Purposefully ‘Mindless’ Pursuits
Cleaning up cow manure, making love to the exquisite courtesan—all the same!
—Ling Po, 17th century Zen master
There is real value to being able to immerse yourself in an activity to the point that you lose all sense of time and self. You will do what it is you are doing far better, and with much greater concentration and focus. There is a tremendous psychological benefit to periodically practicing purposeful mindlessness.
Think of the human mind as a muscle. Like any muscle, if it is overworked it becomes over-trained and overtraining, as is the case with any muscle, leads to fatigue and performance degradation. The over-trained, over-worked, over-thinking brain becomes metaphorically overheated. The remedial solution is purposeful quietude; give the over-active mind some rest.
A mind that chatters ceaselessly eventually exhausts itself and an exhausted brain does not function nearly as well as a rested brain. Thought is self-perpetuating and by allowing internal dialogue to continue unabated 24-7-365, mental burnout lies just around the corner. Humans instinctively realize this and this is why drugs and alcohol are eternally popular: both allow the individual to dampen and suppress thought and reality. By stupefying the senses, by chemically altering the functioning of the brain, mental relief and euphoria are acquired. Anyone who has ever been drunk or high can attest to the fact that chemically altering the mind creates a pleasurable experience and pleasure is physically and psychologically addictive; especially if you can purchase pleasure in a bottle, pill or substance.
The desire to escape psychological reality and replace it with an altered reality is common and craved; always has been and always will be. Sufi Whirling Dervishes, Zen Monks, yoga aesthetics, sequestered Christian contemplative monks, Taoist priests, all seek to alter reality—though they would argue that they are amplifying reality not stupefying reality.
One common thread that ties the various holistic and natural contemplative methods together is that they all seek to silence the internal voice of conscious thought, one way or another. Thought creates a thin milky psychological layer that obscures reality. If thought is operating you are preoccupied.
When the internal voice grows silent, that thin continual sheen, the thought-chatter that obscures reality (and reality always unfolds in the instantaneous present) is scraped away. When the mind is silent and the senses engaged, you truly are able to see. Zen monks sit in formal meditation for upwards of twelve hours a day. In Zen meditation the idea is to quiet the mind without suppressing the mind and that presents a very tricky psychological dilemma. When thought finally falls silent the monks experience ‘true original self.’ The Zen brain, subjected to continual daily practice, eventually grows quiet and in that quietude an electric alertness emerges during which no thought arises. If thoughts do arise they are not ‘clung to.’ A thought might occur, but the reflective act of consciousness does not spring into action and examine or expand on the initial thought. And that is the end of it. No “thought chain” or “Nen sequence” occurs. The initial thought might arise, but the nen-chain does not take root. When a single thought arises, no amplification or expansion occurs and the electric alertness reemerges. Crisp clarity returns.
After a period of continual no-thought, a ‘Samadhi’ state occurs. Samadhi is inexplicable; words cannot describe a wordless state. If pressed it might best be described as an ecstatic state-of-being that happens when the brain becomes silent yet remains alert. A vibrant stillness envelopes the body as the “sense gates” become amplified. Hearing, seeing, tasting and feeling are heightened and remain heightened as long as conscious thought does not interfere with the delicate non-verbal state. Samadhi, heightened sense phenomena, rolls on unabated.
“Moment after moment only the present comes and goes during the period of Samadhi, a continuous stream of the immediate present. Only in the precise instant of the immediate present can we be said to exist.”
—Katsuki Sekida
If a single thought takes root and creates a nen-chain of subsequent thoughts, the gossamer strand that is the Samadhi state is shattered. Formal meditation practice eventually filters over into day to day existence and relates back to Ling Po’s quote, wherein he references the idea that when the electric quietude becomes a regular part of normal existence, mundane chores like washing the dishes or cleaning up manure have no greater or lesser significance than peak experiences such as attending a Super Bowl or making love to a supermodel.
When the vibrant state of intense internal quietude is present, everything is experienced intensely and equally. One attribute of the Samadhi state is the total lack of mental reflection or projection. You cannot be in the immediate present if you are reflecting or projecting, Thought uses memory to conjure up “Remembrances of things past” or conversely thought projects ahead on things and events yet to happen. Not to say that there is not a time and place for memory and projection. Humans however, are continually and eternally preoccupied, an unceasing and continual blathering within the brain occurs during nearly every waking moment. No activity is done without the “thinker” engaging in internal dialogue. People find that only when engaged in some intense activity does the thinker fall silent: sex or sport, life or death experience, something so exotic or dramatic that full attention is demanded. We have even coined a pop psychology phrase, “peak experience” to describe those undertakings or events so captivating and enthralling that the internal thinker, the verbal diarrhea, fall silent; trumped by events so intense that the individual stays in the immediacy of the exact present with every ounce of their being.
Is all this talk about internal dialogue mere arcane abstraction with no real relevance to Americanized fitness or athletics? Hardly. Sport masters need to be in the absolute present when applying their tradecraft.
Dogen Zenji, Krishnamurti and Thomas Merton, all the mystics and seers, inform us that the inky film of thought prevents you from being in the exact present. Of course drugs and alcohol can obliterate thought and with it the web of personality, but like going to the circus, sooner or later you have to come home. Athletes and improvisational jazz musicians are aware of the thought-free bliss of the immediate present. An athlete in the white hot immediacy of a competitive event has no time for conscious thought. Actually, conscious thought can be detrimental for the athlete.
If you are on the receiving end of a 125 mile per hour tennis serve, thinking will doom you. There is no way you can consciously think about how to react and still react in time. Try thinking about how you should move for service return, “here comes the ball; it’s heading to the left forward quadrant.” By the time the internal voice barks the order, “Move four paces left, use a backhand return to his left forecourt,” the tennis ball has gone past you like a cannon shot.
The capable and competent elite athlete moves mindlessly and surrenders motion and movement to the wordless subconscious. The elite allow the intuitive mind to move the body in the correct fashion to the correct location and initiate the proper physical response. All this is done in a split-second, an eye-blink. If conscious thought intrudes, the athlete is lost.
Elite jazz musicians are improvisational masters. When it is their turn to solo in the middle of a torridly paced tune, they know that conscious thought cannot move fast enough to allow them to improvise the perfect solo at breakneck speed. The jazz improviser in full flight has no idea how or why his fingers respond to the audio input of the accompanists. He listens with perfect and relaxed concentration and surrenders to that same electric alertness the Zen Monk experiences when deep in Samadhi. This is a musical Samadhi state wherein the thinker within the brain falls silent. Any preoccupation, any reflection or projection will derail the solo. When unleashing a series of 64th note glissando arpeggios against a breakneck tempo, a single clinging thought will smash the flow like a brick thrown through a plate glass window. The jazz master’s brain is perfectly still. The improvised solo unfolds and reveals itself to the wonderment of not only the audience, but also to the musician who spontaneously creates it.
