would fail the lift. After giving a little "pep talk" on being aggressive, attacking the bar, and changing your mind set athletes were lifting the weight with confidence and and succeeding with the new max weight.
How can this be? They just failed with the exact same weight 2 minutes ago. Was it magic? Did someone take some weight off without them looking? Did coach turn the gravity in the room down?
What changed was the plan of attack (and maybe a little trap slap). When I see an anthlete trying to execute a new PR my recomendation is simple.
1. Tell yourself what you're gonna do before you do it.
2. Get fired up. We want arrousal, confidence, and some adrenaline but nott too much or you'll blow your lift.
3. Grab the bar with a purpose. Grab it with some aggression, and grab it like you mean it.
4. Get Tight! Whether you are getting under the bar for a back or front squat or you're setting up for a Deadlift, Snatch, or Clean & Jerk make sure you've got tension throughout the system. Getting under or grabbing the bar and being relaxed will make you feel weak and potentially crush you when you pull from the rack or the ground, that's the point where you're going to tell yourself "This is too heavy" and fail or "I've got this" and succeed. The more muscles and muscle fibres you can recruit to get the job done the better your chances of moving that mountain.
5. Breathe... This goes along with "Get Tight" Taking that bigh breath and creating that inner abdominal pressure to support your spine during heavy lifting will make all the difference and allow you to maintain a rigid torso and not get crushed at the bottom of that squat or when you're pulling from the ground. Releasing some pressure as you get closer to finishing your rep (the last 1/4 of that rep with a "tssssst" sound bu pressing your tougue against your front teath or letting out a "war cry" can help to aleviate some pressure. Don't let out so much air (like blowing out candles on a birthday cake) so that you get light headed.
6. Look back at #1 and do what you told yourself you were going to do.
7. Celebrate your new bad ass lift and pat yourself on the back.
In short don't talk yourself out of something just because you haven't done it yet. Tell yourself that you're capable of it and make it happen. These steps can work in life too as long as you don't allow yourself to believe that you're not capable of doing it.
Good luck!
Paul
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