Fear

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TweetFear is the Mind-killer

By Jason Keen



All of the sci-fi movie buffs out there will recognize this title as part of a famous quote from the movie Dune. A little more of the quote is: "Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration".

Now, besides making me seem like a total dork, the preceding quote definitely has an application to PL. There are many ways in which fear can negatively affect your training. Being able to quell these fears will make your training more productive, and might even be what it takes to get your training off the ground. Let's take a look at a few different lifting phobias:

Fear of Failure: This is one that obviously affects a lot of people in many different aspects of their lives. This is a shame. You need not fear failure. In fact, if you go about powerlifting with the right attitude, it will be impossible for you to fail. Strive only to exceed yourself, but ALWAYS strive to exceed yourself. Lifting should be all about improving and competing against yourself. If you are increasing PRs and getting stronger while refining technique over time, you are a success. Do not worry whether you are the strongest guy in the gym, or whether you think you do not have the genetics to get as big and strong as your favorite lifter. Do not get hung up on the fact that you do not use drugs so you can't get as strong as a user. Too many people use these cop-outs as excuses, and get a type of perverted satisfaction from proving themselves right and determining that they can't dramatically increase their strength and size. Do not set this trap for yourself. Do your best every time you go to the gym, whether you squat 200 pounds or 600 pounds. One taoist principle that applies here goes something like this: if you aren't hung up only on winning, you can't lose. In other words, only worry about what you can do, and if you stay accountable to yourself you will be on the fast-track to success.

Fear of the Weight: This is one that every lifter has run into at least a time or two, and is a problem that is easily cured in the gym. Every one of us has been on the bench and taken the hand-off on a new PR and felt like it was 1,000 pounds and that it would come crashing down to crush sternum and all. For an even more frequent occurrence, have you ever noticed how once you get that next plate on there, even if it is only a 20 pound increase, it feels twice as heavy? All of this is a result of the fact that if you think a weight is going to be heavy, or if it looks heavy, it will feel heavy. To solve this problem, do heavy hand-outs or negatives on the bench and heavy walk-outs for the squat. If you want to move up to a certain weight in the future and you feel that it is going to feel heavy, throw that weight on the bar plus a 25 on each side after your last work set and either have your spotter hand it out to you or just walk it out of the rack. Hold the weight for a while, and if you want you can even do some partials with it. After a few weeks of this, when it comes time to move up to the weight that is 50 pounds lighter than your walk-out weight, it won't feel heavy at all.

Fear of Rejection: This is one of the least rational fears that a lifter indulges himself in. It makes no sense to me that a group of people who engage in activity that 99% of the populus considers 'weird' are so sensitive in some respects to a 'group mentality'. You see it everywhere: the strongest guys at your gym say you will not get super-strong unless you use drugs, some of the guys moving big weights claim that you can't succeed unless you train Westside/HIT/Periodization/insert training style here, or some fat lifters in their triple-ply denim shirts say you are not a 'real' lifter 'cause you go raw. Why do you listen to these people? A 'real' man, and a 'real' lifter, thinks for himself. You don't need to use drugs to see success, and as time goes on there are such innovations in training and supplementation that in a couple of decades you will be able to get better results than with the current crop of drugs, and without the horrific adrogenic side-effects. As for what type of training style to use, find what works for you. I am definitely NOT saying to be close-minded. Absorb as much knowledge as you can. I literally have hundreds of books/journals/magazines relevant to lifting in some manner or another. Absorb all of this information, and try out anything that seems feasible. Over time, you will find out what works for your body structure and recovery ability. Once you do, make small periodic changes in order to stave off boredom and overuse problems, but stick to your basic framework. As for lifting raw or equipped, I would say do whatever you like. There are plenty of people who will argue for both sides, and I say do what you need to do in order to enjoy lifting. You can compete against people who lift raw or equipped, so go with your gut. If you want to move the absolute highest weight your body can move, go ahead and wear equipment. On the other hand, keep in mind that lifting raw is a truer measure of your strength, will not lead to any imbalances or muscular deficiencies that can be caused by reliance upon equipment, and is A LOT less hassle both in the gym and at the meet.

Fear of Re-injury: This is another tough one that many lifters face at some point in their career, and something that I am still somewhat dealing with now. When you injure yourself, often it is a frustrating road back. If you injure yourself while performing one of the 3 competition lifts, however, there is an even bigger problem. You might just be afraid to perform that lift again. In this case, a certain old adage is a good one: when you fall off the horse, get right back on and start riding. This is said based on the assumption that the injury is properly rehabbed. If you tear an adductor doing squats, do not try to squat again the next day. Rather, once you are healed do not try to rationalize and say "well, I might just work on leg presses for a while because that works all of the same muscle groups and I probably do not have as great a chance of getting injured". Now, to be honest, if this is the route you want to go, there might be some truth to the previous statement. The thing is, if you do choose to go that route, know that you do so at the expense of your powerlifting career and getting stronger and better at the squat. I hate to tell you, but lifting is not like riding a bike. If you decide not to squat for 6 months and then you eventually come back to it, you will be shaky, you will not be too strong out of the hole, and you will not be flexible enough to perform a full squat very comfortably. So, if you do injure yourself, take care of the injury. Ice it if it is only mild, or go to see a doctor or chiropractor or applied kinesiologist right away if it is bad. Once you are on the road to recovery and you have the associated structures healed to the point that you can perform the movement, start in on it. Start light, and work on form. Bad form or a lack of concentration was likely the culprit when the injury occurred anyway, so this is a good chance to refine your technique. Progressively up the weight as you feel the area get stronger and be sure to stretch and warm up/warm down effectively. You can get away with not doing these things for quite a while in some cases, but believe me, when it does catch up to you it will not be pleasant…before you know it you will be back in your old poundage territory on the given lift, and you might even have better form that when you got injured.

Fear of a Bad Article: So this article wasn't so good. Oh well. At least I got you thinking about lifting and some rational ways to deal with common problems, right? I thought so.

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Tweetfear of re-injury, that one gets me for sure