Krishnamurti encapsulated these psychological phenomena in his master work, “The Awakening of Intelligence.” He makes the case that when the unceasing internal voice finally becomes quiet, a whole new dimension of reality and existence is revealed: vibrant, exciting and wonderful. He states that the peak experiences of the Jazz musician, elite athlete or Zen Master can be experienced by all of us as we go about our day to day lives. We can improve our psychological well-being by consciously engaging in activities that cause the chatterbox to fall quiet. Pursuits that require intense concentration naturally cause the mind to fall silent. Art, music and sport can become activities that allow the mind to fall silent, but there are numerous activities that potentially allow you to “lose yourself.” Some folks ‘become selfless’ working on their custom cars, doing carpentry, knitting or playing chess. Others achieve the electric alertness doing T’ai Chi or Qigong.
I personally seek to engage in a variety of activities in which I lose all sense of self. Intense physical training short-circuits and quiets the conscious chattering of the “observer” every single time. There is no way in hell the brain can be chit-chatting about “what’s for dinner” or “how will the Redskins do this weekend” while underneath a 500-pound barbell per forming backbreaking squat reps. Ditto for an intense game of racquetball, tennis or basketball. The lightning pace, the sheer physical exertion, makes sure there are no superfluous mental projections or reflections.
Any competent musician will attest that, if preoccupied, their playing suffers from distraction. Focus and selflessness are the keys: classical piano virtuoso Glenn Gould spoke of “A state of wonder and ecstasy” that enveloped him when playing at his best. Even something as mundane as concentrated reading requires a degree of concentration and focus that preclude the observer from making inane comments. Intense competition, be it chess or target shooting, shuts the internal talker down and requires total and complete attention and concentration. The participant must stay in the immediacy of the mindless present in order to perform optimally.
Do you engage in some sort of activity that requires that you “reside lightly in the immediate present?” Does your reflecting or projecting internal voice mindlessly blather ceaselessly and endlessly? Does the thin inky film of continuous chatter prevent you from experiencing the electric alertness of the immediate present? Are you able to become ‘lost’ in an activity? For your own mental health you should seek activities that demand total and complete attention. If you want to renovate your physique, you will need to learn how to immerse yourself in hard training.
If you are able to carry on a conversation with yourself while training, you lack intensity. Mental silence is an indicator that you have taken your training performance to the next level. Learn how to immerse yourself so totally and completely in an activity that thought falls silent of its own accord. Chatter and preoccupation impedes performance, regardless the mode or activity. Champion athletes and elite performers know and understand this. So should you.
Willpower is a Finite Mental Propellant
Successfully engineering a complete physical renovation is largely dependent on the trainee’s ability to psychologically reprogram their current way of thinking. Optimally we seek to replace bad habits with good ones, exchanging detrimental behavior in favor of beneficial behavior. If you are able to derive pleasure from the process, transformation is just a matter of time. The Mind can be your biggest ally or worst enemy. It largely depends on your particular psychological makeup. Initially, beneficial changes are legislated through willpower. However, all acts of willpower must cease at some point. Eventually you want genuine enthusiasm to take over from willpower. When enthusiasm powers the psychological process, chances of success radically improve.
Willpower is a finite mental propellant. Once you burn through your quota, it takes a long time to restock. Enthusiasm is infinite. It replenishes itself. Human nature loves to repeat pleasurable experience and if hard, intense, endorphin-releasing training is perceived as pleasurable, the Mind will seek to repeat this pleasurable experience. The more you train the better the gains, the better the gains the more you train…round and round it goes.
Disciplined eating is a psychological horse of a different color. It is far more difficult to become enthused about legislated eating. No endorphin-releasing pleasures, no training partners, no mathematical sense of accomplishment…eating requires the modification of conditioning and overcoming habit force. In our approach, proper nutrition is arrived at through the principle of creeping incrementalism. Tiny steps are taken, nutritionally speaking, using a wide range of foods and the end result is that the individual morphs detrimental eating habits into beneficial habits—new habits replace old ones—some through sheer trickery.
In the world of eating Taste is King. To pretend taste doesn’t matter or that it can be overcome through suppression or by some massive act of willpower is naïve, simplistic and doomed to failure.
Several easy to understand steps are taken to recalibrate our nutritional approach. Everyone has certain food preferences, foods that are totally acceptable. First off we identify foods that we like that are also acceptable and beneficial. It might be shellfish or carrots, turkey or garden salads—once we identify those foods, we “heavy up” on their consumption. Secondly, we come to grips with our own food preparation. That’s the big one. We learn how to prepare tasty versions of the foods that we like and that are beneficial and acceptable. Then we make lots of these acceptable foods ahead of time. Which ties into our next incremental step: we never allow ourselves to become hungry, particularly at night…that’s when the binging occurs. A person who is satiated is less likely to binge on sweets or junk food than someone who is ravenous.
Another step is the trickster fake out of dealing with a sweet tooth by having on hand “engineered foods” that are sweet taste treats, yet are nutritionally acceptable. Will a sport nutrition bar equal the taste of a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream? No way, but if the individual has on hand a sport nutrition bar when the sweet tooth urge hits, he/she can satiate the sweet tooth and avoid the ice cream binge. There are other tricks of the nutrition trade that will help a person morph from bad eating to good eating, but the greatest single motivator is success. Nothing fires a person up more than losing a substantial amount of body fat. Nothing fires a formerly overweight person up more then when people comment about their new lean look without being asked.
When tangible progress becomes readily apparent, disciplined eating and regimented training become effortless. Joyful experience begs the Mind to replicate it, over and over, again and again.
Habit-force is a bad thing when the habits are physically detrimental. Habit-force can be quite beneficial if the habits are positive. What does all this psycho-babble mean? Look for ways to make exercise fun. Certain physical activities are genuinely fun, but you need to make an effort to find them. Weight training can be quite enjoyable, particularly when planning is used. Half our brain is rational and logical and quite masculine while the other half of the brain is intuitive and spontaneous, artistic and feminine. A wonderful physical feeling descends and envelops the trainee after a properly aggressive progressive resistance workout. A state of physical well-being is brought on by the pure physical effort exerted.
Elite athletes are addicted to the endorphin rush that accompanies truly hardcore training.
