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Mental Workout
I am a firm believer in holistic training throughout life. Developing the body is why we are all here, but improving mental and emotional strength is just as important. We know that mental and emotional aptitude can be a corollary to quality physical training, yet to reach full potential we need dedicated time to develop them — just like strength, conditioning, speed, or agility.
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Today we’re focusing on mental capacity. True, some of you may require a level of intellect to conduct your job or deal with your life, but that is akin to believing you can get stronger just by shoveling some dirt and going to work. So let’s take some time out of our day or week to better our minds.
Some of you are already shaking your heads. “I have a wife, kids, work, and training. How can I possibly add anything else to my day?” I’ve always had the mentality that you can dedicate one fifteen minute period of your day to something. There are 96 periods of 15 minutes in a day (4 fifteen minute periods in an hour x 24 hours in a day = 96 fifteen minute periods). You can certainly spend one of those 96 periods — hell, you can spend five dedicated minutes to mental training. So make the time.
You should aim to stimulate your mind with critical thinking activities such as mental math, playing chess involving the queen’s gambit, solving puzzles, and playing board games or even billiards. However, when it comes to playing billiards, you may be curious about how much room you need for a pool table. To ensure that you have enough space to play comfortably, it is important to consider the ideal minimum room size for each standard table dimension, which depends on the cue that you use. Our room-size pool table guide provides this information, so be sure to have a look and determine how much room do you need for a pool table before making your purchase.
There are many mental math apps available on the iPhone or Droid OS. The one I have gives you two minutes to solve as many simple math problems (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) as you can. The difficulty increases with your prowess. For some people, 737/67 might result in an instantaneous solution, but others whose math skills have grown dusty will need a moment of strained thought.
When I first moved to Texas — and before I became friends with Brent and Chris — I would sit in my house at night and do physics problems until one or two in the morning. They weren’t terribly hard (usually simple alegbra), but I felt it would keep or make me sharp. At least it passed the time when I didn’t have any friends in Texas (Debbie Downer music).
Playing chess is a fantastic and stimulating activity. I have seen studies that say there isn’t a correlation between IQ and chess ability, but we’re not intending to use chess as a means to a higher IQ. We’re using it to stimulate the critical thinking areas of our mind. I’m an inexperienced chess player, but when I play I have to consider the implications of my move and subsequent possible actions in my opponent. I take entirely too long to make a move, so I suspect that playing with a clock will force me to speed the analyzing process up and take higher risks in the match. I believe that doing this regularly, and under pressure, will only help develop this “analyze, plan, and act” process in other areas of my life.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s father would force him and his brother to do math problems when they were boys. And throughout his life Arnold would play chess — even on the plane while serving as the Governor of California. Mental strength is a necessary tool for success, so let’s keep our skills sharp by spending a few minutes of dedicated training each day.
Questions: What mental training techniques have you used in the past? What do you currently use? What are other good ways to train the mind?
Mental workout today will be my homework from my PLC class. Converting Binary to Decimal/Octal/Hexadecimal and all over the board. Pretty excited.
Lifting PRs.
Squat: 275 for a new 5RM
Press: 115 for a new 5RM
Deadlift: 300 for a new 5RM + 350 for a new 1RM.
Elbow pain squatting. Apparently my hands are too close together. Had to sit down for 10 mins after squatting bc it hurt so much.
However…
Squat 135kg 3/2 (thanks to my elbow it wadn’t five but I wanted to finish the set)
175kg Deadlift. Next friday will be the first time I’ll be lifting 2/3/4 plates across the three lifts.
Mental wise I’ve been reading a lot about behavioural psychology and rationality. If anyone hasn’t read “thinking fast and slow” it comes highly recommended. Probably in the top five books I’ve ever read. There’s plenty of little mind games included in that.
J.
This is an issue I’ve dealt with a bunch of times in my career — could really use a post on it from Justin (hint, hint). Things I’ve figured out that apply for me:
-Grip was a bit too narrow for me too. Just a bit: http://www.lift-run-bang.com/2012/06/fixing-your-low-bar-squat-hand-and.html
-But more than that, I benefited a lot from going with a thumbless grip (thumb not wrapped around the bar — instead, entire palm above the bar pressing down, preventing wrist hyperextension).
-I’ve started doing my volume day work with a safety squat bar. More stress on the quads, which I badly needed due to my long femurs, and my elbows are much better off only being in the low bar position one day a week on heavy day.
Justin, this would be a great Q&A topic, because a lot of people seem to have this issue. Paul Carter from Lift Run Bang took it on, see above, but I’d love to hear your take on the biomechanics of it.
Last week I competed at FrostFit, a local CrossFit competition. I place 11th out of 25 competitors in the Men’s Non-rx division. There were 4 events, and the first event was a clean ladder. I PRed my power clean at 230#. In almost all scoring opportunities I placed 7-11, but I had two movements where I was weak – pullups and toes to bar. Both of those I placed below 20th and that’s what bumped me out of the top ten.
