Well, this training was…interesting. I’m happy for the squat PR. But I’m happier about beginning to understand the mental part of this game.[/quote]
yeah for your PRs and i’m glad you made happy with the mental part…i likes that!
[/quote]
Having had a nights sleep on this experience (well, sleep was rather elusive, unfortunately) I’ve got a little more to say on this subject. Lifting from a place of mental pain, whether it is something affecting you in the moment, or a past painful experience that you are deliberately dredging up for the lift, might be effective. But it sure isn’t a whole lotta fun.
Since I like learning and growing, I certainly did learn something yesterday and got a long-wished-for PR to boot. Am I sure I want to do it again like that? Not sure at all. [/quote]
ime, the more often it happens, and the better the place you’re starting from, the easier it is to control… summon and dismiss, if you will. it can be helpful. no sense in putting such a useful tool in a locked cabinet.
ime, the more often it happens, and the better the place you’re starting from, the easier it is to control… summon and dismiss, if you will. it can be helpful. no sense in putting such a useful tool in a locked cabinet.
[/quote]
Its the “and dismiss” part that is causing the difficulty. I do like the analogy to a tool in a locked cabinet. I will think on this.
This reminds me of the mind control (or, if you will, letting thoughts arise and pass away) involved in meditation.
That is so awesome for your squat PR! Anger will drive your body to accomplish all sorts of crazy shit. Your mind just shuts off and your body functions on its own. I bet if you were mad enough it sometimes seems like the reps never happened. Im so happy for you lady!
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Anger’s helpful for me. When I’m doing dumbell rows I imagine someone I hate lying on the floor and me ripping out their windpipe with my bare hands. [/quote]
Well, in honesty, I never pull from a place of pain, as you put it - I’ve just got an aggressive side that is usually buried but I let it out when I play computer games (boom headshot) and in the gym. I must have some Viking berserker in my ancestry, or something, because I can conjure up bug-eyed rage with no difficulty at all. Soon as my set is done, it’s gone.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Well, in honesty, I never pull from a place of pain, as you put it - I’ve just got an aggressive side that is usually buried but I let it out when I play computer games (boom headshot) and in the gym. I must have some Viking berserker in my ancestry, or something, because I can conjure up bug-eyed rage with no difficulty at all. Soon as my set is done, it’s gone.[/quote]
I guess it did seem a bit dramatic what I said and I in know way meant to imply that you were lifting from a place of pain. Im sorry that I put it that way. I guess I just remembered when I squatted 305 for the first time a couple months ago when I was listening to Disturbed’s song Facade, OVER and OVER and OVER. I was literally shaking and my eyes were twitching when I was getting ready for the set. It brought all of the feelings of fear and pain from what I thought was an emotionally abusive relationship (it wasnt, i just blamed my problems on my boyfriend at the time) but was actually SEVERELY repressed abuse from my father when I was younger. I got the 305 and then decided to try 315, my poor spotter, he must have thought I was NUTS. I didnt get it, but I did a second one anyway, I dont know how loud I screamed “ONE MORE!” after my first failure. Wow…OVERSHARE!!!Sorry, anyways, I dont count any weight that I did that day because I no longer am that angry, fearful girl that had to prove how strong I was. The weight I am doing now is the real me pulling, pressing and squating.
P.S Sorry for the spillage of all of my inner turmoil on your page. My fingers just kept typing…
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Well, in honesty, I never pull from a place of pain, as you put it - I’ve just got an aggressive side that is usually buried but I let it out when I play computer games (boom headshot) and in the gym. I must have some Viking berserker in my ancestry, or something, because I can conjure up bug-eyed rage with no difficulty at all. Soon as my set is done, it’s gone.[/quote]
I guess it did seem a bit dramatic what I said and I in know way meant to imply that you were lifting from a place of pain. Im sorry that I put it that way. I guess I just remembered when I squatted 305 for the first time a couple months ago when I was listening to Disturbed’s song Facade, OVER and OVER and OVER. I was literally shaking and my eyes were twitching when I was getting ready for the set. It brought all of the feelings of fear and pain from what I thought was an emotionally abusive relationship (it wasnt, i just blamed my problems on my boyfriend at the time) but was actually SEVERELY repressed abuse from my father when I was younger. I got the 305 and then decided to try 315, my poor spotter, he must have thought I was NUTS. I didnt get it, but I did a second one anyway, I dont know how loud I screamed “ONE MORE!” after my first failure. Wow…OVERSHARE!!!Sorry, anyways, I dont count any weight that I did that day because I no longer am that angry, fearful girl that had to prove how strong I was. The weight I am doing now is the real me pulling, pressing and squating.
