I have noticed that by myself I can bust out 3 to 4 pullups with all my effort, but when I had my friend yell at me while I do them, I do 6. I could only bench press 95 lbs for one rep, but when a dude motivated me, I could do five.
My form is not diminished in any way. I just have got more in me when someone demands more. Is there a way I can do this to myself? Most of the time, I train alone.
Thanks, everyone.
Record a message to yourself and play it on repeat the whole workout.
Sounds like you like this guy. Ask him if he wants to grab a coffee and engage in some active recovery after your workout.
Did you train with this guy?
Being able to push yourself independently is a skill you will learn over time, the more you learn your body and what failure feels like the more you can push yourself without needing someone else to squeeze those extra reps you didn’t know you had.
With that said though some people will always perform better with an audience, it’s just a personality thing.
I always did best on my own with headphones securely plugged tight,… but there were a few times I listened to the audio portion of Yates’ Blood n Guts video so his training partner and former drill Sargent Leroy Davis could scream at me while I trained.
S
Wow, I can only think of Brooklyn 99.
Group/Team dynamics are great for motivation and safety. Maybe mentally, you don’t want to play yourself so you push harder. Same thing happens to me when I record my lifts. I say safety because it’s good to have a spot that you trust.
I used to train alone at a commercial gym, but joined a powerlifting gym with a team setting.
If you train well with this guy, start scheduling workouts with him. I personally believe that you should NEVER bench without a spot, and I personally don’t trust strangers spotting me on bench because I don’t like to grind or miss and don’t want any gym bros telling “Okay bro one more” after I’ve hit my reps, and don’t want any gym bros yanking me out of position with an overzealous lift off.
Shit, I hated getting spots on bench so much that I stopped benching and just did OHP
I can’t normally concentrate having another one with me at the gym, cause you will spend sometime talking etc preventing you to actually engage yourself to the training session. But thats my opinio…
Anyway my advice is to listen to some motivational music and work to concentrate on your lifts!
You maybe want to check Thibaudeau’s designed gym programs, find your neurotype which I guess will have to do something like you wait for the applause of others, as far as I can recall, itsurely has your right way of training to reach massive gains, you can give it a go, it helped me for sure!
You’re young, so you’re just not acclimated to varied training environments. I suggest you learn, through practice and effort, how to get the most out of any training situation. If you truly turned a 1 rep max into a 5 rep max just by having another person to train with, that’s a problem worth addressing. Now that you’ve done 5 reps with 95 lbs with him, have you tried it again on your own, knowing you were capable of it? It’s possible that you just lack confidence, and you don’t push yourself as hard without a training partner.
Honestly though, if you stick with lifting for awhile, you’ll sort this kind of thing out and learn how to perform close to your best under any circumstances. It’s certainly true that some people perform marginally better around others, and some people perform marginally worse, but it shouldn’t be a HUGE difference (1 rep to 5 reps is a huge difference).
I felt afraid of benching more reps. I thought I couldn’t do it and had a gut feeling the bar wouldn’t come up. When he spotted me and said one more, even though I lacked confidence I did it anyway and to my surprise I could do it. I tried on my own and could do 3 reps, but I still feel like I have this mental barrier. I’m not as “psyched up.”
I see… the “Its all you bro” spot. If he was touching the bar, it’s likely that it wasn’t all you, bro.
If he touched the bar, doesn’t count. As soul suggest.
if he didn’t touch it, then that’s pretty much what I figured. You don’t know your body yet. And that’s totally fine. over time, you will have a better idea of what you can and can’t do. I used to have this issue with squats. I was afraid to go deep on squats for fear I couldn’t come up with the bar. Or cut off sets early because I wasn’t sure if I could keep going. I didn’t know my body or my capabilities. You learn this over time.
Yeah he touched the bar from the bottom and said he barely did anything. I may just not have the strength. I don’t know, I generally get stronger or do more reps from week to week though.
ah. well then he’s a shitty training partner.
He lied.
Yeah on pullups he just yelled at me and I could do more. But on bench press it is probably just assistance. I think I will let him know not to touch the damn bar lol.
If you think he’s helpful, keep training with him. But keep yourself honest and communicate to your spotter how you want to be spotted.
I hate people who turn into DJ Khaled all like “Anotha one” when I say 5 reps to make me go for a 6th, or leave me hanging on AMRAP sets.
I will definitely talk to him about changing his ways. I am starting to believe he is a brofessor.
I noticed tho that I do definitely get strong fairly quickly. I couldn’t bench the bar at all when I first started training. I am now starting to be able to deadlift on the floor 95 lbs. It could be the NEWBIE gains.
Edit: Stronger, not strong