Baby workouts, going through the motions, are insufficient to release endorphins and insufficient to trigger muscular hypertrophy. The Mind can be our most powerful ally in our effort to reconfigure our physiques. Have the rational side of the brain design a plan of attack and let the intuitive side take over during the actual workout. Try and make a mind/muscle connection during every set of every exercise. I like to listen to music as I train. I find I can develop a deeper level of concentration during a workout and music actually amplifies results derived from that workout. Plus it is damned near impossible to get roped into an energy-zapping conversation while wearing headphones. Deep concentration results in those extra growth producing reps or that additional poundage. More reps or more poundage (assuming there is no degradation in technique) means more muscle growth. Find cardio modes that you actually enjoy. They are out there, but you’ll need to search a bit.
Too many people feel that unless cardio is done indoor on a treadmill, stair-stepper or in a step-aerobic class, the activity doesn’t qualify as legitimate cardio. That is fallacious to the max and a good case could be made that prolonged cardio machine use can actually lead to repetitive motion injury. There is a lot to evidence that doing the same exercise on the same machine in the same way for days, weeks, months and years can literally wear out body parts. If you use exercise machines for cardio exercise, please be clever enough to vary machines and shift from one type to another on a periodic basis.
I prefer outdoor cardio: I run/power walk/jog on mountain trails. Every footfall is slightly different than its predecessor. Outdoor cardio, provides the body clean, highly oxygenated air. Compare that to the air breathed in the commercial gym. Have you ever thought about the toxic stew of stale, recycled gym air loaded with the carbon dioxide emissions from sick or hung-over individuals? It is far better to suck in fresh, clean, reinvigorating, unpolluted outdoor oxygen. Find a cardio mode you enjoy, or better yet develop a series of enjoyable aerobic modes that you enjoy and systematically rotate them. Find modes you enjoy and you will learn to love exercise instead of dreading exercise. Enjoyment breeds enthusiasm. Enthusiastic participation takes over where willpower leaves off. Beneficial physical activity is enthusiastically anticipated.
Let us make the training process enjoyable. Let us subtly reprogram the brain, the Central Processing Unit of the human body. William Boroughs dubbed the human body “The Soft Machine” and that description is incredibly apt. Open your closed mind. Try some new and different physical activities, activities intense enough to trigger the release of those blessed endorphins! Training intense enough to trigger endorphins is also intense enough to trigger hypertrophy!
A Muscle Parable
James wasn’t getting any training traction and couldn’t figure out why. It was easy for me to see why. He trained at the same time I did at the local steel house and any old timer who casually observed his training could pin the tail on this donkey in five seconds flat.
His sloppy, bounced bench presses looked liked belly heaves. His butt came so far off the bench on each rep that you could have driven a mini-van between his glutes and the bench surface. He would load up the weight belt when he did parallel bar dips, but his rep stroke was all of about four inches; he neither went down in his dips nor did he lock out at the top. His squats were the nose bleed variety, so named because of how sky high they were. He would load up the squat bar with impossible poundage, wear powerlifting knee wraps cinched so tight they cut off leg circulation and put on a weight belt so gargantuan he needed help buckling it. I doubt he dipped more than six inches on any squat rep. Ditto for his ridiculous leg presses: same lame procedure…load about fifteen 45 pound plates on each side, wrap his knees, wear the gigantic belt and press the weight maybe six inches. He got a better back workout loading and unloading the leg press plates than his legs did pressing the weight. His cheat curls looked like reverse cleans and it is no exaggeration to say that his spinal erectors got more work then his sad little biceps. Triceps pushdowns required he use the whole stack, but the push traveled maybe three inches. Lateral raises were done with 60 pound dumbbells and he used more momentum to get the bells moving than an Olympic shot putter uses propelling the 16 pound steel ball 70 feet.
Plus the yelling; how could I possibly fail to mention his bloodcurdling screams that accompanied the final reps of each set? It sounded as if the boy was having his fingers mashed with a 20 pound sledge hammer. His screams were impossible to ignore—which was the intended purpose—this kid was not only misguided in his training, but obviously starved for attention. I thought of each scream as a pathetic cry for help. Eventually, it grew old and the management made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: cease and desist with the blood curdling screams, the loud cursing, his lifting chalk strewn everywhere—or find a new place to train.
When Tim the night manager told him one night to shut up or he was going to kick him out on the spot, the boy stumbled backwards like he’d been shot in the gut with a rife. The screams and cursing, he protested, were a natural expression of his incredible effort. Tim held tough and from that point forward the kid moped around like a castrated steer. Without his screams, without the profanity, James was Samson shorn of his locks.
I was shocked when later that week the boy approached me and asked if I had a spare moment. I was taken aback; I’d never spoken a word to him and was mystified as to what he wanted. To make a long story short, James was actually reexamining his training efforts and asked if he could train with me! Essentially he asked if I would I show him the training ropes. I was dubious, but he seemed sincere. I told him the only way I’d agree to this was if he trained exactly as I did. And no talking—the only talking would be by me. I neither wanted nor needed his input. He would play the part of the compliant deaf-mute training partner. I told him to show up the following Monday at the appointed time and we’d hit a chest and triceps workout. He agreed. I secretly decided to drive him into the ground; not purposefully or maliciously, but I would not compromise my own training efforts.
Normally when introducing a well-intentioned beginner to my style of training, I would be nice and ease them into the game. I would not ease this potty mouthed youth into my style of training: I would throw him into the deep end of the pool and see if he could swim. His problem (in a nutshell) was that he’d been so poundage crazy he’d shortened his rep strokes to next to nothing. His range-of-motion was nonexistent and his technique so sloppy that he wasn’t coming within a country mile of working the targeted muscle.
When I spoke to him about “zeroing in on the muscle” or making “the mind-muscle connection” it was like trying to describe the Space Shuttle to a Brazilian rainforest tribe member. He scratched his head and scrunched up his face as I described proper bench press technique. Not only would he keep his ass on the bench for each and every rep, but he would also pause the poundage on his chest before firing it skyward. He started to protest when after a warm up set I loaded the bar to 185. He indicated that he was “easily” capable of 250 for reps. “Not anymore.” I said.
He struggled with 185 for 5 reps using the proper pause technique. Ditto for incline dumbbell presses, which I insisted be done strict and with a pause. His dumbbell flyes, which used to be indistinguishable from dumbbell bench presses, were now done so wide and so deep that the bells touched the floor. I noted that his chest was actually trembling as we segued into dips. He looked around for the weight belt. “I can do 10 dips with 90 pounds strapped on.” He proudly proclaimed. “Not anymore.” I said.