P.S Sorry for the spillage of all of my inner turmoil on your page. My fingers just kept typing…[/quote]
No problem, my dear. Today is inner turmoil day 'round these parts. Join the club. The phrase “lifting from a place of mental pain” was in my original post that started off this discussion.
If you follow Meat’s logs on the Over 35 Forum, he talks about getting ready to do big weight by thinking about some personal pain in his past. And some of his videos actually show him asking (and getting) his training partner to slap him across the face a couple times before getting under the bar. It was this sort of thing that I never had any personal experience with before yesterday.
It sounds like you’ve experienced this, but perhaps now use different mental focusing techniques when you lift.
Ha ha well I didn’t take any offence, no worries. I do understand that exercise can release emotions in people - I’ve heard of women breaking down in floods of tears during yoga and suchlike. That’s never happened to me, but during my early 20s I found training to the point of pain was cathartic. Back in my late teens I used to self-harm because it was cathartic, but then (after dating a guy who also self-harmed) I realised what an idiotic thing it was. I found the gym offered a more positive release.
Now I’m in my 40s I’m pretty much over that, but it’s still useful to think about something that pisses me off before I start a set. The difference is that I’m not pulling those emotions out of some dark place in my soul - I’m conjuring them from nothing.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Ha ha well I didn’t take any offence, no worries. I do understand that exercise can release emotions in people - I’ve heard of women breaking down in floods of tears during yoga and suchlike. That’s never happened to me, but during my early 20s I found training to the point of pain was cathartic. Back in my late teens I used to self-harm because it was cathartic, but then (after dating a guy who also self-harmed) I realised what an idiotic thing it was. I found the gym offered a more positive release.[/quote]
The gym does offer a positive release! Those of us who hang out around here are lucky because to us the gym equals having fun.
Oh I see. So its not opening Pandora’s Box, but rather play-acting.
I’ve never gotten that deep emotionally in the weight room. I do find it pretty cathartic. I remember when I did more running, and I was pretty unhappy, somewhere around the three-mile mark I would feel somehow “cured,” like a sharp piece of ice in my brain was melting away.
I never get pissed off, though. I think I last got angry … last November?
My psych-up is usually to have an expectation for myself. Today I’m due for a PR. Or, even better, I just told someone I’m going to PR. Also, sometimes, music – I don’t bring an iPod but I do run songs in my head. Stirring classical stuff.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Well, in honesty, I never pull from a place of pain, as you put it - I’ve just got an aggressive side that is usually buried but I let it out when I play computer games (boom headshot) and in the gym. I must have some Viking berserker in my ancestry, or something, because I can conjure up bug-eyed rage with no difficulty at all. Soon as my set is done, it’s gone.[/quote]
I guess it did seem a bit dramatic what I said and I in know way meant to imply that you were lifting from a place of pain. Im sorry that I put it that way. I guess I just remembered when I squatted 305 for the first time a couple months ago when I was listening to Disturbed’s song Facade, OVER and OVER and OVER. I was literally shaking and my eyes were twitching when I was getting ready for the set. It brought all of the feelings of fear and pain from what I thought was an emotionally abusive relationship (it wasnt, i just blamed my problems on my boyfriend at the time) but was actually SEVERELY repressed abuse from my father when I was younger. I got the 305 and then decided to try 315, my poor spotter, he must have thought I was NUTS. I didnt get it, but I did a second one anyway, I dont know how loud I screamed “ONE MORE!” after my first failure. Wow…OVERSHARE!!!Sorry, anyways, I dont count any weight that I did that day because I no longer am that angry, fearful girl that had to prove how strong I was. The weight I am doing now is the real me pulling, pressing and squating.
