I feel the need to apologize in advance.
This blog post is going to refer to some things in the past that 99% of you under the age of 40 are going to have never heard of before.
So, I apologize.
But I want to tell you about the very first fear I remember having and to do that, I’ve got to set my DeLorean time machine (perhaps the first unknown reference???) back to the late 1970s and a toy robot called “2XL”.
2XL was about 16” high and looked like the love child of R2D2 and ET. In addition to haunting my 7 year-old dreams, 2XL also played 8-Track tapes (second old man reference so far) which were interactive in as much as the tapes would ask you questions and you could press one of four buttons on 2XLs chest to give your answer.
By some form of technological wizardry, 2XL knew which button you pressed and would tell you whether you got the answer right.
(QUICK ASIDE: Do you ever have the thought that if you actually got sent back in time and told the citizens of the 1700s or whatever about light bulbs and space shuttles and iPhones and they would be like “that sounds incredible, future boy, tell us how these things work” and you would have to admit that you don’t actually know the first thing about how they work and you would be of no real help to society? Yeah, me too.)
In your free time, 2XL could play standard music 8 tracks in case you wanted to listen to Molly Hatchet or Lynryd Skynrd through a toy robot speaker (OK, even I admit that there may have been too many old references in that sentence).
For the record, I did not own a 2XL. 2XL was the property of my cousin Lee and I honestly have no idea how it made its way into my bedroom.
But there it sat on the desk that faced my platform twin bed adorned in Fonzie sheets scaring the crap out of me once the lights went out.
I tried to be brave. I tried to gut it out. But after two nights of tossing and turning with the threat of sci-fi torture, I asked my Mom to take 2XL out of my room.
Fear is a strange thing. It simultaneously keeps us from doing the things that could potentially benefit us the most and also saves our lives.
It can be both rational and completely irrational.
In the gym, fear also has a unique role.
I have often argued that, while you can be a smart person, relying on intelligence and rationality is a big mistake when you are trying to lift heavy weight or PR your 2k row.
Because, of course, stepping out of the rack with a bar on your back heavier than any that has been there before and then attempting to sink down into a deep squat should send warning signals to your brain that this is potentially a bad idea.
Similarly, the thought of “if I push a little harder I can get this 2000 meters in less than 7 minutes but I just as easily could induce a heart attack” is a very reasonable argument to have with oneself.
So, this begs the question, which voice should win these arguments?
As with most things training, I’ve thought about this a lot and have come up with a few things that I think work.
First, particularly if you are an experienced lifter, you shouldn’t attempt anything maximal if you aren’t feeling great. Hitting a PR after you’ve been training for five or eight or twenty years becomes a pretty rare thing. And doing so on a day when you are under slept or achy or just not feeling it makes it even less likely to happen. You only get so many big attempts in your training career once you get past the beginning stages. Save them for a time when you are feeling good.
Secondly, while maximal efforts are not going to look textbook beautiful most of the time, you do not want to deviate too far from your typical technique and remain in acceptable ranges.
If you are normally an upright, butt-to-ankles squatter but you just hit your PR by hinging at the waist, caving in at the knees and going about a quarter of the way down, I hate to break this to you but you didn’t really PR.
Your optimal technique creates a standard that you want to live by and replicated, even in the most difficult attempts. Don’t cheat yourself out of it just to put more weight on the bar.
Lastly, as reference above, you have to get dumb. Meathead stereotypes aside, many big lifters and fast runners are also remarkably intelligent people. Maxing out your bench or attempting a sub 5-minute mile is not the time to be a deep thinker. In fact, while you want to keep all your cues or paces at the top of your mind, you don’t really want to think about what you are about to do. I’ll often say “get dumb” before someone unracks an uncharted weight. It’s one of the best cues that I’ve got.
Personally, I’m a bit strange. I actually get more excited to lift the heavier the weights are. It’s not that I’m not aware of the risks, I guess I just enjoy them.
When it comes to heavy breathing activities, I am the complete opposite. It’s uncomfortable, I get worried and start telling myself every story imaginable about why today is not the day and that I should probably just slow down.
We all have things to work on.
But as much as I fear a mid-50 calorie fan bike cardiac arrest, I have gotten over my fear of toy robots.
Which I guess proves that we can all make progress.
I do still wish I had those Fonzie sheets, though.
Those things were rad.