I made him drop all the way down and pause before pushing upward to a complete lockout. “Hold the lockout for a full second.” I demanded. He made two full reps using only his bodyweight before collapsing on number three. By the conclusion of our third set of bodyweight dips, he was unable to do a single rep. Lying nose-breakers and overhead dumbbell triceps extensions were done with a full rep stroke and pee-wee poundage—since that was all he could properly handle. Triceps pushdowns were done with full ROM. I stood behind him and pinioned his elbows to his side to prevent him from using his old trick of heaving at the start to get the weight moving.
At the conclusion of our 70 minute workout he was shaking like he had malaria. I made him drink a triple serving of protein/carb powder in shake form and sent him home. I wondered if I’d ever see him again, I doubted it. The next day was leg day and James wandered in dazed and confused. “My pecs and triceps are so sore I can’t lift my arms. I couldn’t shave or comb my hair this morning.” He moaned. “That’s really too bad,” I said, “Because yesterday’s chest and triceps workout is a happy-time picnic in the park with a gorgeous super model compared to what we’re going to be doing today.”
He looked positively frightened as we began full squats. Squats are hell. That’s why they’re so damn effective. I made the kid do something he’d never ever done before; go all the way down in the squat without any supportive gear. On his 1st set he reached for his knee wraps and lifting belt and I told him to stuff them right back into his gym bag. His 400 pound partial squats dropped faster than the stock market after the Enron collapse. He struggled with 185 and 205 was positively traumatic. I had to help him complete the 5th rep. “Oh my God, my legs are on fire!” He hissed. James was gulping air like he’d just run a marathon, but I made him do two more sets: 155x10 caused him to convulse so badly I thought he was going into a seizure.
Leg presses caused him to run to the bathroom and toss his breakfast. He wobbled out pale and shaking. I had made James take the sled down until his knees touched his chest. He locked out fully and two 45’s per side were all he could handle. He looked white as a ghost. “Feel better?” I said. “No!” he moaned, clutching his gut. We finished off with calf raises super-setted with lying leg curls. I went on to standing calf raises and stiff-leg dead-lifts. He sat in the corner curled up in a fetal position and called in sick to work the next day.
He surprised me. I thought it at best a 10% proposition that he’d ever return, but he showed up a few days later ready to train shoulders. He still walked funny three days later. “I got home that night after leg training and had to sit down halfway up the three flights of stairs leading up to my apartment. I still walk like I’m drunk.”
On shoulder day the procedures were repeated and again the full-range-of-motion exercises sent him reeling.
We performed five sets of standing dumbbell presses followed by five sets of press behind the neck. His 60 pound lateral heaves turned into 10 pound super strict laterals. Now his screams were real and not for show. Back day finished the training week: let me just say that by the time we finished deadlifts, power cleans, rows, chins, shrugs and 9 sets of biceps spread over three different exercises, the boy was a ball of pain. “Be sure and eat a ton of protein this weekend.” I said. Wordlessly he wobbled out the door.
The following Monday James showed up for the start of his second ‘real’ training week. “I am still reeling,” he said, “My body is torn to shreds from my neck to my calves…I laid on the couch all weekend eating…every muscle still aches.” I smiled. He seemed battered, but buoyant. “I have never felt the degree of fatigue and muscle soreness I am now experiencing.”
To his everlasting credit, James stuck with it. In three months he underwent an amazing physical transformation. The winning combination was full range power training and making the mind muscle connection—along with ample eating—all of which caused his body to explode. He packed on twenty five pounds of muscle and looked like Bill Pearl winning Mr. America in 1955. I told him, “You’ll never survive this style of training unless you eat like you’ve never eaten before; without copious calories your body will collapse.” He was firing down 5,000 calories per day.
James packed on 25 pounds of muscle in 90 days and because he ate clean and kept up his early morning cardio, 95% of his gains were lean, fat-free muscle.
His training poundage increased rapidly after week one; this despite my insisting on technical perfection on every single rep of every single set. His recovery improved dramatically and eventually he was able to completely recover by the next training session. “I think the biggest single thing I learned,” he said in a reflective moment many months later over dinner, “was to make a mind-muscle connection. I trained all sloppy and poundage crazy and never gave the mind-muscle connection any thought. Until I began training with you I never had been really sore—I’m talking deep muscle soreness exactly on the targeted muscle. There is a real art in performing an exercise in such an exact fashion that the muscle you are supposed to be training actually feels it.” Well no kidding.
Take a tip from James and crank back on the training poundage and establish the critical mind-muscle connection. Are you able to pinpoint and target the exact muscle with the right exercise? Use an extended range-of-motion and a perfect technique to achieve muscle isolation. Unless you are able to do so, your foundation is built on sand. So take a tip from James: lose your ego and your preconceptions regarding how a person is supposed to look and act when they train. Establishing proper technical basics will be the smartest training move you can make. Trust me.
If arithmetic, measuring and weighing Be taken away from any art, That which remains will not be much
…for measure and proportion Always pass into beauty and excellence.”
—Plato, Philebus
What’s the toughest lesson to learn in all of fitness-dom?
I would nominate prioritizing weaknesses and not continually playing to our strengths.
Let’s loop back around to human nature: the reason we are strong in certain areas and weak in others relates directly to bias, preference and enjoyment. We all have our likes and dislikes and we seek to repeat experiences that we perceive as pleasurable. We avoid things and experiences we perceive as dreadful. In our fitness efforts we are inclined to repeat that part of the transformational process we perceive as pleasurable. Perhaps we love a particular cardio mode, like tennis. We get up at 5:00 am year round and go to the local tennis club and play for a solid hour with other tennis fanatics; all before the rest of the world is even awake. I know such a collection of tennis fanatics exists because I used to see them flailing away first thing in the morning as I passed the windows overlooking the indoors courts at the posh club where I used to train. I would be on my way to train with like-minded group of weight training fanatics.
That which we perceive as pleasurable causes us to make great sacrifice in order to squeeze the pleasurable activity into our hectic and harried life. Often our training preferences, taken to an extreme, will result in physical dis-proportionality. We train a certain muscle or group of muscles to such an extent that our physiques become physically unbalanced and asymmetric. If a person loves to do curls and does them often, after a number of years those biceps are going to become proportionally larger than other muscles neglected during that same time period.
Maybe you love a particular cardio activity and despise resistance training. You avoid any and all muscle strengthening—then hurt your back picking up a forty pound child. Perhaps you can bench press 400 for reps, but cannot walk up a flight of stairs without getting totally out of breath. Maybe you are diligent at weight training and love cardio, but have zero control over the knife and fork. You end up very strong, extremely fit (in a cardiovascular sense) and obese, all at the same time. The NFL is loaded with this type of athlete, 350 pound offensive tackles that can bench press a house, run a marathon (albeit not very fast) and still are clinically obese. The point being, we all have our fitness preferences and dislikes.
