Impractical Poster wrote:punchoutsb wrote:If your max attempts aren't in line with your reps, I honestly think it's a mental block rather than a muscular one.
When you bench heavy, its probably the scariest exercise of all. When you set a ceiling for yourself, it takes some extreme focus to bust through it.
Back before I hit 405 for the first time, I was regularly hitting 385 for 5-6 reps. But when I grabbed 405, it felt night and day heavy. It wasn't until one day I flipped my mental switch and finally blasted through it. You got the strength right now mate. Just gotta make yourself believe!!
This is something I wonder about. I'm wondering if my buddy racks 10 lbs over my max w/o me knowing and tells me it's just under my max, if I'd put it up.
A lot of people don't understand just how mental lifting can be.
Absolutely you could. I've used this on athletes before. I was once training a regional level crossfit athlete who wanted to get her bench up. Her long term goal was 150, but she'd never hit more than 135. I once got her busy talking and put 155 on the bar and told her it was 135. I told her it may feel a bit heavier since we hit chest two days earlier. She got two reps and was like "Wow, I must be getting weaker! That felt really hard." I told her she just put 20 pounds on her PR and she was ecstatic.
Two of the most fantastic studies on the minds effects are:
Ariel et. Al. (1972) “Anabolic Steroids: The Physiological Effects of Placebos,” Medicine and Science in Sports, vol. 4, 124–26.
Maganaris et. Al. (2000) “Expectancy effects and strength training: do steroids make a difference?” Sport psychologist, vol. 14, no. 3, 272-278.
I've referenced both when I was earning my masters.
In the first study, 15 lifters were put on a strength training plan and told the top six (in terms of strength gain) would then be given steroids to test their positive effects. The top guys gained an average of about 25 pounds over the three lifts tested (seated OHP, military press and bench). They were then given a placebo they believed to be steroids. They then gained about 100 pounds average over the three lifts. All in the mind.
In the second one they had 11 national level powerlifters take a sugar pill they thought was a new super fast acting steroid. All 11 lifters broke previous PR's by 4-5% on all three powerlifts. Two weeks later they told five that the pills were sugar pills, and all five dropped back to their previous maxes, not able to hit the new PR they'd managed two weeks earlier. The other six who still believed they were on a new drug set new PR's again.
You are already much stronger than you know...you just have to convince yourself!!
