Getting Scientific (sort of) #1: Psyching Yourself Up or Out

I’m sure everyone has heard of sports psychology. Sports psychology is a big deal in our country, especially because athletes that are pro can get paid upwards of millions of dollars for a contract. I’m not really keen on how football, basketball and baseball all work. I know they all involve throwing balls, goals (or baskets, obviously...) and running around and sometimes slapping someone on the ass. But I also know there’s a lot of pressure, millions of fans of the team(s), people watching and either winning/losing money, and future contracts hanging in the balance with every game.

Sports psychology is important in these sports (and pretty much every other sport as well) for a myriad of reasons. One being which, someone has to lose, so make sure it’s the other guy (or team). You know how in those cheesy (but sometimes barely enjoyable) sports movies, the Coach walks into the locker room right before the big game and gives some long tearful emotional speech about not sucking and “it’s okay to lose, but we won’t” and all that other shit? That, dear readers, is sports psychology at the monkey level.

I’m currently reading a book called “Psych” by Judd Biasiotto. Biasiotto is above the monkey level. This book is mainly geared towards competitive weightlifters, but can be pretty much applied across the board. Obviously, I like that it’s geared towards weightlifters, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it if your sport is golf or CrossFit or gymnastics.

“Psych” is all about methods used for athlete arousal and performance enhancement via that awesome thing called the mind. The mind is known to play tricks on us. It tells us we can’t possibly follow that diet, because we’ll starve. It also tells us to eat potato chips and drink soda because they are A) the devil’s food and B) made in a lab somewhere based on the human brain’s reward systems*.

So, how we do reign in the power of our minds and get into a state of being awesome, but not too awesome that we blow it? Biasiotto goes into depth discussing the civil rights movement (it fits in perfectly, context-wise) and he starts digging into what makes a competitive athlete a winning athlete (or team) and how the trainee/athlete can use some of the methods he lays out to do so.

To a degree, I think most serious trainees do, in fact, use some form of psyching. I know for me, when I’m about to go for a PR, it takes me a few seconds, sometimes a minute or two, to get my mind in the right spot. I think about getting onto the top 10 list of the PL totals. I think about how strong my legs feel that day. I think about how I won’t let this bar beat me, not today. But what I need on any given day sometimes changes a bit. I’m not always chasing a PR, so I don’t need the same level of psyching up that a PR day needs.

In order to bring the intensity that is necessary to achieve your goals, you need to find out what works for you. That means, the right training program, “diet” or eating habit (along with meal timing knowing what carbs/fats/protein work best for you and your goals) and the right psyching up in the gym or on the field. Are you the type of person that needs to be slapped to get ready to attack the weights, or do you prefer if someone is yelling “you can do this!”. Or maybe you like quiet, and to be inside your own head, talking yourself up. Maybe you stomp around looking insane but then squat 900 pounds.

Psyching can even be something simple like wearing a specific shirt, pair of socks, or pants/shorts or shoes. Sometimes, I wear long sleeves. Sometimes I wear short sleeves. But lately, I always wear a beanie. Mainly because my hair gets in my face and it’s distracting, but it’s come to be the sign of “game time” to my brain and it helps me turn my switch on.

Experiment with psyching yourself up and controlling your performance anxiety. Try to never think negatively about your sport and how you’re doing, or how much weight you’re pushing. That negative shit interferes with healthy psyching up and is called psyching yourself out.

At the end of the day, it’s about what works for you to be the best you can be. I know, personally, I want to be better than average.

See you in THE DUNGEON

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Buy Biasiotto’s book here: (Kindle edition)

*: Information taken from a book titled “The End of Overeating” by David A. Kessler which can be purchased here

Someday is Today

Someday is Today

After my brutal deadlift session last week, I was unloading the bar so I could do barbell curls. I had the bar down to 115 and said to myself “someday, I’ll be able to curl this”.

Someday is Today.

Today, I deadlifted sumo-style for a PR of 155 for 5 reps. It was hard. Real hard. But, when I got back to deadlifting only 2 months ago, I was doing 95 pounds and that was hard.

Granted, with my injuries and physical limits, my mind takes some convincing. I often question my own ability. I suggest you try not to do what I do and doubt yourself. It takes time to build up strength and it takes even more time to learn the lifts correctly.

That being said, why not make “someday” today and give it all you’ve got? We only have right now, so we should push ourselves while we’re able.

We don’t need to push 100% every day, but we should have the intensity levels and focus of an animal. We should hit the weights like it’s our last time. We should try, every single day, to do better.

We won’t always succeed. We have to fail sometimes. Life wouldn't be awesome if we succeeded at everything. Well, it may be awesome, but it would be boring.