Likely the areas on your physique that need improvement are developed using modes, techniques or tactics you don’t particularly like. Working on weak points is the absolute fastest way to make physical improvement. A weak point is likely to be at 50% (or less) of total genetic potential. When you mount a serious effort to bring up a weak point, the room for improvement is vast.
Factually, that hypothetical athlete who loves to curl would find that if suddenly he devoted as much time and effort to a bodily weak point (say his bird-thin legs) as he has on his over-developed arms, huge physical improvement would be realized and realized quickly. He could add two inches to his under-worked, underdeveloped legs in a matter of months. It would take years to bring his arms up that much because he is likely already at 90% of his arm growth potential.
Logic dictates a continual shift in the training emphasis: the wise man goes from one under-developed body part to the next, until every muscle and muscle group on the body is uniform and proportional. But that’s logic and humans are not robots.
If you want to make progress at a neck-snapping, head-spinning rate, look at the Purposefully Primitive Training Triad and with a cold hard eye identify your particular weak points. Then draw up a four week battle plan that specializes on weak aspects of your game.
If you’re strong as a gorilla, but fat as a pig, then eating is your weak point. Your food selections and quantities are undercutting the rest of your efforts, so focus your energy on disciplined nutrition.
If you are doing way too much cardio and zero weight training, get down to some serious iron pumping. Habit-force is a bitch to overcome, but fighting against our basic preferential human nature is the way of a champion. If we always and forever do that which we love, ignoring things we don’t, then we are digging a deep, deep trench that becomes nearly impossible to overcome or escape.
People who do the same thing for too long become fossilized and incapable of change. Progress and change are synonymous. Without change, without subjecting the body to new and different tests and stresses, nothing of any physical consequence will occur. The human body does not favorably reconfigure itself in response to sameness. Identify weak points and give them priority. This is the toughest of tasks, but the one with the most growth potential. Play to your weaknesses, not your strengths.
Music Trumps Mechanical Sounds Natural Silence Trumps Music… The Poundage Is Constant Even If You Are Not…
People sometimes ask why I listen to music when I train. “The iPod seems out of character.” One acquaintance said after training with me one afternoon. Actually, if he knew me better, he would have known that listening to music while training is very much in character for me. First off I always try to find a proper selection of music for that particular day. I am interested in ‘mood elevation’ as it pertains to the workout, so ballads and somber songs are usually out. Music elevates and amplifies my ability to concentrate and get totally zoned in on the athletic task at hand. And to such a degree that I believe my workout results improve if I hit the right tunes on the right day at the right time. It all relates to my individualized psyche-up procedure.
Top athletes get psychologically fired up immediately prior to undertaking a limit or near limit feat. Conversation interferes with psyching-up. Wearing an iPod is particularly important if you train at a commercial gym where potential distractions are just waiting to happen. I really don’t want to get caught up in a conversation with a well-meaning gym member when I’m about to blast away at my top set in the deadlift. Talk is counterproductive. If you are a nice person and allow yourself to be interrupted in the House of Iron, then you have a problem. It is not psychologically possible to stop mid-sentence during an involved conversation, casually stroll up to a limit poundage barbell or dumbbell, and lift it with any hope of success. The poundage is constant even if you’re not. Don’t be thick-headed: In order to have a prayer lifting a weight that equals or exceeds current limits, you need to develop a personalized psyche-up routine.
What, prey tell, does that mean?
Psyche is a centering process. A proper psyche is tinged with aggression and purposeful machismo, even if you’re distaff. Focus and ferocity are required to tackle something you’ve never done before. Anything less and you’re toast.
Bring your “A” Game to the training session. Over time, learn how to fire yourself up like a berserker. The psyche doesn’t have to be outwardly demonstrative. While psyche-up is still no absolute guarantee of success, this approach improves the odds considerably. Select mood arousal music and in about the time the java hits the bloodstream you’ll be raring to tear up some weights. The deeper I get into the workout the better my concentration becomes. I mentally review the about-to-happen lift immediately prior to actually commencing.
I was first introduced to the concept of ‘visualization’ by Mac McCallum in a two-part 1965 Keys to Progress article called, “Concentration.” Over the past forty years I’ve gotten to the point where I can routinely will my body to do more than it is capable of on that particular day.
I visualize myself in whatever physical setting I find myself in, I close my eyes and see myself sitting as I’m sitting…I tell myself, ‘picture the room in detail. What color shirt do you have on? Are there stripes on your gym socks?’ Detailed recall and focus requires complete concentration. My mental picture is rich and detailed. I see myself stand up and do whatever preliminary things I would need to do for this particular lift. I see myself step to the bar and as I grab it appropriately and take control, the weight always (in my mind) feels light. I handle the poundage for the appropriate number of reps in pristine style then replace the weight. In the gym I open my eyes and take a huge breath. I stand up and attempt to turn the visualization into reality.
Do I use psyche on every dink-ass itty-bitty exercise? No way! But on the big stuff, the important stuff, the limit stuff, I make myself use “the procedure.” It is also a surefire way to reduce the chance of injury.
If you want to end up making a quick trip to the emergency room, attempt a limit lift halfheartedly or in a state of distraction.
Regardless of the rep range limit is limit, and poundage stays constant even if you aren’t. The weight makes no allowances for your spaced-out inattention. The weights will hurt you if you disrespect the precise technical boundaries of a lift.
A walkman/iPod discourages conversation and aides in the seriousness and centering that needs to occur if you are going to safely stretch the envelope. When I do cardio I love the walkman/iPod because it helps me with pace, stride-step length, cadence and general awareness. I love to glide along, breaking a magnificent toxin-expelling sweat, while listening to some amazing piece of music that provides a dramatic and appropriate soundtrack to the natural beauty I am seeing and smelling. And to think, I’m burning off body fat, elevating my basal metabolic rate, improving my endurance while building a set of lungs like a Porsche turbocharger. Often my hour long daily nature run turns out to be the highlight of that particular day.
Early morning aerobics done on nature trails or in some wonderful public park listening to perfectly selected music can be a transcendental experience. My rule of thumb for outdoor iPod use is this: if I can hear any mechanical sounds or manmade hubbub I wear the iPod. In Marty World, music trumps mechanical sounds or voices every single time. If I’m lucky enough to catch a real natural silence…birds and wind, leaves rustling, branches creaking…natural silence trumps music every single time. Do yourself a favor: if you are serious about bumping progress upward a few notches try using music to develop an embryonic psyche-up routine. Try some outdoor cardio. Feel the wind at your back and the sun in your face as you tool along at 80% of age-related heart rate max while some subtle, sultry, siren seductress murmurs through your head phones. Outdoor cardio in a serene natural setting is psychologically addictive and has incredible physical benefit.
