[quote]john-lennon wrote:
gayest thing ever? you must have never heard of the beatles my friend. im guessing your young[/quote]
No, I’ve never heard of someone thinking of world peace while they lifted weights. That’s what I thought was gay.
I think of rainbows, kittens and unicorns.
back when i was playing football i’d imagine my girlfriend getting lumberjacked by 3 guys on the other team. i’d do it before kickoffs or going out for a defensive series
I try and clear my mind as best I can, anger doesn’t really help my strength and i find the less i’m thinking about what i’m doing, the better i am at doing it. I guess i concentrate on breathing if anything, and not letting that vein in my forehead explode.
i was just singing the song, because of my name on this board, and the fact the topic is about imagining 
i do my best lifts when my mind is devoid of all thoughts! once i start to think about anthing my form suffers and i seem to get weaker
sorry but my opinion still stands as is
Sometimes I’ll think of guys I don’t like and imagine that they are there right before I try a (for me) heavy lift. I picture them telling me I can’t do it and laughing at me.
[quote]john-lennon wrote:
i imagine all the people, living life in peace… no hell below us and above us only sky [/quote]
Damn Yoko all to hell John L. you beat me to that one.
D
[quote]martin blank wrote:
Sometimes I’ll think of guys I don’t like and imagine that they are there right before I try a (for me) heavy lift. I picture them telling me I can’t do it and laughing at me.[/quote]
I also do this, but mostly just visualize myself getting all the reps I had planned to do, then crank up the MP3.
LJ
[quote]drewc64 wrote:
the other guys…
what i imagine is my friend that benches 450, my other friend who’s arms are (currently) bigger than mine. anyone stronger than me or bigger than i am. my competitiveness helps me get those 2 extra reps[/quote]
This is exactly why I wear a sleeveless shirt to the gym. The gym I go to, despite being a commercial World’s Gym, has huge guys. The strongest, biggest guy there deadlifts near 800, squats around 650, and benches about 500, does both powerlifting and bodybuilding. And I have NEVER seen anyone there, save for the random skinny college dude bench anything less than 225 for reps, which isn’t a lot, true, but the fact that everyone does it, is amazing for a commercial gym.
So being around these guys with their dedication, mass, and strength, I want to feel as puny and pathetic as possible, a la the sleeveless shirt. It motivates me like you wouldn’t believe.
Competitiveness, theres bound to be someone bigger in the gym, let that sink in, get a grip on the bar, and deadlift like its all ive got.
But what works best for me, think about my girlfriend, and then her ex boyfriend, and that always makes me want to lift something real heavy.
I look around to see if anybody is looking at me attempt the lift. There usually is. I like to put on a good show.
I just concentrate on the muscle contracting and expanding. i don’t even count reps because i feel it takes away from the concentration. I think go Heavy Fool was saying something about the imagination factor being beneficial and I would have to agree on the concentration factor, but I don’t know enough about genetics, so I just stayed away from that thread. Seems like All the best bodybuilders have always had great concentration and can picture their muscles moving the weights.
[quote]CarvedInsane wrote:
I try and clear my mind as best I can, anger doesn’t really help my strength and i find the less i’m thinking about what i’m doing, the better i am at doing it. I guess i concentrate on breathing if anything, and not letting that vein in my forehead explode.[/quote]
I agree. I just think about the lift, and that’s all.
Trying to “psyche myself up” by getting all pissed off never worked when I was playing football, and it doesn’t work for me in lifting either.
To each his own.
I’m too busy trying to keep all the weight from crashing on top of me to imagine anything. I guess you could say I am imagining 205 lbs crushing my rib cage.
[quote]Natron5000 wrote:
I guess you could say I am imagining 205 lbs crushing my rib cage.[/quote]
That’s bad juju, man.
I imagine myself in front of 10,000 people at the Olympics while I lift for the gold and the crowd’s reaction when I make the lift.
[quote]Smack78 wrote:
Well for me a lot of time I will turn on “Super Beast” by Zombie. I invision my self as said beast and tell the weights they are my bitch.
Gives me a bit more motivation.
SMACK78!
[/quote]
That song is the ring tone on my phone. Kick ass tune.
As for what I visualize:
I often imagine I’m a clydesdale pulling logs out of a forest through the snow.
I also think about that snow dog Balto delivering medicine to a snowed-in village.
I think about that rodeo bull “Bodacious” too. That was one bad dude.
I think of the guy who cut off his own arm to save himself in Colorado.
I think of my dad a lot too, usually things like “Dad could get this no problem”…
I don’t know, I guess when it comes down to it I think of a lot of different motivational stuff to help keep me in the moment and focused, especially when the shit gets heavy.
B.
Why think of the Beatles when you can imagine yourself as Unicron singing “you’ve got the touch… you’ve got the POWER!”
I think about the people who have always pissed me off and how good it will feel to tower over them and watch them shit their pants