The beauty of failure is it lights a fire under our asses. At least, it does for me.

We can’t be good at everything. Pick something and practice perfectly and beat the next guy. Then do it again and don’t stop until you’re number one and someone is gunning for your spot.

I keep telling myself “top of the list” on big pulls. I want to make the top 5 women’s PL list this year. Is it going to be really hard? Yes. Will I be trying everyday to make sure I did the best I could do that day to get into the top 5? Hell yes.

Find something to work towards and then don’t stop until you’ve reached your goals.

See you in THE DUNGEON.

Inspired By #1

We should all have a mentor. Mentors teach you, are patient, and are quick to tell you when you screw up because they actually give a shit.

In life, we are given the opportunity to create friendships and use these people as mentors. Maybe some friends of yours are really good at making smart investments (I have zero friends like that. I should consider getting some!) Or maybe you have a friend that's really got a good head on their shoulders when it comes to rolling with life's punches.

I, in particular, have what I consider a great friend who has helped me along my fitness (now powerlifting) journey. This friend of mine and I have never met in person. We met in an online Facebook group called Lean You (used to be run by Paul Nobles over at Crossfitters Eat to Perform (which he started recently and the guy really knows his shit! I learned a lot from him, initially). I got directed to there from somewhere else (I think it was Berkhan's Lean Gains site a long time ago).

I digress.

The point is, my friend is amazing. She's a girl (yay!) and she recently pulled  220lbs on the dead lift. The woman knows a thing or two about stress. She handles her kids, her husband and makes awesome cakes on the side to boot. She's done it all. Keto, CBL, Paleo, IIFYM (to a degree, she still does I believe) and is looking lean and mean:

Jacked Girl!

So, there I was, about 2 years ago (give or take), looking to get back into training. I had the long layoff with my back troubles and was really scared about lifting again. April and I hit it off fairly quickly and became fast friends. Our friendship has grown naturally over the past 2 years and we're really starting to get to know one another now.  But from the start, I knew I had to learn how she operated and what made her tick.

I asked her lots of questions:

"How do you stick to it through all the emotional shit in life" And she would tell me things like (paraphrasing...it's been a long time!) "Because I use that as my outlet" and other similar messages.

I know it's hard getting started. Maybe you started long before I came along and told you to start. Maybe you started and then stopped again.

But April makes it her mission to get to the gym everyday she has planned. She does high volume work and recovers well. I am usually afraid to text her at 8 PM for fear of waking her up. She gets up early and does her motherly duties. She always makes amazing and healthy meals (We are working on getting April to do some guest posts on recipes and some nutritional information, so stay tuned for those awesome posts soon to come!), and somehow manages to keep her shit together.

I'm no April, but I do my best.

Why does April inspire me? Because she's a real person that I can talk to usually whenever I want to. We give each other advice now. I help her with certain aspects and she helps me with certain things. It's a give and take. If we lived closer together, I know 100% we would be destroying shit in the gym together and making the men feel emasculated or give them wood. Either way, we'd be double amazeballs because we'd be a force to be reckoned with.

When you find someone like April and you have a good feeling about the direction of your friendship, don't be afraid to ask them for help. Maybe it's someone at your gym. Maybe it's your uncle or someone you already feel connected to who has the ability and knowledge to help you. Take advantage of that. Lots of people pay way too much for the same information I get from April near-daily.

I can email her or text her questions about my nutrients, or if I have troubles, and she gets back to me quickly because we're friends. She's invested in my goals and I am invested in hers because we care for one another.

Great friendships are hard to find, especially in a sport that can be very intimidating. Great mentors are even more rare.

Make something of yourself, but don't be afraid to enlist help to become the person you want to become, no matter what aspect that is. This is your life, your shot. The journey is always more fun with great friends.

See you in the DUNGEON.

“I don’t want to get big/bulky” and “Ew, muscles on a girl are gross”

In our western society, we are given roles based upon our gender (which, when born, we have zero control over, just like we have no control over the color of our eyes, our height, our metabolism or whether we’re born in Africa or America and whether we have shitty parents or awesome ones, the list goes on...) and these roles tend to be given to us as soon as we’re born. You’re born a boy? Chances are you’re given the blue onesie and not the pink one. You’re a girl? You probably had to suffer through (enjoy?) wearing dresses at an early age until you were old enough to tell your mother to please stop buying you fucking dresses. Where am I going with this, might you ask?

If I hear another male human creature comment that women aren’t supposed to “look like men” or that “women shouldn't have that much muscle” I will shove a can of dog food down someone’s throat. And not that organic good shit, either. The nasty shit. Like Pedigree (Pedigarbage?).

