More Than Just Muscle

[dutchpharma]

Lets face it, more often than not the struggles we go thru in hitting goals in strength or appearance are very often mental battles. The human body is an amazing piece of machinery and its always surprising just how much we as humans can do with our bodies which brings us back to the mental struggle! Those paces around the gym psyching yourself up, the staring in the mirror or how about the self talks in your head,all of which are absolutes.
But what is it that separates the thought process of a monster and the middle age guy who is pushing just as hard as you? Where does that confidence or boost in mental strength come from? Is it all muscle or is it physiological in that the body and mind are connected in that way in which if you can make the brain believe it then the body follows?
Just for conversation sake, if indeed this is a mental struggle then is there some sort of mind hack or training for the brain in which you can push the body beyond its expected limits?
What do you guys think?

 

[Big Tex]

Lets face it, more often than not the struggles we go thru in hitting goals in strength or appearance are very often mental battles. The human body is an amazing piece of machinery and its always surprising just how much we as humans can do with our bodies which brings us back to the mental struggle! Those paces around the gym psyching yourself up, the staring in the mirror or how about the self talks in your head,all of which are absolutes.
But what is it that separates the thought process of a monster and the middle age guy who is pushing just as hard as you? Where does that confidence or boost in mental strength come from? Is it all muscle or is it physiological in that the body and mind are connected in that way in which if you can make the brain believe it then the body follows?
Just for conversation sake, if indeed this is a mental struggle then is there some sort of mind hack or training for the brain in which you can push the body beyond its expected limits?
What do you guys think?

Good question! Fortunately I have had to opportunity to train with some of the worlds best in many different sport. Most of those that took it to the highest levels were very big in to using mental imagery and psyching themselves up. So I observed, asked questions and practiced, It made a huge difference in my training and has become more of a habit now, that I do not have to physically control it but automatically do it. The hardest part of going to the gym for me is getting the energy to get there. One the way, my wife tells me my expression in the face changes as do my eyes, Its almost like have been possessed. I get into the gym and my mental focus is on lifting and nothing else, I kind of go into automatic pilot. I don't hear the shit going on around me and when resting between sets I am focused already on the next set. My mind has been trained to get the most out of every movement I do. Even at 60, I can still out lift and out train all the young guys in the gym who usually spend more time being distracted by conversation or texting.

When I competed in powerlifting I put a chair in a corner away from people. Sat before my turn to lift with a huge cup of coffee and 2 tabs of pseudoephedrine. I watched myself doing each attempt, from walking out to the stage to set and a successful pull over and over. I felt the muscles move and felt the weight. When I was on stage it was like a ritual, the same thing every time, same steps, same yell, same set up, the same breathing and the same success. I never heard people yelling, clapping, the music or even say the flashes on cameras. Everything went into a tunnel vision and all I saw was the weight while my mind kept telling me it was easy, you are the best at what you do and this is going to be a new record, you can do it. Nothing but positive affirmations like my own personal cheering section. By the time I got my first attempt I was so fucking psyched up I was like an animal. In fact people use to love watching me lift because I barked at the weight while pacing the floor like a rabid wolf. But I always did the same thing regardless of being so rabid.

Is this common in athletes? Absolutely. I watch the best divers, jumpers, sprinters, football payers or even golfers. They will all talk about being "in the zone" where the mind filters out any distractions the you actually get tunnel vision and only see the task at hand. This comes with training and needs to be practice every time you train. Yes the mind in athletics is a very big part of the total picture. We use to say in football that 80% of the game is played from the shoulders up. Meaning the mental part of the game is a big part of it. Is this true in bodybuilding, I have had a chance to watch two of our greats train in Arlington. Ronnie Coleman and Branch Warren, also Johnny Jackson was there. These guys get in the zone and don't fuck around and are definitely in the zone.

 

[The Beef]

I imagine walking into metroflex puts you into the zone!!

 

[Big Tex]

I imagine walking into metroflex puts you into the zone!!

Oh, yes and being around athletes of that caliber is always nice. I have actually known Brian Dobson, the owner of Metroflex for a few years. He is a powerlifter and he lifted in a few of the meets I put on. I also trained there a few times in my powerlifting days with Steve Goggins.

 

[The Beef]

If I had a bucket list, that would be on there as a place to train. Does Josh Bryant still train people there? Is bad attitude gym still running? I lifted in a couple meets they were at

 

[ketsugo]

Good question! Fortunately I have had to opportunity to train with some of the worlds best in many different sport. Most of those that took it to the highest levels were very big in to using mental imagery and psyching themselves up. So I observed, asked questions and practiced, It made a huge difference in my training and has become more of a habit now, that I do not have to physically control it but automatically do it. The hardest part of going to the gym for me is getting the energy to get there. One the way, my wife tells me my expression in the face changes as do my eyes, Its almost like have been possessed. I get into the gym and my mental focus is on lifting and nothing else, I kind of go into automatic pilot. I don't hear the shit going on around me and when resting between sets I am focused already on the next set. My mind has been trained to get the most out of every movement I do. Even at 60, I can still out lift and out train all the young guys in the gym who usually spend more time being distracted by conversation or texting.