P.S Sorry for the spillage of all of my inner turmoil on your page. My fingers just kept typing…[/quote]
No problem, my dear. Today is inner turmoil day 'round these parts. Join the club. The phrase “lifting from a place of mental pain” was in my original post that started off this discussion.
If you follow Meat’s logs on the Over 35 Forum, he talks about getting ready to do big weight by thinking about some personal pain in his past. And some of his videos actually show him asking (and getting) his training partner to slap him across the face a couple times before getting under the bar. It was this sort of thing that I never had any personal experience with before yesterday.
It sounds like you’ve experienced this, but perhaps now use different mental focusing techniques when you lift.
[/quote]
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I’ve never gotten that deep emotionally in the weight room. I do find it pretty cathartic. I remember when I did more running, and I was pretty unhappy, somewhere around the three-mile mark I would feel somehow “cured,” like a sharp piece of ice in my brain was melting away.
I never get pissed off, though. I think I last got angry … last November?
My psych-up is usually to have an expectation for myself. Today I’m due for a PR. Or, even better, I just told someone I’m going to PR. Also, sometimes, music – I don’t bring an iPod but I do run songs in my head. Stirring classical stuff.[/quote]
Hey, at least you have a psych-up. Turns out that I need to work on mine.
That kind of amazes me that you haven’t been angry in more than a year.
[quote]Heracles_rocks wrote:
I thought this was relevent to the topic.[/quote]
That was an interesting read. Thanks for pointing it out!
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I’ve never gotten that deep emotionally in the weight room. I do find it pretty cathartic. I remember when I did more running, and I was pretty unhappy, somewhere around the three-mile mark I would feel somehow “cured,” like a sharp piece of ice in my brain was melting away.
[/quote]
The thing that struck me early about taekwondo was, no matter how crappy a day I had, no matter how many dark angry conversations were going around in my head, the minute I stepped on that mat it was all gone for 45 minutes. That is worth its weight in gold… and it doesn’t leave a hangover!
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Two marriage proposals + $10 in one day. Is that a proposal PR?
Your training is really paying off. :)[/quote]
Sweet! But they seem admire your vocabulary rather than your butt and arms. fools!
[/quote]
Can’t a guy admire both? Okay, okay totally kidding, its all about the butt and the arms.
Kimba, I don’t ever get angry at the gym. Well unless somebody is bumping the bar while I’m pulling, then I become Mr. Tourettes. I have found though that the exhaustion brought on by heavy pulls and squats gives me a certain clarity of thought and I often make important choices based on it.
The thing that struck me early about taekwondo was, no matter how crappy a day I had, no matter how many dark angry conversations were going around in my head, the minute I stepped on that mat it was all gone for 45 minutes. That is worth its weight in gold… and it doesn’t leave a hangover!
[/quote]
The only sport that ever got me into that zone was figure skating. Exactly as you describe, for the 50 minutes on the ice, nothing else existed. It couldn’t, because if my mind wandered while jumping or spinning, or even just skating around, I’d end up sprawled painfully out on the cold ice.
[quote]JoeGood wrote:
Kimba, I don’t ever get angry at the gym. Well unless somebody is bumping the bar while I’m pulling, then I become Mr. Tourettes. I have found though that the exhaustion brought on by heavy pulls and squats gives me a certain clarity of thought and I often make important choices based on it.[/quote]
That isn’t yet my experience, probably because I am not yet really pulling or squatting to my capacity due to just not fucking knowing how to do these movements correctly. I’ll look forward to maybe getting there someday.
Yeah, I know what you mean about clarity from exhaustion.
Figure skating? Wow. I’m impressed.
No, I don’t get mad. Not at people other than myself. It’s just something I’m not wired for.