Let’s get something straight. This idea of “feminine” and “masculine” shit doesn’t really exist. It only exists because we make it exist, just like racism and bigotry and homosexuality are all things that are just the things they are without us putting a label on it, they wouldn’t be anything. But I’ll not rant upon those topics, because that’s not what this blog is about. But, I want to make it clear that training, working out, losing body fat, getting jacked are all things you should do for you and not give two shits what other people think.

If we all lived our lives caring so much about what other people think, our lives would be sad and insignificant. I care about what my family thinks, my future kids, my future boss, my teachers, my partner. Why? Because their thoughts of me directly impact my actions. But they also don’t think I’m something terrible and awful and offensive. See where I’m going with this?

If we, as women, stopped feeding into the frenzy maybe men (and other women) would follow suit. We’re allowed to deadlift a shit ton of weight just like any man can and should do. We’re allowed to eat our protein and our veggies and sweat. We also give the gift of life via pregnancy. If someone wants to call you names or call you out for wanting to be a figure competitor, a powerlifter, or an athlete with muscle on her frame, tell them kiss your ass. You’re not doing this to please them, and most of the time, these comments come from a place of jealousy and low self-esteem.

Christmas Abbott is jacked and can kick an asshole right in the nuts.

Get strong for you. You’re changing your bad habits because you want to see your kids walk down the aisle, you want to be able to walk, you want to be able to go up a flight of stairs, you want to be jacked, you want to win a competition because you know you can, or you generally just want to be more healthy than 95% of people in America. Those 95% are ignorant assholes doing juicing diets, grapefruit diets and slaving over the cardio machines, too scared to even lift a barbell because they’ll “get huge” or “hurt something”. These are not the people you should listen to. Not for a second. And if the voice inside your head is one of those types, retrain that voice to tell you you’re awesome and you can, in fact, do this. And you deserve to do this because, guess what? “You've got your whole life to do something, and that’s not very long” (Ani Difranco, “Willing to Fight”).

Arnold did it. Why can't you?

See you in The DUNGEON

What's That About Nutrition?

In the spirit of “just getting started” and “taking the leap” I thought I would take some time to go through my journey with food and self discovery over the past year or so. I won’t go into full detail (yet) about my hang ups with food and how it messed with my head for a long time here, but I promise to write that all out in a more detailed (and sourced) format very soon.

I’m sure you’ve heard that diet and nutrition are half the battle, or 80% or some other arbitrary number. You may have even heard of the protein sparing modified diet, the ketogenic diet, carb cycling, carb back loading, carb nite solution, lean gains, warrior diet and every other type of eating pattern or “diet” out there.

Let me be clear: just because Joe can eat 6 donuts a day and then go and squat 600 pounds while downing over 3000 calories and staying around 8% body fat doesn’t mean that Bob can do the same. Maybe Joe’s body just happens to love carbs and uses them for fuel better than Bob. Bob might be the type who can’t really get away with eating donuts on the regular, but maybe he can do alright with rolled oats, less carbs and more fat. Joe might be able to get away with eating so many donuts and carbs because he has his nutrient timing down to a tee. Bob may still need to figure out how many meals per day is optimal for him. How do we figure this stuff out, though?

Marc Lobliner can eat the shit out of some donuts and look like a badass.

It starts by doing what I told my mom to do for years, and that is: listening to your body.

When you’re training and you feel something pop and suddenly have pain, the logical thing to do would be to stop training and assess the problem so you don’t make the same mistake. Same thing with food, broz. You have to listen. Bloated? Gassy? Grumpy? Tired? Not sleeping well? Could be all that mac and cheese (I know, that shit is delicious!) or maybe you have a milk protein allergy or you’re deficient in a vitamin or mineral (or a few of them, like most average laypersons), or many other factors. You just won’t know until you consistently get certain aspects correct for a long enough time to see the result(s)..

My entire journey was a long one. I had been “skinny fat” for a long time and I was tired of it. So what did I do? I decided to try to cut bodyfat, lift weights, do cardio and things went well. For about two weeks. This happened consistently, for years. Everytime I would try to lose fat, I would do well for about 2 or 4 weeks, then fall off the wagon.

See, my body played tricks on me. It made me think it was stronger than my mind. And it was. For a while.

Dieting is about control. But it’s also about personal introspection and knowing your weaknesses. I had to evaluate myself. Why wasn’t I able to stick to the program for more than a few weeks before bingeing? I went on a quest to find out.

I read books. I watched YouTube videos. I took note of my triggers. I started getting more sleep. That cleared up some stress eating. I started eating more vegetables and fruits. That helped with some cravings. I played around with high fat, low carb. That made me binge. I switched to medium carb, medium fat. Now we’re getting somewhere....

But it was me being willing to experiment to finally find the formula that would lead me to success that worked. If you just do things willy nilly for the sake of just doing them, how do you ever know what worked or is working?