When I competed in powerlifting I put a chair in a corner away from people. Sat before my turn to lift with a huge cup of coffee and 2 tabs of pseudoephedrine. I watched myself doing each attempt, from walking out to the stage to set and a successful pull over and over. I felt the muscles move and felt the weight. When I was on stage it was like a ritual, the same thing every time, same steps, same yell, same set up, the same breathing and the same success. I never heard people yelling, clapping, the music or even say the flashes on cameras. Everything went into a tunnel vision and all I saw was the weight while my mind kept telling me it was easy, you are the best at what you do and this is going to be a new record, you can do it. Nothing but positive affirmations like my own personal cheering section. By the time I got my first attempt I was so fucking psyched up I was like an animal. In fact people use to love watching me lift because I barked at the weight while pacing the floor like a rabid wolf. But I always did the same thing regardless of being so rabid.

Is this common in athletes? Absolutely. I watch the best divers, jumpers, sprinters, football payers or even golfers. They will all talk about being "in the zone" where the mind filters out any distractions the you actually get tunnel vision and only see the task at hand. This comes with training and needs to be practice every time you train. Yes the mind in athletics is a very big part of the total picture. We use to say in football that 80% of the game is played from the shoulders up. Meaning the mental part of the game is a big part of it. Is this true in bodybuilding, I have had a chance to watch two of our greats train in Arlington. Ronnie Coleman and Branch Warren, also Johnny Jackson was there. These guys get in the zone and don't fuck around and are definitely in the zone.

Great post what I love most is because my 40 years of training hard - you write and I absolutely share - like the hardest part to me at 52 is getting in my damn car to drive there lol. All my life wake up 2am eat breakfast , digest take my preworkout stuff then 4-5 hit the gym then work . From age 17 through 50 I did this without thought . Now suddenly it is a challenge - could it be my age ? Nah cuz I feel great why I'm doing , or age related illness like cancer in back of mind ( treatable ) or is it the state or mentality of society - like that dumb ass planet fitness commercial depicting hard working BB as ignorant dumb etc. seeing I have multiple graduate degree I know that's not me, but not any of you guys either !!! I think it's they that make me ill and not want to go- like PF I'm sorry the gym suck the layout sucks I could never workout there. Plus people barely understand how to do things and it's disturbing but I ignored it. Many gyms now cater to the casual - no standing calf machine ?? Some no squat racks ??? Or one incline one flat bench really ??? Yeah I want to wait hour to do lol or share with bunch idiots who gab the whole time etc etc . Plus sorry I have never in how many decades I've been member do not wipe down after - I clean fir myself and you can too - if only it were legal to jam a 25 pound plate down throats . Then I'd never have issue . Plus I use weights that most consider heavy . 200 pound dumbells for some major lifts never less then 50. I don't come there to gab or spot you . I refuse too . Go bother another . If I do dumbell presses with 150 pounders and never ask for help don't you dare ask me to lift your ahem machine press . Don't get me wrong I use machines when I'm inured or post surgery to train around injury or do rehab . Honestly I'm cranky old bastard I think hate people is why going to gym is so hard. I like to gawk at pretty young fitness chicks but not spotting the sweaty power lifter who farts in my area then leaves his stink . I just don't know lol

 

[Big Tex]

If I had a bucket list, that would be on there as a place to train. Does Josh Bryant still train people there? Is bad attitude gym still running? I lifted in a couple meets they were at

As far as I know. I know Josh very well but haven't seen him in years. In fact we put on a meet together in Dallas in maybe 2007.

