When did I become a mental failure?!?
It sucks to feel like you were really great at something only to then fall into some kinda of slump that you just can’t seem to dig your way out of. That’s how I feel about squats; before it was ass to grass no problem…drop it likes it hot and somehow the weight just came back up. Somewhere along the way, after dropping weight outta the rack and just plain losing confidence I became scurred.
Getting over your fear isn’t as easy as you’d think. I was accustomed to certain spotters, “my” rack, even a specific day that I trained legs. More recently I really needed to have the mirror to look at myself as I set up my foot placing. When I was forced to train alone due to scheduling I also became addicted to my iPod…imagine not squatting to Anthrax blasting at deaf inducing decibel levels in your ear?? It’s quite difficult as one can imagine.
Am I mental?
Good squatting days started to become associated with my “lucky” charms. Yes, I am CRAZY basket case! Oh I wore the black pants, with these shoes and this shirt…..that’s THE reason it went well. Don’t lie…you know you do this shit too! If you ever played a competitive sport and won you prbly attempted to duplicate the awesome results …thereby associating the win with whatever the hell you decided to call your lucky charm.
My Idiocy rages on..…enter gym OCD
I just HAVE to have a three breath out count and one breath in before I squat. When I chalk up it’s three swipes of the chalk to the right. Hey it could be worse I could be doing things in 12’s and outside the gym squat day.
I need Intervention STAT
I don’t plan on beating myself mentally….No fucking way, I train too hard to get beat by my own head. I ditched my iPod on every main lift that I do in competition…no more music on Bench, Deadlift or Squat *Tears roll down my face* I switched back to my Nike’s over Olympic lifting shoes..why? because I feel more comfortable in them (do what WORKS for me instead of what others tell me will work for me). I gotta just keep squatting and face the fear…the worst that can happen is it stays on the pins. I also stopped squatting with a mirror in front of me….really sucks not looking at myself; you know ensuring my hair is in place and making sure duck lips are in full effect before I descend!
I also started to get under heavy weight in Bench just to get used to the feeling of it in my hands (negatives). Maybe mentally fool myself come competitiion time that the weight I’m doing ain’t shit to what I am used to being under….hey whatever works!
You can see my latest squatting session with a shout out to Ronnie Coleman here!
