Berserker/Beast/Hulk Mode Addiction

Training Powerlifting
21

[quote]csulli wrote:

In training though something I believe he almost always does before a set is rub his ears. Says it promotes blood flow to your head and helps your CNS activate. Who knows, that might be the broest science ever, but I wouldn’t argue with him about it.[/quote]

It actually does work a little bit. After seeing a video with some of the russian lifters if i remember correctly doing just that, i tried it too. I didnt do it while training but i did as an aid to waking up in the morning.

22

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
I wear a ball cap in the gym, and I may be joking around between sets, but I’ve trained myself over many years, so when I spin the ball cap around backwards on my head, I become a different person, it’s a mental cue to me. It’s enough that guys at my gym know not to talk or bother me when the caps facing backwards. As soon as I’m done my set, I’ll spin it around, and my smile comes back, it’s an internal rage, and after lifting for decades now I’ve found a way to harness it.

In my youth I fought alot, in and out of jail for my temper ( abusive chidhood) But it’s been years since I’ve lost my cool publicly, and I think for me, the weights are a huge release of rage, it’s just a way of channeling it. You don’t want to come up and ask me a stupid question just as I’m stepping under the squat bar, with cap backwards, because you’d get a blast.

I also work with alot of youth now and try to get them to channel negative energy this way. It is an addiction, but for the most part a healthy one, and I use it with my kids to help them get clean and sober, become addicted to the weights, tracking progress, tracking calories, becoming emersed in a new addiction. It may not be clinical, but I’ve used this method to help probably 100 kids over the last 10yrs since I’ve been sober, and running an addiction group, as well as a gym.

There’s truely a fine line between dedicated, and addicted, between pushing hard, and over doing it, but atleast it’s a healthy activity, some of us with obsessive personality’s, could be pushing that fine line in alot worse activity’s, thats my take anyway. Latter[/quote]

Good work man.

When I got into recovery a guy took me under his wing and pointed me toward the weights for the same reasons. Since then there has been a good bit of research done to back it up as a valid method to assist in recovery.

on the OP
Getting amped up to hit a max can go either way depepnding on how much control you have over the level of stimulation. Too much or too little and you can miss the lift. If its just for getting that rush and of no consequence then no big deal. I’ve always been an adrenaline junkie myself and never found it to be of any consequence in the weight room, but chasing that rush on a mountain bike or snowboard can get ugly if you start bouncing off of trees or taking blind jumps into bad landings.

23

For me, truly psyching up for lifts is terrible. If I don’t psych up, I can recover from just about anything (squatting to a max 6 times a week was no problem). But as soon as I started psyching up for sets (on 5/3/1, which is significantly less demanding overall than the above), I found my strength decreasing and my body getting more and more beat up each week. Looking back through my lifting history, whenever I went through periods where I would psych up for sets, my lifts wouldn’t increase much, or even get weaker. And every cycle so far where I haven’t psyched up much for sets I have seen my lifts skyrocket. Even when I have competed psyching up has only helped me for deadlifts (where I have PR’ed at both meets) and actually hurt me for squat and bench (couldn’t even hit training maxes at either meet with ammonia, etc.)

In the context of this post, when I say psych up, I mean going all-out with metalcore blaring and people yelling and whatnot. When I have a heavy set of 5 or something for a PR I need to psych up a little just to push myself through that last rep, but nothing crazy.

24

[quote]OmniStyx wrote:
For me, truly psyching up for lifts is terrible. If I don’t psych up, I can recover from just about anything (squatting to a max 6 times a week was no problem). But as soon as I started psyching up for sets (on 5/3/1, which is significantly less demanding overall than the above), I found my strength decreasing and my body getting more and more beat up each week. Looking back through my lifting history, whenever I went through periods where I would psych up for sets, my lifts wouldn’t increase much, or even get weaker. And every cycle so far where I haven’t psyched up much for sets I have seen my lifts skyrocket. Even when I have competed psyching up has only helped me for deadlifts (where I have PR’ed at both meets) and actually hurt me for squat and bench (couldn’t even hit training maxes at either meet with ammonia, etc.)

