attitude while lifting heavy

A guy I know at my gym is very strong for his weight. He weighs about 215 and can bench 385. I weigh about 230 and can do about 340 on the bench. I'm 49 years old he is 35. He is a very mellow guy but he told me that to lift heavy you have to get pissed off either at something in your life or at the weight itself. I'll be damned if it doesn't work. I use to be able to do 315 for 4 reps. I maxed out (about 8 months ago) at 340. Since then I have lost about 10 lbs. and my strength went down. I would go to the gym and I was lucky to do 2 reps at 315. 295 seemed heavy and 3 reps were tough. In the last 3 weeks when doing chest I would get in a pissy mood and things seem to be looking up. Today I did 305x4, 305x4, and 305x3. I'll stay at 305 until I do 3 sets of 4 and then move up to 315. Know I just have to find something to pissed about.

Very true. I often have to try really hard to get myself to get angry just to focus on lifting because I have a tendency to randomly think about funny situations, and that really *&^%'s up lifts.

dinosaur training has lots of info about this. mentality really changes a workout.

depends. if you can control your arousal and keep in your groove it is good.

Ive seen people jump up and down like retards then spaz out while trying to benchpress. That isnt the way to go.

... although I just reread your post and saw your age. Hopefully you dont do the legs flail like a madman routine.

Thats good strength for your age. You ever consider hrt?

If I get pissed or too fired up I get bad form. I stop listening to what my body is saying. This leads to injury.

Instead, I concentrate and approach it with calm determination. Does the trick just fine for me.

Not if I want to walk the next day, it's not :P

You should start every set with some form of war cry... mine is like this:

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH"

C

SGT - Let me see your war face!

Soldier - AAAAAARRRGGGGG!!!!

SGT - Bullshit, you don't scare me! Work on it!

I have my MP3 player stacked with Slayer, Disturbed,

Metallica, Megadeth, Ministry, Sepultura, etc. A

Yeah, music does the trick for me as well. Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Testament, Metallica, Anthrax, Sepultura, Dio, Nuclear Assault, etc.

Another trick you can employ is, if you compete at anything (BJJ, MMA, wrestling, whatever), is to always imagine your opponent training harder than you are. You don't even have to think of a specific individual, just make up some character in your head that you think you're going to have to fight, and imagine him/her training and use that to motivate yourself. Works pretty well for me.

You run the risk of fucking up your arousal response if you use this kind of mentality too often.

Or at least that's something I've read on Elite Fitness in regards to using ammonia tabs and a higher level of arousal.

They believe in limiting such tactics so you get the most kick out of them when you really need then i.e. competition day.

Jacketwrestler, I have the same problem. And I'm sure I'll have it this week when I'm thinking about what you guys have said about "intensity" and instead think about how many times they've said "arousal" lol

Hell I'm aroused right now.

Wanna see?

hehe

Interesting, I'm the opposite. I'm usually an outgoing happy person so getting angry isn't natural for me. However my mates usually remark that I seem cold or detached while I'm training. For me that works, but for some it's the opposite I guess. TTT

lol @ c-hamzeh

I lift by myself, and I really don't want to risk going on tilt if I don't have a spotter around to bail me out. I try to be very calm and controlled.

LIGHT WEIGHT BABBBBAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

NUTHHIN BUT A PEANUT BABAAAAAYYY!!!! WWWWOOOOOOOHHH!!!!

C