We’ve been doing a really hard lift template lately. ?The sets of 10 reps that we have been doing wouldn’t be so bad except for one thing…… a 2 second hold at the bottom. ?This makes the set of 10 when done correctly, absolutely horrendous. ?I’m a pretty good squatter and my weight here is fairly high, so it literally takes me at least 10 minutes of thinking about it and self motivating before I start my first set. ?During the set of 10, I spend the entire time convincing myself that I can do just one more rep. ?My brain tries to take every avenue possible to convince me that I can’t do it. ?Today, I started thinking about how my nose itched and I needed to quit. ?Then I thought about how my left arm was kind of bothering me so I should quit. ?Then my mind turned to the self doubting, ‘you just can’t get another rep, that last rep was too difficult.’ ?The list went on and on during the set of mental gymnastics. ?Then when I finished, I had to get motivated enough to do it again, and again. ?Completing these sets at heavy weights takes extreme mental focus. ?You must believe in yourself, and believe that failing is not an option. ?When you do that, you can complete the rep. ?The mind will do everything it can to talk you out of doing it. ?The mind doesn’t like doing things that hurt or suck, but sometimes you have to do it. ?In this template, you aren’t doing good work until rep 6-10, so you have to gut it out in order to get the best results. ?Remember the mind can talk you into it as well as talk you out of it. ?Positive self talk always wins.