In the context of this post, when I say psych up, I mean going all-out with metalcore blaring and people yelling and whatnot. When I have a heavy set of 5 or something for a PR I need to psych up a little just to push myself through that last rep, but nothing crazy.[/quote]

^^This. I used to get psyched up for every single top set and I found it was extremely taxing and difficult to recover from. I’ve now learnt the “switch on and off” concept and I try to complete as many of my top sets in a non-heightened state. Although I do like to have metalcore blasting at me :stuck_out_tongue:

25

Thank you everyone for the great insight. I guess I should have said, “psyched for a medium comercial gym.” I train alone and don’t get yelling batshit psyched, just inwardly psyched, but sometimes just at the edge of boiling over to outward. It probably shows in my eyes and nothing else.

This week, I avoided the psych just to see the difference.
Psyched pulls, 275 x 7 last month
Calmed pulls, 275 x 5 today

I probably could haved forced 7 reps calmed, but I stick to the “keep one or two reps in the tank” mentality psyched or not. Running the reps through a 1rm calculator (not exactly scientific but quantifiable) I get a 21lb difference. Neat.

This all makes me want to test true maxes ASAP.

26

Being “psyched” is so subjective. I feel like whether or not I want to or feel like getting psyched, as I go through my workout and my CNS gets more and more activated, I can’t help but be psyched

27

[quote]Gnarly wrote:
Being “psyched” is so subjective. I feel like whether or not I want to or feel like getting psyched, as I go through my workout and my CNS gets more and more activated, I can’t help but be psyched[/quote]

Some are presenting as if it’s an ‘either or’ type of thing; IMO…it’s a matter of degrees. FTR…I agree with those that advocate reserving the ‘Berserker/Beast/Hulk’ mode for competition and/or the rare max. attempt in training.

28

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I just don’t hit max sets out of competition personally. I use those sets to demonstrate strength, whereas I use others to build it.
[/quote]

well said…
A lifter is either showing or growing!

29

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I just don’t hit max sets out of competition personally. I use those sets to demonstrate strength, whereas I use others to build it.
[/quote]

well said…
A lifter is either showing or growing!
[/quote]

Thanks man. Your opinion holds a lot of weight with me, so it pleases me when I find out we agree on something, haha.

30

I don’t understand how you guys lift without getting psyched up. I don’t even mean to the next thing I know I’m growling swearing and shit flys up. I never truely go 100%, I haven’t competed, but unless I am maxing. Especially on squats or deads, I have always felt this fight or flight rush because I have taken some pretty bad tumbles with both those exercises, so my heart rate will hit somewhere of 170 before I get under the bar. This is something I have counted. I am naturally a really angry person though, so this might contribute to that. interesting insight in this thread though.

31

[quote]Umbrata Fortis wrote:
I don’t understand how you guys lift without getting psyched up. I don’t even mean to the next thing I know I’m growling swearing and shit flys up. I never truely go 100%, I haven’t competed, but unless I am maxing. Especially on squats or deads, I have always felt this fight or flight rush because I have taken some pretty bad tumbles with both those exercises, so my heart rate will hit somewhere of 170 before I get under the bar. This is something I have counted. I am naturally a really angry person though, so this might contribute to that. interesting insight in this thread though.[/quote]

When I lift the weight in training, my goal isn’t to move the weight from point A to point B, but generally to make to muscles I am recruiting stronger. This requires me to be able to focus on the technique I am using and my ability to elicit the desired response I am seeking. Generally, being this focused on this task prevents me from being too psyched up, and being too psyched up prevents me from focusing, so it sorts itself out.

32

[quote]Umbrata Fortis wrote:
I don’t understand how you guys lift without getting psyched up. I don’t even mean to the next thing I know I’m growling swearing and shit flys up. I never truely go 100%, I haven’t competed, but unless I am maxing. Especially on squats or deads, I have always felt this fight or flight rush because I have taken some pretty bad tumbles with both those exercises, so my heart rate will hit somewhere of 170 before I get under the bar. This is something I have counted. I am naturally a really angry person though, so this might contribute to that. interesting insight in this thread though.[/quote]

Rather than get all nuts, try to tone it down. Get lazer focus on the lift. It’s ok to be nervous for PR attempts but for regular sets, keep it cool. If you go all bat shit crazy you are wasting energy that should go into the bar. plus you may find yourself looking like the gym doosh that goes bananas every set. Besides if you go all nuts every set, what do you have when you need it? your prolly spent by that point.
I would argue that if you HAVE to get super jazzed to make a lift, you aren’t strong enough to be playing with that weight. Get the ego in check and take more manageable weights for a ride. That’s my take on it anyways.

