You are about to find out what pain is.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." -Lance Armstrong
Now that you have basic keys for getting your mind organized and ready to win, we are going to put together some tactics that will help you delay the moment you chose to quit or possibly even pass on it completely. For some of you it was easy writing down some goals and cleaning up your diet. That's great and everyone who is taking those steps should feel proud. But Physical Exercise Number One will not be easy for anyone. That's why we are going to discuss it first, so you can think about it and how it relates to the other processes.
The 50 rep set. This is your focus for the next ninety days: a single fifty rep set of squats with your bodyweight on your back (for guys under 175 it is 1.2x bodyweight and guys over 260 it is .9x). They will be performed without knee wraps and done ass to grass. If you have ever attempted anything like this you will know what I am talking about when I say this is the most mentally challenging thing you can do in training. Your body weight for back squats should be considered light weight and with light weight there is always one more rep.
Your legs will burn, your lower back may spasm and your lungs will beg for air. That's usually right around rep 25. By 35 you start to get tunnel vision and a ringing in your ears. You may just stand there for a minute or two with the weight on your back, your traps so numb you can't even feel the bar digging in. At 45 the end is in sight, but your legs are shaking and you are scared to go for another rep. At rep 49 you know you just need one more, but you honestly doubt if you can do it. As you rack your fiftieth you hit the floor and gasp for air as your legs cramp up and beg for mercy.
When you complete your set you will have taught yourself some very important lessons:
1. You decide when you quit, not your body.
2. You can always do just one more
3. You are one of the few willing to undergo the pain and are ready to face it again
4. You should have worn some crummy underwear because these are shot.
If you know that you aren't ready, then begin working the next few challenges until you feel that you have the guts.
Deadlift; return the weight to the floor; repeat. The challenge: a single set of deadlifts against the clock using a belt and straps done for three straight weeks. Your goal here is to see how many you can do with 75% of your max in 75 seconds. The second week you should attempt to surpass that mark and likewise in the third week.
This weight should have you banging reps out quickly (maybe 10 in the first 15-20 seconds) and struggling to lock out in the end. It's a simple concept really; a small contest against yourself.
You can't be the lead sled dog all the time. The people you train with have more influence over you than you think. If you always win Saturday events, lift more than anyone else, and are always faster, you aren't getting challenged like you deserve. It is not good to be in the lead all the time. You are developing a false sense of self and you have no one to keep you honest. Find some one to work with who is slightly better than you in your weakest areas and train with them, often. If you are a light weight, find some heavies, if you are a heavy, find a light weight or heavy weight pro, if you are a pro, find another and meet up with them.
Develop a friendly rivalry with them and start having mini-competitions on a weekly basis. Time your events or hand out points for the day. Challenge each other to do bigger and better things. Your competitive spirit will grow like wild.
Develop Multiple Personality Disorder. Most times that would be considered negative, but we need to learn how to hone our focus and use our mental energy to it's greatest capacity. You don't want to be the one that is wired all the time or, even worse, they guy who never seems excited. I like to categorize them in the following way:
• You. This is you in your day to day activities. The athlete right now who is sitting here reading this. Your focus is down, you are relaxed and calm. This reserves mental energy for later.
• Get your game face on. Who has not had a coach that has said this to them? It means switch over and get ready. You become more alert and ready your instincts, your aggression level goes up and so does your confidence. Pretty much everyone does this. Unfortunately, a lot of people just stop here and play the whole game just a step up.
• Mr. Serious. This is where you should be on every lift you perform or every shot you take. The only thing that exists is you and the task at hand. You are doing something you know you can do well and if you do it right you will succeed. Positive thoughts are running through your mind and you visualize exactly what you are doing. This is pretty much where the good guys play their game. The rate of success for staying in this zone is high.
• The White Zone. This, though, is where people like Prefontaine, Armstrong, and Kazmeier liked to hang out. The true champions of all time can go here. This is where you lift until you fall, or you puke, or you black out, and usually win. You ignored the instinct to quit.
You need to be here when completing the very last reps of a crucial set you take to complete failure. In the white zone there is no thinking or decision making. Action is due to reaction; habit. Your body takes over and you push without goading yourself. It's a tough place to be and stay in, it usually only needs to last a few seconds. It is a door that you have to walk through though, and those of you that have been there know exactly what I'm talking about. You may never choose to go back once you have been.
You need to work on turning on all four people when the time is right. If you skip game face and go right to serious, you will burn out. You can't walk around like a dog on a chain all the time. If you try to do everything in the white zone you are going to get injured. They are tools you use at the right time and place, and the gym is where you develop them.
You need a coach. Weightlifters are a strange breed. How many athletes do you know that do not use a coach? Would an Olympic sprinter show up to a meet without a coach? Does Tiger walk Augusta National without Steve Williams or come up with a plan without Butch Harmon? Of course not. You may not have the money to hire someone on a full time basis and that's understandable; but find someone who knows what they are doing who you can afford. Following a plan that someone has put together for you and having them critically review your performance is worth at least a few hundred dollars a year and the results will pay off 10 fold.
I only used 2 gym exercises in the list of physical tasks. The others deal with environment and mindset. I want you to begin applying the environmental and behavioral changes to the squats and deadlift challenges. When you complete the 50 rep set, try it with a training partner who is bigger than you. Try it for time. Then try a 75 or 100 rep set challenge. You don't need to do a bunch of crazy things to learn how to master your mind, just really learn to do those few things very well. Always make sure, though, that it doesn't interfere with your other goals. The main point is to prove to yourself that you can do something that very few people can.
A note for other athletes: The two above exercises are ones you can do and get just as much out of as a person who weight trains. They are good exercises for any sport and will test you pain limit to the max. If you want though, you can try substituting something from your own sport that is just as challenging (like hill running or sprints) but also considered excessive and not often practiced.
Posted by Mike Gill at 9:32 AM