This meant logging my calories to make sure I was getting enough vitamins and minerals and supplementing with certain things. Manipulation is key to success when it comes to dieting.

If you’re on a quest to “lose weight” (and I sincerely hope by “lose weight” you mean lose body fat) then I strongly encourage you to start tracking your food intake. Actually, this is good if you’re trying to gain weight, too (not body fat, but lean mass) so you should track either way. Why? To find your maintenance caloric level. When you’re at maintenance caloric intake, you don’t gain weight or lose weight. This is important because it gives us a baseline on which to use for gaining or losing. Find this number and things get a bit easier, number wise. Takes out a lot of the guessing. (This number can, and should, shift over time, but we’re playing off the present here and not the future.)

Read some books and ask some questions. Find people willing and able to help you through the initial shit storm that will be a new lifestyle. It isn’t easy, but it’s simple. Eat less, move more. Eat less garbage, eat more veggies and solid protein sources. 

Find what works for you by being purposeful and intelligent about your approaches. Once you do that, you’re a step ahead.

This same sentiment rings true as far as training practices goes, but that’s another post for another day.

Ed Coan knows a thing or two about proper training.

See you in The DUNGEON

Taking the Leap

               Goals. Everyone’s always yammering on about setting realistic goals. Keep it simple, stupid. All that shit. But what are realistic goals? Why do they matter so much? Why can’t we just wander around in life and just live?

                You need purpose. I have stated this in my previous post. A purpose makes a life meaningful. Are you in college? Why? What do you think you’ll get out of getting a degree versus just getting a job? Do you train? Why? Why is training better than sitting on your ass eating chips and drinking soda? Do you drink? Why? What does that do for you? What benefit do you get out of it? All of these things should be questions we ask ourselves, if we want to be better or get better. But to change habits, we need a reason to. Goals.

                I just filled out my entry form for my first powerlifting meet. The meet is October 5^th, where I have no fucking clue how much weight I will even attempt. I don’t know the total I’m chasing. I just know I need to get on the platform and do my best. That means every day, I’m doing my best. Your best is different than my best, but that’s a post for another day. Today’s all about goals and asking you to question if they are, in fact, important and if so, why?

                Before filling out my entry form, I was training hard. “Hard training” is relative to strength and other factors, but I was training “hard”. Now I’m training harder. How hard was I training previously if I can now train harder? What changed? The investment in the meet, for one. Knowing it’s my first one and I don’t want to look like a pussy on the platform in front of the huge monsters there or disappoint myself. My family won’t give two shits if I lift a PR or not, they’ll still love me and think I am completely unhinged for training and eating and resting just to lift some weights on some day in some town we have never been to wearing a little singlet and, as my girlfriend says, “heaving and ho-ing” some weights around. Doesn’t matter, though. I’m there for me. The goals associated with me not looking like an asshole at this meet are for me. No one else cares about this as much as I do.

                Goals are for you. To make you stronger, better, faster, healthier, more aware….whatever end goal you’re after, it’s the little points, these tiny goals that get you to the bigger picture. Picture yourself wealthy with nice cars and fancy watches? You better start looking around for someone who’s good at being rich and who made it through with hard work and knowledge.

                Want to get shredded and compete on stage, trying to earn your pro card? Find someone who’s good at coaching bodybuilders and turning them into pros with their guidance and help.

                Want to get jacked and hit some massive PRs? Better find someone who’s competed, has lifted iron for years and has a passion and the knowledge base to help you reach your potential.

                The point is, even if you seek out help to reach another level, you are still the only one that cares 100%. The other people care based upon having an interest in your success. They do give two shits if you’re successful. They do care if you hit those PRs at that meet (or, in my case, he cares if I get my injuries more stable and find ways to correct things now so I can be successful and reach my goals). Find someone who cares enough and you’ll have the help you need to succeed. But all the help and knowledge in the world can’t do shit if you don’t have an idea of where you want to be.

                Since I don’t have any definitive numbers yet for my first meet, what are my goals? Before I decided to do a meet, I just wanted to be stronger than you. I wanted to get jacked, only because being strong and effective is what I have never been, physically. It’s a mental challenge for me. And I like a good challenge. My goal now is to do my best. What is your best? Are you sure you’re there?

                What are your goals? Get them figured out, write them out and then enter into a 5k, a Crossfit challenge, a golf competition, a meet, or whatever else you need to give your training purpose. Just take the jump and I guarantee you, your entire mind set will change. There’s something different about performing in an uncomfortable situation with people you don’t know VS doing it at work where you know everyone. Take the leap. Not because I told you to, but because you know you can.

                See you in the DUNGEON.