Adrenaline

Happy PR Friday — post your week’s personal bests or training updates to the comments.

There are two sides to a successful heavy lift: the volitional violence at a critical point in the lift coupled with a pre-existing shot of adrenaline. The former consists of gritting your teeth and ripping through each rep. The latter, however, is more of a skill that has to be developed over time. Considering that I’ve raised my heart rate by 50 beats per minute while sitting in a chair getting ready to squat, I’ll draw on my own experiences while combining some simple stuff I learned while studying sport psychology a few years ago.

Most people, especially stereotypical powerlifters, will use music as their source of external motivation. Even your average friend will have an image of a guy listening to inexplicable death metal and screaming prior to a lift that represents a similar range of motion to Stephen Hawking’s squat. This isn’t always the case, but douche bags — as well as mammoths — do exist.

Now consider the opposite side of the equation: the crafty champion. He is a man who wears an armored suit of serenity, yet his mind is full of wroth. He is courteous to the judges, undergoes his routine, seamlessly hits his lift, and pays homage to the crowd after a personal best. He has learned to summon the dragons from within.

Causing a raucous prior to lifting is a young man’s method of boosting his adrenaline; it’s more primal, easier to do. Yelling and flailing about is an external method of raising adrenaline, because the actions are typically associated with anger, action, and violence. Let’s learn how to develop the mental aspect of lifting.

This is Pisarenko's pump-up


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