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EricT · 11-11-2008, 04:03 PM

So I want to expand on the whole psychology thing. Anxiety and all that.

There were numerous statements by DH that got me motivated to go into this. I'll just quote a few here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkhorse

I know the times I've tried to go back to back days in the gym, all I could think about was if it was worth my getting up so early before work. No matter how subtle, it'll affect performance, and no amount of preworkout magic shakes is going to change that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkhorse

It's a race, but for what? No idea..... I can see having a comp or a meet in a time frame, but for the rest of you, it's hurting, not helping.

This stuff is NOT obvious to the majority of people out there. Even most of the more advanced ones. Whatcha want to bet that many people will read those statements and not get that DH is talking about phsycological aspects as WELL as preparation, recovery, and all that. No, he's not talking about pre-workout nutrition, lol.

We have had SO many threads about motivation and anxiety and concentration and those types of things they are uncoutable. I've only just begun to really appreciate the phsychological aspect of training and how it all ties together.

Yeah, some of you have heard me talk about it before and I've probably pointed out many times to certain people when they PM about all their workout related stress that it's probably more than just training related, but I've had my own hangups that caused me not to truly appreciate this stuff. I guess I'll sort of do my own 'phsychological history' briefly to illustrate. I mean mostly training related, lol, there ain't enough years to relate it all

You see my thing is a bit of the opposite of what some people get. I tend to be 'hyperfocused'. I have an almost unhealth ability to tune out everything but the task at hand. That can help me get a lot of work done but in training it can be both a blessing and a curse. You can see why it would be a blessing. The reason it could be a curse is not as obvious and it took me a long time to get it.

Problem is that "focus" alone isn't everything. You have to focus on the right things! I've had to be able to step outside myself also and realize that just as I can focus on good ways of doing things, I can also use that focus and motivation to ignore my own stress, feelings of boredom, etc..

I'll use Anuj as an example because I know he won't mind. I'll bet you he can remember me basically telling him to "get over it" when he was bored or disatisfied with his training. My feeling was that it was a problem in attitude. I said in another thread recently that many of the things people tell you have more to do with themselves than you. Well, THAT had as much to do with me, if not more, than it did Anuj.

I'm not the only one here like that, I know.

Obviously I would never want to lose my focus. I’m not complaining. Concentration in the gym is not a problem for me. But I also have the unhealthy ability to continue, in a completely dedicated mindset, down completely blind alleys while bricks are raining down and burying me. I don’t think I would have been able to continue being successful if I hadn’t started changing the way I look at certain things. I like to be self-sufficient, that’s for sure, but you can only go so far with that stuff. I don’t know everything, including what goes on in my own psyche.

DH, mentioned the 2 on one off schedule with 4 day routines. Well I did that once to tell you the truth and it sucked so I hung it up. Luckily that was at a time when I had gotten over, a bit, my tendency to stick to unproductive protocols. But that brings me back to this idea of someone's training being "optimal".

Optimal doesn't exist in training. Because if you make one aspect of training optimal, another one suffers and becomes suboptimal. To answer that, many simply rate variables in terms of importance. This leads to the mostly abritrary "mathematical" designations of training variables like "it's 60% this, 30 %, that with a smattering of a few other things". Which is, of course, complete bullshit.

At those times when I have tried to dial in optimal FREQUENCY, for instance: Of course the fullbody 5x5 comes to mind. Yeah, I had some success. But I spent as much time during those grueling days worrying about having a bad day in gym, catastrophising over potential injuries since some joint or other was always tweaked, or simple dreading the whole thing. Each day was completely like the last. The one goal of simply adding a little load to the bar in the hopes of some far off PR was was derailing my drive and enthusiasm. All of that equalling to DISTRESS. How optimal is that? I'm talking about me and how I approached it I'm not saying that another person couldn't have a more healthy approach.

All the while I told myself that was the price of dedication. Not realizing that EVERYTHING matters.