Whether you’re an avid gym rat or just like to workout at home, there will come a time where something really weird happens: you’ll start to discover little tricks that take you above and beyond what you were normally capable of… or should I say, what  you THOUGHT you were capable of. Most of the time, I found that these tricks were psychological and their effectiveness is profound. It’s so profound that at time it frustrates and sickens me to my stomach… then excites me the way only a hot pole dancer can.

A little back story here. I’ve always believed in the mind-muscle connection, so it’s no surprise that when I first started lifting way back when, I saw some ridiculous gains and strength improvements. There was nothing else that mattered, it was just me, my iron and my music. In fact, everything is still pretty much the same today… with a few minor differences which I’ll get to in a second. When I started to hit plateaus, I busted through them with physical tactics such as intentional over-training for a week then backing off then hitting it up again, or by using different variations of progressive overload… but I never changed the mental aspect. I mean I concentrated on the task at hand, but that was it, I never dug deeper.

About 3 months ago, there I was in the gym… looking down on the barbell, ready to step up my shit and try a new weight for Romanian Deadlifts. I had never done 10 clean reps with 190lbs before… but I was like “today, it’s about to change”. My previous weight was 180. So I wiped the sweat off my hands, put the gloves back on, grabbed that bitch and up I stood. “fucking hell” i thought… “this shit feels so much heavier!”

But I didn’t care, I just kept going and what did you know, I pulled off 8 clean reps. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to 10 because my grip gave out before my lower back did… but fuck it, that’s not a bad start for a then 135lbs guy. Ripped 135lbs guy

As I was walking back from my drink, ready to hit up my second set, something just didn’t feel right to me. I mean, why did it feel SO MUCH heavier when I stood off the ground? I have been lifting forever and I have a 6th sense of how much an extra 10lbs should feel like… so I decided to double check the amount of weight I actually had on the bar and much to my surprise, I had mis-calculated. While loading the bar, I wasn’t thinking straight and threw on 205lbs since I was so exhausted from my pervious exercise.

This completely shattered the beliefs i had in my own capability and let me achieve something insane. It was the fact that I had completely convinced myself the weight was lighter than it actually was… mind-muscle connection at it’s finest (the fact that I think I’m the shit also helps a lil bit, I suggest you try it).

The Testing Phase

To make sure this wasn’t just hocus pocus, I decided to play a lil trick on my trainer partner during a bench press session. He had just finished his 2nd set and he had gone to get a drink of water… looking at his records, I saw that at the current weight he had managed to pull off 4 reps for his 3rd set and this time he was aiming for 5 so that next week he could up that shit even more.

Well being FJ, I threw on an extra 10lbs on the bar and uh, “forgot” to tell him. When he got back, I was like “ok dude, you either have to hit 4 and tie last week or beat it and hit 5”

He’s like “yeah I got this”

Little did he know…

As he lifted the bar, I could tell the slight hesitation in his face at first, but it was ignored and it didn’t phase him one bit. He managed to bang out 4 reps, was a little disappointed and went to get a drink of water. I removed the extra 10lbs and when he got back, he hopped back on and this time completely trashed his reps in the 4th set versus what he had achieved in the previous week. He managed to pull off 5, which was actually higher than what he had managed during the 3rd set also… he seemed a bit confused yet pleased at the same time. But I wasn’t just going to let this hang there… so I quickly blurted out “maybe you were just really tried before”

“maybe…”

Hah… It fucking worked! I don’t need to trick any more people to realize that every single one of us extremely underestimate ourselves… in the gym or in life. Trust me… you are better, stronger and faster than you THINK you are. Hell, train with me and I’ll fucking prove it to ya.

The Techniques

So it’s time to crunch this down. Because the problem is, how do you use all this info and push yourself further during the next workout? You obviously can’t “trick” yourself into lifting heavier or pushing yourself to run further, but I do have some suggestions.

1. Straight up visual concentration. If you’re lifting, chances are that your gym has mirrors and therefore you should always look AT the muscle group being worked and never take your eyes off it. If you’re doing a bicep curl, stare at your arms and just imaging them lifting that weight with EASE… like its nothing. A Fisher Price play toy. A dildo from a sex shop… whatever. The reason is that our concentration is directly linked to our Central Nervous System (CNS) which determines the maximum number of motor unit recruitment. The more in-tune your CNS is, the greater the force you can generate. That’s as basic as I can put it without sounding too much like a geeky-biomechanic nerd face.

2. Ask yourself what you can realistically improve on (such as perform a few extra reps, throw on some extra weight, run further) and then go 10% further than that. The only down side is, if you have even an OUNCE of hesitation such as “ohh I don’t know if I can pull this off” or “I’m not sure I can do this”… you will fail. Point Blank Period. Once you decide to go 10% more, just believe in yourself and trust your ability and you’ll be able to pull this off. Oh, and please get a fucking spotter… doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you throw ego into this mix, (specially a man’s ego) things can get wreck less.

3. Have a training partner that motivates you the right way. Besides playing little tricks on my buddy Steve… I also push the living shit outta him. So for example, he’ll be doing the bench press and reach that final rep where he’s about to rack the weight and I’ll stop him and say “nope… give me 1 more dude, let’s go”. He’ll let out primeval grunt which I can only assume translates into “you fucker, I hate you right now!”

So why do I do this? Because I KNOW that he’s got a lil left in him. However, there are other times where I know he’s completely spent so I’ll be like “its ok dude, you’re done, just drop it”. This comes with experience and having to know the person… so if you can find someone who can know your limits this well, you’re progress will be on overdrive.

4. Practice isolation during a rep. Although DOING isolation exercises isn’t something I recommend for everyone, being ABLE to isolate a muscle at will demonstrates control, and it’s something I suggest you try. I mean, can you voluntarily isolate and flex your pectorals, biceps, tricpes, abs, anterior deltoids and a variety of other skeletal muscles? If not here’s how you can develop such a skill. Lets take the chin-up as an example… when you pull yourself up, don’t just start descending right away, pause for 1-2 seconds at the top and attempt to flex your biceps as hard as possible, then come down in a slow and controlled manner. You can also do this for the triceps during dips and pectorals during flys or the bench press. This will truly help you with your strength gains, hands down!

End-Minding

That concludes my little guide on some mind-bending stuff. You should know that I’ve only scratched the surface here. There are plenty more people to trick (including myself) and plenty of research that I need to look into but for now, these 4 techniques should get you above and beyond what you are currently putting yourself through.

There is actually one last technique I use, and you’ll find the details on that in my HeadStart Fitness Report. It’s got a lil something to do with “Reverse Reps”. Those who have downloaded and read my report know what I’m talking about here. It’s truly been a god-send and has pretty much changed the way I workout forever, so make sure you check it out.

-FitJerk
Be Reasonable, And Do It My Way!