A couple interesting things coming out of the competition:
– It was fairly easy pulling off the extra bit of discipline for nutrition since the competition was all that was on my mind. That same obsession made sleep a little harder that week, but I did better than I thought I would.
– The bit of uncertainty with CrossFit competitions makes it harder to really hammer my weakpoints leading in. Next time I’ll be a bit more vigilant in that respect.
– Competition day is a blur. Not much to say about it except that it was enlightening to get a feel for the atmosphere that goes with it.
– Coming out of the competition, I have a new sense of confidence both when I’m training and when I’m playing hockey. But at the same time, I feel like I peaked at the competition and my desire to train is low. I took four days off after the competition and just getting back into everything is tough, so I think some recharging of the batteries is necessary.
Bs 350×3
Bp 210×3
Dl 395×3
7 weeks out from powerlifting meet. Cant wait to break my cherry. Got to drop 6 lbs to lift with the 165s.
Hey guys. I’m in my third week of my second go-round with GSLP, this time eating a shit ton. Feels pretty good.
Bench: 127.5x5x3
Squat: 180x5x3
DL: 255x5x1
Almost died squatting for a MopeWOD PR.
You should keep a log at http://www.liftheavyshit.com with us other 70’s biggers. You can PR by being our first female!
Stankrom may or may not keep a log there.
Is this an exclusive invite or are other females allowed into the club?
Everyone is welcome! Come make fun of my bench and how old Cloud is. Maybe even point out the fact Sousa doesnt even lift.
Maybe some lady bench numbers will build your confidence.
Squat 400, Dead 455, Bench 275 all x3
Next week 4 plates!
Squat 122,5kg x 5, Bench 82kg x 5, Deadlift 160kg x 5. Bodyweight 73,2kg
Bench, 1x200lb
Press, 3x110lb
Squat 2x310lb
Deadlift 1x418lb
Trying to focus more on my upper body, since the squats and deadlift have had my attention for the last five months. I want to get the bench up to 260 this year.
At one time I was really interested in boosting my mental powers, I read a lot about it, for example the effects of different nootropics and mental exercises on the mind. I found that most legal nootropics are not worth it, unless you are using them for a short period (studying for a test), because you adapt to them (like with coffee, at some point you are just drinking it out of habit not for a mental boost) or the side effects are too much (like upset stomach from ginseng). Then of course there are some which just don’t work.
The thing about mental exercises is that often when you measure an effect from doing them it is not because it is specific to this mental exercise but because you are doing something new, after a while sudoku becomes easier because you have developed a strategy to solve the problem of sudoku (which is always the same problem essentially). Essentially your brain has figured out a ,,short-cut” to this problem, the brain is lazy. :) It is the process of figuring out that strategy which is mentally challenging. So it is no wonder that you can actually measure a short-time boost in IQ when you learn a new skill, just doing something new is enough for the brain. Learning how to cook, learning a new game (checkers, chess, go), learning how to fix your own car or learning how to dance — apparently dancing is better than exercise in and of it self to keep the mind sharp in older people, perhaps because it includes socializing, which is one of the most challenging things you can do with your brain, just talking to a lot of people, learning names and listening actively. Physical exercise by the way is one of the best ways to keep your mind strong. Very small things, like trying to use your left hand to move the computer mouse when you are right handed are incredibly mentally challenging. I’d recommend people use this time to learn a new skill and meet new people, it is practical and you’ll need to use your head.
Today I do not worry so much about my mental abilities, I am finishing by B.S. degree in mathematics and computer science, so I am already using my head for more than 15 minutes a day, but I have thought about this somewhat lately because when I graduate I am afraid I’ll stop using my head. I am definitely going to use some of my free time to learn some new skill, like juggling balls or what ever.
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Justin, would it be possible for you to make a lengthy article regarding smolov for squats? This is two-fold, first i’d really like to see how you would approach it. Secondly, the first link that appears when one searches for information on smolov is from the guy that just took SS, removed the Power Cleans and added tons of marketing to the programme to make money… It would be nice to have someone that works hard under the bar instead of a self-promoter enlighten us.
Thank you.
report for the week:
squat 235x5x3
bench 205x5x3
power cleans 185×5 PR
Bench has always been a problem. I can’t seem to get it to go up much, even with trying to restart and pay greater attention to form. May need consult help.
No PRs, working through at 85% 1rm on everything at the moment.
I would appreciate a bit of help – My bench pressing has shit the bed and I have no idea why. 1rm on new years day was 105kg, and now I’m struggling to make 5×5 at 85kg (aiming for 92.5 but never getting more than one set of 5 out of that) once every four days. I don’t think I’ve over trained it, but can’t think of another reason why it’s gone backwards so far. Got a meet in two weeks, I’m thinking about dropping to 50% and ninja-ing the form to rest up a bit.
Any ideas?
I use Lumosity and read a lot
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