Edit - do what you gotta do I guess but sometimes that shit gets obnoxious. It’s kind of like when your banging a chick. Moans and stuff are great. Turning into ‘Lassie’ from Porkys is no bueno, for me anyways. lol Some of you older guys will get the referance. ha

33

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

When I lift the weight in training, my goal isn’t to move the weight from point A to point B, but generally to make to muscles I am recruiting stronger. This requires me to be able to focus on the technique I am using and my ability to elicit the desired response I am seeking. Generally, being this focused on this task prevents me from being too psyched up, and being too psyched up prevents me from focusing, so it sorts itself out. [/quote]

Well put. For training sets, I focus not only on moving the weight but moving it efficiently and effectively. That is unless I am going for a true max effort set

34

I also feel like the more you progress, the more taxing getting “psyched” is. I still use loud music and focus for pretty much every set, but pump myself up only for the heaviest work sets (the last set of the main lift with 5/3/1). I think a part of that is also not using belt/chalk/wraps until the last set as well, so for me that becomes part of the ritual.

Now I only reserve it for my last set, but last week there was no chalk at the gym and I forgot my ipod, so I used the phone which has different styles of music on it and hit 230x4. Today I didn’t have wrist wraps, but I had the ipod with the song I currently like for “singles” or top work sets, and there was chalk, so I basically had everything in place, got psyched, and hit 230x6. Maybe I took it easier last week and I just needed more time to recover, but I think my mental state was the deciding factor.

35

Ive looked into the whole mental arousal thing a lot as of late. I personally become extremely intense during max lifts and without that level of arousal my lifts aren’t of the same caliber. There are a lot of people who speak negatively of getting hyped for a lift but Its completely base on the individual. I need that level of aggression in order to operate maximally, I also have learned how to turn it off and on mentally on command.

It takes along time to be able to control it but once you can it is a valuable tool. The use of heavy metal, mental visualization, explosive technique, and ammonia how I get into the “zone”. Matt Kroc is one of my heroes so I try to emulate his drive and intensity during training and comp.I am also a fan of Kirk Karwoski and Chuck V., both legends and very intense. There was a great article on elite fts earlier this week on the same topic, I suggest yall check it out

36

Maybe Im in the minority, but I prefer to be much calmer before a max effort lift, I never use music I tend to just relay one or two thoughts in my head to help me in the lift. This works for me in all aspects of life really, I generally lose when leading on shear emotion, but when Im more cerebral and calculated in my approach Im usually more successful. Now AFTER a good lift I have and will go into baboon mode.

I remember just training at the gym with a friend one time he smacked me on the back…it didnt get me psyched at all actually it got me angry at him…basically dont fucking touch me…Im very big on personal space and hard as fuck smack on the back (hes 6’2" 330) fucking hurt.

37

Well, it is a tool like anything else. Some people can handle it better than others. Just learn what works for you.

All I know is that “summoning the demons” is one of the most rewarding things I can do in the gym. While psyching up is trainable and no big deal, finding that insane sweet spot rarely happens, but when it happens it is glorious. However, it can completely wipe you out. Had it before some big 1RM oly squat a week ago and it took 20min or so to think straight afterwards.

38

[quote]yojimbo1858 wrote:
Ive looked into the whole mental arousal thing a lot as of late. I personally become extremely intense during max lifts and without that level of arousal my lifts aren’t of the same caliber. There are a lot of people who speak negatively of getting hyped for a lift but Its completely base on the individual. I need that level of aggression in order to operate maximally, I also have learned how to turn it off and on mentally on command.

It takes along time to be able to control it but once you can it is a valuable tool. The use of heavy metal, mental visualization, explosive technique, and ammonia how I get into the “zone”. Matt Kroc is one of my heroes so I try to emulate his drive and intensity during training and comp.I am also a fan of Kirk Karwoski and Chuck V., both legends and very intense. There was a great article on elite fts earlier this week on the same topic, I suggest yall check it out[/quote]

I definitely agree with this. Being able to turn it off and on is invaluable in a competition. Kroc talked about how early in his career, he would stay amped up for an entire meet, and by the deadlifts, he just had nothing left in him.