Great post what I love most is because my 40 years of training hard - you write and I absolutely share - like the hardest part to me at 52 is getting in my damn car to drive there lol. All my life wake up 2am eat breakfast , digest take my preworkout stuff then 4-5 hit the gym then work . From age 17 through 50 I did this without thought . Now suddenly it is a challenge - could it be my age ? Nah cuz I feel great why I'm doing , or age related illness like cancer in back of mind ( treatable ) or is it the state or mentality of society - like that dumb ass planet fitness commercial depicting hard working BB as ignorant dumb etc. seeing I have multiple graduate degree I know that's not me, but not any of you guys either !!! I think it's they that make me ill and not want to go- like PF I'm sorry the gym suck the layout sucks I could never workout there. Plus people barely understand how to do things and it's disturbing but I ignored it. Many gyms now cater to the casual - no standing calf machine ?? Some no squat racks ??? Or one incline one flat bench really ??? Yeah I want to wait hour to do lol or share with bunch idiots who gab the whole time etc etc . Plus sorry I have never in how many decades I've been member do not wipe down after - I clean fir myself and you can too - if only it were legal to jam a 25 pound plate down throats . Then I'd never have issue . Plus I use weights that most consider heavy . 200 pound dumbells for some major lifts never less then 50. I don't come there to gab or spot you . I refuse too . Go bother another . If I do dumbell presses with 150 pounders and never ask for help don't you dare ask me to lift your ahem machine press . Don't get me wrong I use machines when I'm inured or post surgery to train around injury or do rehab . Honestly I'm cranky old bastard I think hate people is why going to gym is so hard. I like to gawk at pretty young fitness chicks but not spotting the sweaty power lifter who farts in my area then leaves his stink . I just don't know lol

WOW! We have so many stories in common. I guess this is how all of us OLD gym rats feel. Bro, I walk and both knees hurt. My right knee I already detached all three quadriceps and shattered the patella. But I never skipped a beat in the gym. I get up in the morning and wonder why I keep doing this shit. Like we both said, the hardest part is getting up and actually driving there. Then I am like a maniac. WHen I was a powerlifter I had my own equipment and owned a key club. I shut that down and moved my stuff in the garage. Loved training in the cold or 100 degree heat until I almost decapitated myself benching. Put the power rack I was using because I had no spotter through the sheet rock wall. My wife came home and had a fit. Soon afterwards I blew out my knee so i retired from my sport. Then comes the bodybuilding thing so I could be involved with my wife's lifting. So I moved into a commercial gym and sold all of my equipment. Talk about a challenge. There are so many idiots on commercial gyms. I sit and watch them come and go....mostly go. No one stays and they never grow. Then they want to know what I do to get so big. Hell, workout. 37 years I have dedicated to my training. It takes time and dedication and I guess some kind of slight insanity. I am not at all social in a gym, my wife is. She tries to help people who have bad form and don;t know the hell they are doing and I say fuck them, let them get hurt. My wife is 54 now and has trained for 27 years. She won the nationals in 1991 and went pro, then ended her career as she was burned out. We both laugh about how the gym is our only life and we will probably both die in one.

Yes the dumbass jock status.....I have two degrees and have so much knowledge in this area, yet I am still looked at as a dumbass jock. I kind of got use to it and don't feel embarrased if I have to act like one on occassions.

 

[01dragonslayer]

View attachment 3291

 

[Big Tex]

DAMN! Thanks for posting that. I can't count how many times as a football coach either I have said most fo these things of one for the coaches I worked with. So damn true! This is why in the past, athletes were the most sought after employees and so successful as leaders. This is exactly what it takes to be successful in yoru life. Over come adversity! I use to tell athletes in not the destination, it the journey to get there. In order to get there you have to build the house, brick by brick.

 

[ketsugo]

There is not really a trick . I been working out for exactly 40 years seriously . Part of that was since age 5 I did karate , Judo and boxing every night . I was obsessed . However it does come to a point where you need to reach within. All of us are different have own reasons etc, me having obsession with batman , spider man and watching the series kung fu / qwai chai cane , I in my mind wanted to be them , so I had to train. As silky as sound they were perfect role models as the shaolin monk whole existence was searching for himself through training . Batman was not like the other Heros he just trained . So it was in my mind to train . I was obsessed - after I'd read my comics , I read everything to learn to weight lift - back then we had the adds in comics of the guy kicking sand in face lol I got all those manuals - foliwed them to the letter at 12 years old gullible but to right people

 

[ketsugo]

So over time I'd find other reasons . Whether realistic or not I convinced myself if I built perfect body that chicks couldn't resist me lmao but in my Martial arts I felt I needed to get strong through weights , so all of these variables generated strong motivation to me. In too many ways now I realize I was obsessed / now at 52 no wife no family etc etc my life is training and educational pursuits . I used to take classes or practice 12-16 hours day for over decade . Spent all my money travel to Asia to train with so called masters, then joined army to help continue as I would traveled train wherever . Sorry too long my point find ways to motivate yousejf to be better then you were . Look within . You all of us can do anything just need to desire it bad enough to try anything needed. In my mind I am samurai I don't think i embody but live it . Don't allow jealous negative people to distract you . You are the master of your life . Even at gym I see these huge kids doing dumbell rows with 25 pound dumbells. People need to force them selves . Strong mind = strong body

 

[Kins]

The mind is the hardest and heaviest resistance you will ever face.

