I slap myself, warming up is really important too. If im not warm, I cant lift shyt.
I pace back and forth building up speed. Mentally, I usually block out any music, or dumbass conversations and think about the shit that really angers me. Like deep down stuff, the real stuff that gets me mad. Mentally call myself a pussy and say do it already, then its go time. Seems to work for me most of the time.
[quote]LSUPOWERDC wrote:
I forgot to add…always take a pregame dump.[/quote]
x1000000000000
anyway, i just pace around til i feel im ready, make sure my hands are dry if its a deadlift or bench. and smack myself in the face. sometimes on like deadlifts ill pull twice and be like, fuck this is heavy, but as i keep going it feels easier, idk.
Finding the balance between anger and aggression and focus is key for me on completing successful lifts. For me, it works best when that mental energy is directed towards the act of lifting, to the point where anything going on around me is inconsequential, and the weight on the bar is some abstract number that bears no meaning.
It’s not a time for words, no self motivated pep talks, no calling the barbell’s mom a raging syphillic whore. It’s a strange sort of violent determination, impatience, and confidence, nondestructive to anyone outside of the realm of you and the weight. Fear nor even the possibility of failure enters the mind.
This mindset doesn’t just happen magically once I set foot in the gym; it’s developed throughout the day, developing an angry determination to excel and surpass and utterly destroy any opposition to my will, and feeling an immediate urgency to do so. I usually repeat a monologue in my head along these lines.
When I am successful in this, my set up is lightning quick and the bar on my back feels the same if it’s 200 lbs or 400 lbs. It comes to a point when you no longer have to put thinking into the technical side of your lift. This is how I set my newest PR on Friday with 455 lbs raw/no belt in the squat.
On other days, if I’d load anything approaching four plates, I’d say “shit this is heavy.”
I won’t deny music’s role in developing this mood. What works best for me is “Crawl” by Damageplan and “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson, songs that reflect the themes I focus on in my mental preparation.
Well said DS, its only heavy if you approach the bar with the state of mind that the lift could go either way.
I tell myself that I’m stronger than this.
Be confident. If you hesitate, you will burn.
I suppose this wouldn’t work if I went to a “real” gym:
Getting into rage mode with some heavy metal and watching people do stupid shit that will never get them bigger (in the power racks, with their backward caps, lifting gloves and 10" arms) always works for me.
I got a new deadlift PB today… 170(374)@76(167). I walked up to the bar calmly and just said out loud “it’s going up, piece of cake…” it was the easiest PB I’ve ever done, though my shoulder now hurts.
If you let people round you know your going for it, then you know you’ll feel more stupid if you fail, therefore motivation.
Fall Out Boy- Thanks For the Memories
I listen to that when I’m trying to do a lot of reps with heavy weight and I make silent barbaric noise, cuz I really don’t give a shit what the people at 24 Hour Fitness think of me.
I usually pace back and forth tapping the bar with my foot/hand depending on where it’s racked… and mumble the amount of weight, and reps I need to hit… it looks pretty funny actually…
Funny story:
My cousin got outta jail, and joined our gym… but scary strong tattoo’d MOFO… anyway… he loads the bar… then looks at it… starts swearing… ‘You fuckin’ cunt… you dirty fuckin’ cunt… You slut!’ etc… then jumps under, and cracks out the set…
The gym owner comes up to us and tells him he had to stop it… as it was upsetting the other members… lol
I called him a Dumbass… and told him he couldn’t do that shit here in public… lol 
personally i feel like mental preparation does play a small role when squatting and deadlifting
i have failed max attempts because of not having the right mindset, or used too
but i dont feel that it has any impact on benching, i can either do it or not, its harder to pull something out of your “ass” on it 
I like to look at it and just say, it’s human, people have done it, you’re human, you can do it, so stop fucking worrying and just do it, it’s possible, the human body can take a lot, push it. Well, I don’t say it out loud, but to myself lol, people would probably think I was practicing philosophy instead of lifting. I slap myself before squats though.
I only say yeah buddy and light weight after I lift it. If I say it before and fail, I’d probably say to myself, yeah buddy, not so fucking light is it lol
When I up my poundage (or kilo-age in my case) I tell my self on the drive to the gym what I’m going to do.
And strangely if I talk to myself in english it works even better.
For me the lift has already happend. I have already benchpressed 200 kg,… I only have to do it in real life.
It’s good to always have the same ritual when you attempt a heavier lift.
I imagine myself completing the lift without even breaking a sweat, then I take the bar in my hand, hold it, and start humming. Just one tone
When I stop, i squat or lift or whatever
[quote]patrickk wrote:
“Don’t be a pussy, just lift the fuckin’ weight!” Is what I tell myself before I go for something heavy.[/quote]
Ditto.
[quote]pradaboy wrote:
In my opinion an often overlooked aspect of lifting is the mental part. I can defeat myself by simply thinking I´m going to fail, so the opposite must be possible as well.
What do you guys do to prepare for a big lift/PR??[/quote]
before every heavy lift I repeat to myself, at high voice that I am totally healthy and powerful, that it’s mine, totally mine, I make it and I do!!!
There is no room for doubt in the mind!
I just want to say thanks to Mudvayne, Coal Chamber, and Pantera for the help.
I have some friends who claim that they are getting stronger faster than i am. And when i think about that i tell myself " either lift this weight or that guy is going to beat the hell outta me"; it makes me pretty mad and motivated enough to have the guts to go through with the lift and own it.
For the big lifts, in a controlled fashion with angry music thundering in my ears, i mentally become hulk. I am very angry, and i have tunnel vision, i don’t see, hear, or feel what’s going on around me, my one and only focus is how i am going to attack the lift. It’s kindof weird, it’s like a switch that i can turn on or off at will.
It kinda varies from time to time…but I: a) stomp, b)forceful exhalation, and c) mentally work myself up somehow. I can’t say how I work myself up…nothing easily expressible happens. Kinda hurts me for deadlifting. Working myself up sometimes makes my hands sweaty. Closing my eyes and going through a partial of the motion with the intention of moving the weight for every rep I want helps too. Oh, and so does kind of jerking against (no, not that) the racked weight a little bit. But of course, to each his own.
But x2 on that poop thing. I once tried to do a military press pr, without doing that… couldn’t keep my core tight without the threat of an accident.