The mind, the brain, the internal thought process, can become your biggest ally or worst enemy in the battle to transform your physique. Psychological repositioning is critical; optimally the athlete must be enthused, excited and fired up about the training session. They also need to be excited and enthused about the overall game plan.
Construct a 6-12 week fitness battle plan and do so with the care and intricacy of a ship-in-a-bottle builder. Once you hatch the plan, you should be so excited and so jacked up that you cannot wait to train and when you train you attack the workout. The “berserker” mindset in a training session results in amplified athletic performance. Think of individual workouts as pearls on a string that together form a necklace: each new cardio and weight workout represents a new pearl on the strand. String together an uninterrupted series of workouts and create genuine physical momentum.
Once physical momentum is achieved, results suddenly amplify past all realistic expectations. I’ve seen the phenomenon of momentum occur in myself and in others a hundred times over. The athletic elite understand how important the creation of momentum is and seek to generate it. A successful weight or cardio workout builds muscle tissue or oxidizes stored body fat. Intense physical training releases narcotic-tinged endorphins into the bloodstream and the workout becomes a physically and psychologically pleasing experience. Human nature seeks to repeat experiences it deems pleasurable. The enthusiasm quota is replenished and the whole process pushes forward one solid step.
String together a series of successful workouts and after 10-14 days tangible physical changes begin to manifest. Once tangible physical change occurs, the elusive physical and psychological momentum takes root. Establishing “Big Mo” is the immediate goal. Fourteen days of complete adherence will create momentum and can change a person’s life. Obtain that critical toehold by stringing together successful workouts. Workout quality is elevated by total focus on the athletic task at hand.
Get fired up: log results and exult in the continual, numerical, tangible, undeniable physical progress: “I bench pressed 200x8 on Tuesday and bench pressed 205x8 on Friday.” That’s certifiable, objective progress; the kind that translates into muscle and strength gains. Too often civilian trainees coast through their workouts and use training time as social inter-reaction time. How many times have I walked into a commercial gym and seen folks gabbing away to the person on the cardio machine next to them, or yakking it up with an acquaintance? The most unpardonable sin of all is when they talk to each other during a weight training set. Blasphemy
Innocent, but not harmless; I consider conversation in the gym the equivalent of an energy leak. You have a finite amount of energy when you walk through the door of the gym to train. Every conversation, every belly laugh, every engaged interplay, depletes the precious finite energy reserve to a slight or significant degree. Conversation prevents heightened awareness.
If you access “The Zone,” you will be able to squeeze out extra reps and/or handle increased poundage—strictly by generating a particular mindset. Talking between or during sets may seem the amiable or sociable thing to do, but unless you maintain a silent, concentrated awareness between and particularly during the actual set, performance will suffer. The worst of all gym sins is when you allow muscle-head poseurs to engage you in intense conversations about training or training strategies or various athletic personalities, instead of focusing on the training that is actually taking place! In A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemmingway lamented that he had to stop frequenting the Parisian Café scene during the Lost Generation period of the 1920’s because all the writers were wasting their precious creative writing “juice” talking about writing and instead of staying home in the their lofts and Left Bank apartments and writing.
Talking about training and training itself are two different things entirely. Another tale, a related tale, this one about faux awareness as opposed to true awareness…
In May of 1954 Krishnamurti and four other religious leaders were traveling west from New Delhi in an open Mercedes en route to a religious retreat. The vehicle was chauffeured and allowed the gurus and mystics to discuss esoteric topics of great depth and complexity. The day was perfect as they tooled along dirt roads lined with 5,000 year old shrines and temples. The conversation amongst the exalted turned to the subject of awareness, ‘We need be here in the present; we need be alert and aware and alive!’ said the high priest. ‘Alertness at every instant is the key to living life to its fullest!’ The sage responded. The mystic chimed in, ‘You must be here in the here and now!’
The discussion became heated and intense as each religious leader (each practiced and quite at ease at persuasive pontification) fought hard to be heard in the rapid-fire word exchange. ‘Suddenly,’ remembered Krishnamurti, ‘we ran over a full-sized goat. It impacted the car with a loud thud. No one noticed.’ Krishnamurti related this while shaking his head. The seers and teachers were so engrossed with their animated conversation about awareness that they as a group became oblivious to actual awareness. “It was a delicious moment.” said the only man who noticed the road-kill.
I often take people hiking in the woods. It is interesting to observe how different people react. Some silently soak in the scenery and truly absorb the beauty of wild nature. Others don’t see it at all. They want to talk about bench pressing or the validity of body fat calipers. Meanwhile they miss the red tailed hawk circling lazily overhead on an invisible thermal current. They want to talk about theoretical periodization strategies of great complexity; they want to talk about cardio—despite the fact that they are missing out on the cardio we are actually doing. They want to talk about anything; they avoid immersing themselves in the silent immediacy of the actual moment. This repeated and predictable occurrence is the equivalent of running over a goat in a car and not noticing.
I’ve noticed that champion athletes have a common ability to zero in on the workout with a focused intensity that is positively frightening. They have an ability to literally will themselves to lift more or force out extra reps. The athletic elite effortlessly make themselves run faster or further, jump higher or longer. The top guys routinely add 10% to their training sessions, strictly through the use of extreme concentration. So what does all this have to do with running over goats or not seeing the circling hawk? People who are preoccupied, distracted or mentally scattered rarely have the single-minded ability to focus on what is happening now. These self-same individuals also have a related problem of being unable to string together quality workouts and as a result, fail to establish real momentum.
There is a fierceness of concentration that the athletic elite effortlessly muster that allows them to do more than they are actually capable of. This is a learned skill and improves with time. Learn to focus in on the individual training session. Become hyper-aware of your surroundings, be it in the gym or outside. Concentration increases in direct proportion to the decease of internal chatter. This inky film of continual, unceasing thought prevents clear perception of what is actually occurring in the immediate present. An elite athlete has taught himself to focus totally and completely on the immediate athletic task at hand. So should you. Don’t be talking to your neighbor while lifting weights or doing cardio. Please try and get psyched up prior to the heaviest set of a particular exercise. Learn how to conjure up alert concentration.
Mental chatter needs to be minimal and external chatter nonexistent. Please, no talking while working out. How are you going to get fired up for the top set of dumbbell bench presses if you’re over at the water cooler yapping about how Tom got screwed on American Idol? Beware the seductive lure of talking about fitness and training instead of actually doing it—talking about training in a heated and engaged way is an energy leak of epic proportion. It is great to be liked and be social, but performance suffers in direct proportion to how much you engage in gab during your precious time in the gym. Take energy leakage seriously.