 

[Big Tex]

There is not really a trick . I been working out for exactly 40 years seriously . Part of that was since age 5 I did karate , Judo and boxing every night . I was obsessed . However it does come to a point where you need to reach within. All of us are different have own reasons etc, me having obsession with batman , spider man and watching the series kung fu / qwai chai cane , I in my mind wanted to be them , so I had to train. As silky as sound they were perfect role models as the shaolin monk whole existence was searching for himself through training . Batman was not like the other Heros he just trained . So it was in my mind to train . I was obsessed - after I'd read my comics , I read everything to learn to weight lift - back then we had the adds in comics of the guy kicking sand in face lol I got all those manuals - foliwed them to the letter at 12 years old gullible but to right people

Ketsugo, I am kind of amazed at how much we have in common in sporting interests. I got involved in martial arts starting at about 17. I was like you and was obcessed with it and trained every day. I was fighting black belts when I had a yellow belt and was eventually fighting 3-4 people at a time when I made black belt. My favorite sparing partner was my instructior from Korea and was an 8th degree Grand Master and a honest to goodness bad ass. He got me in 1978 started with tehe PKA full contact karate. I wanted to travel to the orient and learn more but just never had the money. I took many different styles like Ishinru and some vietnamese stuff with was a mix of soft and hard styles. I played football in high school and later on in college. Gave that up and at one time I got in terested in competitive water skiing because I saw it on TV and bought a boat and moved to South Florida and skied with a lot fo professionals skiers. All of the time I was lifting weights and powerlifting finally took over myinterests. 27 years of competition, running meets and promiting the sport which lead to a two degrees in exercise science and work as a coach. Had it not been for injuries, I would probably still be powerlifting. But now I like bocybuilding. It is amazing how you can mold the body. But the same obcession with all of it.

He is my theory, after observing good athletes, I think all of us have some kind of obcessive compulsive disorder. Which used in sports can be controlled and very beneficial. My wife is just as bad as I am and she made it to the top of her sport at a time when women in bodybuilding were just not that accepted. It just might be that we are all kind of fucked up in a special way. And like you, it has greatly interferred with family life and being social. I went through a lot of women in my life because my interests in sports came 1st. I finally met my wife later in life and had to be around someone who shared my interest in weights. While everyone is out socializing, I am either training or resting. We go on vacations and find a gym and work out. Hell we go to California, mywife had never been since she is not from America and we planned on going to Muscle Beach and Gold Gym Venice. We also drove up the coast to visity with Dave Draper.

 

[ketsugo]

Big Tex- I hear you you are both smarter and lucky then I - I have no family - in many ways I prefer as at any time I can pick up and go. I tip my hat to all family men and dads cuz I do not have the brains or Braun to be one . Yeah maybe my training and education is crazy high but I am totally alone ( but not lonely ) lol . I did have girl for ten years she passed away in 2012 from complication related to Breast, uterine and skin cancer at age 42 - so even though people think I'm in my 30s , my life cup I see as half empty but training keeps my good . Funny we used to go on cruises or all inclusive to Jamaica resort but I still trained four hours day there lol. To me being able to take my time relax not worry about work made my workout part of my vacation .
Hey when I turned 21 I did not drink or hit bar / age 35 I had first drink . However to me I train to add to my life and make it fuller . It's that damn life gets in the way .

 

[ketsugo]

Oh and Dave Draper is my inspiration look At him and he looks awesome at any age and he's what ? Almost 70 ?? I don't know just that he's jacked incredible

 

[Big Tex]

Ketsugo. so sorry to hear about your girl. That is tough. Hey, it's not too late to find the right person. My family is all gone so I am the only one left. Our kid is a typical 22 year old millennial that we tried to give everything to prepare him for a successful life. Then he decided he would not go to college and did not want to work. Just lay in his bed and play video games and tell us about how he is a communist. So we gave him the boot. My wife’s family is 5000 miles away and we see them about once every 10 years. Life is hard and full of disappointments. Going in to the gym has always been my way to get away from stress, problems and disappointment. When all else is going to shit, I can go into the gym, forget about it and have something good happen. Great therapy, plus it keeps us both young.

You know, I have known Dave Draper and his wife since 1995. We contact each other quite a bit. My wife being from a foreign country always saw him in magazinesand considered him as one of her heroes. She was so excited when I told her that I know Dave and then said let go visit him. Yes, Dave is actually 75 years old. This is living proof of what weight training can do for you. It is like the fountain of youth. In one of the college class I teach, I use Draper as an example of anti-aging effects of being physically fit. Love hearing his stories about the golden days of bodybuilding. I sure wish all of the yonger guys comming into this sport would take some time to learn the history. People like Draper have made this sport what it is today.

 

[BigSexy.215]

Love reading this.......made me smile


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