Clearing the Mind

Has anyone got any tips on how to keep the mind focussed on the task at hand as you are doing your workout and not allowing distracting thoughts to creep in?
It's the voices of doubt that I have a hard time dealing with. It ranges from the solemn 'I don't think you can do another rep, mate. Give it up." mid set to the more insidious "Haha, told you so phaggot" upon reaching failure on my deadift.
Always questioning whether I am doing it right, whether I've rested, ate, recovered enough for this workout.. does my head in!

Any tips on how to clear the mind of this rubbish and increase focus and concentration with more positivity?

ive sometimes imagined someone holding a gun to my head and they sill shoot if i dont fininsh the targeted set.

That works.

I also go through the set in my mind, this helps.

But I never hear voices in my head telling me i cant do it or calling me a phaggot.

Are you like this with everything?

If so, you need to seek special council, view lifting as a healty pursuit and us it as a method of meditation.
Find something or things you enjoy that makes you happy, it's what everyone strives for...happiness, you got this, you got it made.

What Gooseburger said. You're doing a positive thing, improving your body, you're not raping nuns.

Try and be more philosophical and realise you'll have bad workouts from time to time, but you're in it for the long haul.

If all else fails then get a lobotomy.

self doubt , voices in your head is a sign of deeper troubles , go talk to a counselor about it , you probably put too much pressure on yourself , seen too many pictures of muclse bound peeps , reading stories of them being able to bench X and squat Y

I just accept failure might occur, but I'm going to give it my all anyway. I know what you mean and used to go crazy psyching up and putting on heavy metal music...

I stepped up the other day and did 2rms of 120kg on bench which was a rep pb. No psyching up whatsoever, just focus. Mind you, not a single thought of 'fuck fuck I dont want to fail this'. Just 'keep tight and push, using leg drive'.

Try and keep your mind on the one thing you think you might forget on technique. It might be leg drive and tightness on bench, or speed on bench as soon as it touches your chest.

If you miss a rep it's not the end of the world.


For assistance and bodybuilding type stuff, I like what goosey does, I say to myself 'I'm gonna get 8 reps here, and if I have 1 left in the tank, by fuck I'm going to go for it'. I think it's really important to go hard on bodybuilding - just from what I've seen others do. I don't go to failure, but I make sure I don't induce failure either. It's a fine line.

Try using Mike T's approach of classifying sets, this might help you get honest, and analyse your lifting. If you want a '10 set' just make sure it's a 10.

@10: Maximal Effort. No reps left in the tank.
@9: Heavy Effort. Could have done one more rep.
@8: Could have done two or three more reps.
@7: Bar speed is "snappy" if maximal force is applied.
@6: Bar speed is "snappy" with moderate effort.

E.g. the set I spoke of before might be 9 reps@10, or 8 reps @9 if I pussied out.

Well, thats some interesting thoughts indeed.
Since I have just injured my back doing squats, I must've spent an inordinate amount of time analysing every moment leading up to snap city, and trying to put my finger on what caused it. Over training? Too much pressure? Trying to compare myself to others?

Maybe they all play a part. It's not like I walk into the gym thinking like that - I start each set with a PB in mind but its always half way through that I start questioning my abilities. Mind you, when I don't do this (one every 3 workouts I suppose), I have the smoothest workouts ever, everything just seems lighter, and I don't want to leave the gym even if I have just churned through 1000 calories.

I would dearly like to replicate this in every workout. I've started taking noopept which does have a noticeable effect on positivity. However the self doubts and taunting "voices" go hand in hand with how confident I feel on the day.

Mate I got a sure fire technique.

Get butt naked and have a wank in the mirror, the moment you shoot your load all the self doubt disappears and in the moment of clarity you see staring back at you the most pathetic and disgusting site ever.

You literally have hate for yourself coming out of your pores. Now take that disgust and transfer it to self hate in the gym, clear your conscious by killing yourself on the weights.

Before you knock it try it, you might not admit to doing it but take my word this technique breeds PB's and replaces nagging self doubt with total self hate, which funnily enough is very productive.

My suggestion is meditation and practice. If you were in Sydney I could give you a great place to learn the techniques. The rest is practice.

The mental chatter is quite normal. Its just thoughts jumping into your head. I've heard the untrained mind described as being like a small child running all over the place. Rather than your mind controlling you, you need techniques so that you control it. You can develop techniques to clear the mind and focus it.

The negative types of thoughts you're having perhaps look at cognitive behavior. The Buddhists have an interesting concept of suffering. As an example you're stuck in traffic late for a meeting and you get upset. Your late and that's bad however you add to your suffering by impatience and you make your suffering worse.

Or Yoda - Try not. Do or do not, there is no try. Very Zen Buddhist. Rather then focus on the future and what has yet to happen, live in the moment, the now, and focus on what your are doing. How does the bar feel, are you set, what does it feel like? Living in the present is important.

Legion said:

My suggestion is meditation and practice. If you were in Sydney I could give you a great place to learn the techniques. The rest is practice.

The mental chatter is quite normal. Its just thoughts jumping into your head. I've heard the untrained mind described as being like a small child running all over the place. Rather than your mind controlling you, you need techniques so that you control it. You can develop techniques to clear the mind and focus it.

The negative types of thoughts you're having perhaps look at cognitive behavior. The Buddhists have an interesting concept of suffering. As an example you're stuck in traffic late for a meeting and you get upset. Your late and that's bad however you add to your suffering by impatience and you make your suffering worse.

Or Yoda - Try not. Do or do not, there is no try. Very Zen Buddhist. Rather then focus on the future and what has yet to happen, live in the moment, the now, and focus on what your are doing. How does the bar feel, are you set, what does it feel like? Living in the present is important.

Click to expand...

Where is this place in Sydney? Ive been looking into going to the Nan Tien Temple in Wollongong for a weekend meditation retreat but if there is somewhere good in Sydney to learn I would rather that.

I went to a group at Epping with Sam Davis.

Sam's page is http://www.satorithp.com.auhttp://ausbb.com/www.satorithp.com.au His contact is on his web page.

He runs the course in conjunction with the meditation sanctuary (The Meditation Sanctuary)

The beginner course is normally run at 7:30 on Mondays at Epping. He has an intermediate and advanced course as well. I found the course well structured and builds on each week taking you through a number of techniques. I'd describe it as a practical approach to meditation. Send Sam an email. If you want to PM your email I can send you a course outline.

positive visualisation before hand. I used this technique when i was in highly competitive sport for years. I had a recording i would listen to (by martin st.james the hypnotist) the night before a game. I would sleep better, and know, just know, that i had done everything i could to prepare properly and my mind was on. No sex before a game for me either! I did that a couple of times and had total shockers...
but positive self reinforcement worked for me with visualising the end goal...

I went through a bad patch in my early thirties, self doubt and negAtive thoughts, someone suggested I get into the habit of saying "STOP" in my mind, I don't think it "STOP"...sorry.

After today's workout I think heavy music is also important.

Don't listen to stuff like this:
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game - YouTube

Stuff like this is preferable:
Conan the Barbarian Intro - YouTube

Hmm, the fact that my gym keeps playing this on their video sound system (blame channel V) could be the cause of my vitriol flavoured thoughts

One Direction - Kiss You