Can you take athletic efforts seriously enough to make changes in how you conduct yourself during the workout? Once you are able to develop real focus and concentration, performance skyrockets. Improved results equate to more muscle mass and less body fat. When you are out and about, try and pay attention to your surroundings. Henri Troyat said of Leo Tolstoy “He went through life with his eyes wide open, his nostrils flared and his ears pricked.” So should we all. Tolstoy wasn’t preoccupied. He would have seen the goat before they ran it over and he damn sure would have seen the hawk circling overhead.
He came, He saw, He capitulated
—Winston Churchill
People often ask me how they should train while away on vacation. That presupposes that I would insist they should train while on vacation. My counterintuitive advice surprises them: why not synchronize a purposeful layoff from training while on vacation?
If you are due for a vacation, if you are going on an extended business trip, or coming up on a period where for whatever reason physical training will be difficult, cumbersome, inappropriate or impossible—why not plan ahead and plan to not train! Planning not to train sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it is not.
Elite athletes routinely ‘cycle’ periods of complete rest as a regular part of their periodized training regimen. Why not purposefully redouble the training effort leading up to the vacation and while on vacation avoid training altogether? Rest and heal the body fully and completely and then jump back in the mix (physically and psychologically rested and rein-vigorated, ready for action) after the vacation?
One strategy I use repeatedly is to push hard, heavy and often in the Steel House during the month leading up to the vacation. Peak out, perhaps get a little burned out, err towards too much training then forget all about resistance training while vacationing. This approach is hardly heretical stuff rooted in laziness, sloth or lack of dedication. Competitive athletes always lay off after a major competition in order to allow the body to recover from the pounding they have subjected it to leading up to the event. Every elite athlete and coach knows that the human body cannot be trained all-out year round. Periodically there need to be purposeful layoffs. The post-competition layoff creates a necessary contrast to the intense physical and psychological preparation leading up to the event. A layoff ‘detunes’ the body; purposefully relaxing it physiologically and psychologically inducing a heightened state of readiness.
This is a good thing.
Progress is never an unbroken graph line pointed ever upward. Psychologically the mind also needs a chance to heal. Competitive preparation is stressful and intense; in the weeks and days leading up to a competition, an athlete thinks of little else and this mental single-pointed focus takes a terrific psychological toll. Like any other over-trained muscle, the brain loses its freshness and alertness in the post-competition let down. Regardless if the athlete has exceeded expectations, or tanked and done terribly, psychologically he/she is a mess. Trying to maintain anywhere near the training intensity built up for the event after the event is a surefire recipe for injury.
Better to rest the body, rest the brain and once recovered, jump back into the mix—but jump back in using lower overall training volume and lower overall training intensity. After a healing layoff it is time to start the purposefully slow and deliberate ramp-up procedure for the next event.
Rookies and novices find all this counterintuitive. “Won’t I lose everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve? Won’t all my gains disappear?” The obsessive-compulsive types that cannot stand to vary the training volume and intensity invariably hit the “sameness wall.” The sameness wall is an insurmountable barrier. The sameness wall occurs when the trainee insists on training when a layoff is in order.
Unwilling or unable to stop, the compulsive athlete continues to train all year and ignores the fact that all measurable and quantifiable progress has totally ceased. This type usually incurs some sort of injury attributable to a combination of overwork and fatigue. Burnout and inertia are the constant companions of the obsessive-compulsive fitness devotee: too much of a good thing is never a good thing.
Elite competitors want the body to get slightly ‘out of shape’ so that when they begin anew, the renewed training program will produce “the training effect.” In the olden days, my first mentor, John McCallum, referred to this as “softening up for gains.” It was, and is, a deliberate strategy.
Once you are peaked out, the best thing you can do is cease and desist training for a proscribed period of time. Again, this is all predicated on the foregone conclusion that after the purposeful layoff you will get back on the training bandwagon.
If you are peaked-out, burned-out and over-trained, you need to take some time off. If you’ve gone in a particular training direction as far as you can go and gains have ceased, then a planned layoff is appropriate and actually stimulates progress in the long run. Obviously if you are lollygagging along, engaging in half-ass, halfway pretend training, you can use the “softening up for gains” approach as an excuse to become even more slothful. You are a fool fooling yourself.
Taking a layoff after a peak period of intense physical training has a liberating effect on the body and the mind. Better yet, if the planned training sabbatical is synchronized with a wonderful vacation at some remote location, it can be a fun and exciting experience. Enjoy friends and family without the compulsive-obsessive behavior that mars interaction with others. “I’d loved to go to the boardwalk with you guys, but I have to find a gym and train legs for two hours.” Besides for most people vacations usually become one long extended cardio session. I always seem to end up walking my legs off going hither and yon, running or romping, being super active with some sort of water-related or nature-related vacation activity. While on vacation I love seeing, doing, enjoying, partying and moving about. Who sits in their hotel room while on vacation? I love eating more and trying different foods. I worry less and I forget all about barbells, dumbbells, progress and my “quest.”
Oddly, towards the end of any vacation, my thoughts invariably turn towards training since I really enjoy it. By forcing myself to not train, other than vacation-related cardio activities, I build up a real desire to get back into weight training. By the time I get back to the real world, I am positively itching to commence some serious iron slinging once again. Now I am rested and ready and psychologically hungry: I’m fired up. I always make fantastic gains in that post-vacation period. My biggest concern is jumping back into the training mix too hard, too heavy, and too often and then crippling myself because of my over-the-top enthusiasm.
So when I get these questions relating to how best to train while on vacation, my first thought is, “Don’t train!” If you have been hitting it hard and intense, why not blow it off altogether? Now let’s loop back around to our original premise: Lazy or smart choice? It all depends on how you spend that last month leading up to that vacation.
I once wrote an article on psyche-up tactics for weight training in Muscle & Fitness Magazine and in response Jeff Everson wrote that you “don’t have to read Plato before a set of triceps kickbacks.” I’m pretty sure this barb was aimed at me. In my book on the incredible Ed Coan, I wrote that while getting your mind right was not all that important on the little stuff, like a set of triceps kickbacks, on the top set of a really heavy exercise using limit poundage, being centered and in the moment, undeniably helped performance. This is what Arnold called “the heightened arousal mode”
Every single top athlete I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with has some method of getting themselves psyched-up for a big gym effort. The top guys are the top guys because they have an ability to mentally force their body to perform beyond its awesome actual capacity. There is no handbook or single mental technique that is universally used and each of the iron elite has developed their own individualized psyche-up tactic. One of the best athletes I ever saw in action was the great John Kuc, a multi-time World Powerlifting Champion and a guy built all wrong for the sport. To be a really great powerlifter requires you have thick muscle density in relation to your height. Top powerlifters are heavy and thick, squat and stocky. The best powerlifters are short in relation to their bodyweight. Thickness and bulk provide incredible leverage. In a time when a top 242 pound lifter stood maybe 5’7” Kuc stood a basketball player-like 6’1”. He looked positively skinny. With his thinning hair and lean look he seemed more like a college professor than a power dominator. Much of his dominance could be traced to his ability to put himself into a trance state that bordered on psycho.
I remember in the late 70’s watching Kuc come out for a World Record deadlift of 852 pounds. With bugged-out eyes and an odd stutter-step gait, he looked like a zombie in Dawn of the Dead. He looked menacing and possessed. The barbell was loaded and he was making his way to the platform to attack the weight when some goofy official stepped in front of him and asked some asinine question. I doubt Kuc even saw the guy. He was so deep into his psyche space that his mad eyes drilled holes through him. Kuc’s crazed eyes made Charles Manson’s famous killer stare look like a high school yearbook photo of a science club nerd by comparison. He said not a word and refused to acknowledge the man’s existence because taking an instant to say, “Get the hell out of my way, little clown man, before I rip off your head and piss down your neck!” would have shattered his carefully constructed psyche as surely as throwing a glass figurine against a concrete wall.
Pompous and imperious (as some officials are) the blazer-clad butterball took offense and asked once again, this time in more insistent voice. He was determined he would have a piece of Kuc’s spotlight. He knew all eyes in the packed auditorium were on John and by default on the official who was inserting himself into Kuc’s orbit with his frivolous inquiry. The second request was forceful and indignant; the official would have his answer and if that destroyed the delicate strands of Kuc’s gossamer spider-web psyche, then so be it.
Another elite lifter, watching in awe from the immediate vicinity, caught the gist of what was happening and without a second thought unceremoniously and violently jerked the hapless glory hog in his blue blazer by the scruff of the neck, ripping him out of Kuc’s zombie path. He shook the little man like a rag doll. Kuc, now unimpeded, walked on by, lost in his Private Idaho where the mind wills the body to do that which it is incapable of doing. He strode to the barbell while the audience screamed encouragement he did not hear. He pulled the barbell effortlessly to lock out.
It was a great example of athletic psyche. It also portrayed the reverence other lifters have for a psyche-up-in-progress. It is totally taboo amongst those in the know to walk up to a lifter prior to an all-out attempt and make small talk. More than once I’ve seen ignorant gym rats stroll up to an elite lifter readying prior to a set of, oh say, 705x5 in the deadlift, only to be roughed up by the lifter’s training partners. When a man is getting prepared for an assault on gigantic poundage they need to be prepared mentally and this requires utter and complete internal focus, free of all distraction. Other top lifters know this and woe unto any civilian, gym mullet or ignorant passerby who wanders up to a psyching lifter and asks, “HEY! Are you using this 5 pound plate?” Or my favorite, “How much longer are you going to be? I need to use the squat rack for my pathetic curls.” I’ve seen mullets swatted over benches. I’ve seen ‘em backhanded and dropped on the spot. I’ve seen ‘em so traumatized and terrified they pissed their pants. I’ve seen ‘em so frightened they left the facility and never returned.
If you would like to realize a 10 to 15% across-the-board performance bump, strictly through some applied brain train, develop a good psyche-up regimen. It will enable you to routinely squeeze out more reps and/or extra poundage. If you are casual about your weight training you’ll reap casual results. If you are intense, focused and dead serious than….well, you know the rest.
Psyche Up to Improve Workout Performance
K irk Karwoski was pacing back and forth at the National Powerlifting Championships getting mentally prepared to lift. He would be attempting 1003 pounds for a World Record squat in the 275 pound weight class. As he paced back and forth, like a caged animal at the zoo, tears streamed down his face.
To the casual observer, it might have appeared something tragic had befallen this muscle-laden giant; had he just been informed of some catastrophic event? What calamity could bring this iron giant to tears? To the contrary, Karwoski’s tears were tears of white hot rage; his tears were the tears of a crazed lunatic. He’d twisted himself into such a psychological frenzy that the tears that ran down his face were the tears of a berserker about to throw himself into battle and kill someone or something.
I was Kirk’s coach and one of my many jobs was to keep at arms length all the well-wishers, glad-handers and anyone else who might disturb Karwoski’s well-constructed psyche. He had purposefully put himself into this state of aggravated agitation on purpose; he knew a proper psyche-up was worth an additional 10-15% in performance. He wore a Walkman and listened to his favorite rock group play his favorite tune—over and over and over and over. He listened to the music and used it to exclude outside influences. He was working himself into a bug-eyed frenzy worthy of a Kamikaze pilot prior to dive bombing a U.S. carrier during the Battle of Midway. His was a carefully constructed competition psyche-up routine, one honed to psychological perfection for over a decade. He was a seven-time National, six-time World Powerlifting Champion, and in order to tackle the giant weights he needed to have his head screwed on just so.
His procedure was extremely formalized: he would walk exactly ten paces in one direction, wheel and walk ten paces in the other direction. He kept his head down, his eyes purposefully unfocused. He listened to the music; it was all a soundtrack to a movie that was running in his head: a movie of him squatting 1000 pounds perfectly. Over and over he would run the movie; an intense visualization of him and the weight. Each time he ran the movie the visualization grew clearer, more realistic and detailed. He ran the visualization over a dozen times in his head in the interlude between his previous successful squat, 963, done a few minutes ago, and this final World Record attempt.
By the time I signaled him that it was time for him to lift, Karwoski had worked himself into a barely controlled emotional state of fury and rage. Having acquired his crazed state of mind, he now would unleash his psychological Tsunami on the unsuspecting barbell. Wordlessly, he removed his Walkman, threw it into his gym bag. He had his training partner Nacho Del Grande wrap his knees. I pulled his lifting belt tight. He chalked his hands and strode onstage. He effortlessly shattered his own World Record by 40 pounds. This particular record, 1003 pounds, still stands as this is being written, twelve years later.
Do you have to work yourself into a state of bug-eyed frenzy with tears streaming down your face before attempting a new personal record with 150 for 10 repetitions in the bench press? Certainly not—however, employing some rudimentary mental tactics and having a real psyche-up procedure in your mental trick bag can add 5-10% to your efforts. Handling more poundage or squeezing out extra repetitions in training equates to a vastly improved physique. Take a tip from a psychological berserker and take lifting seriously: casually approaching a limit attempt makes no sense from a performance or safety standpoint: be serious and be respectful. Get psyched!
