What Rationalizations Hold You Back?

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean, and nasty place and no matter how tough you think you are, it'll always beat you if you let it. It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! If you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointin' fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that, and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! ...until you start believing in yourself, you’ll ain’t gonna have a life.” - Rocky Balboa (2006)

Recently, I discussed 5 Little Things that Make a Big Difference and looked at some things you may or may not be doing that are unknowingly contributing to your inability to achieve your goal(s). I would like to take one of the Top 5's, HARD WORK, and reflect on it a bit further. It's not just lack of hard work that keeps us from achieving full potential; there are many other factors that fall under The Lack of Hard Work umbrella. One is FOCUS. "What you focus on expands" (Selvarajah). Focus is key, but there is another factor that has to be dealt with and eliminated before we can even begin to focus or a least stay focused - Rationalization. These are the justifications and excuses that float around in our head every minute of the day that allow us to believe we don't need to work hard or that we actually do work hard.

My mentor reminded me last week that I have been frolicking in the land of Rationalization for the past months and likely years and that is the ONLY reason I am not yet benching 200lbs. I have been accepting my pathetic excuses as authentic justification to be lazy and not WORK for my goal.

Raw Bench Press Stats

GOAL: 200 lbs raw bench press

Bench Press in September 2006 (Provincial) - 160
Bench Press in January 2007 (Niagara Open) - 165
Bench Press in March 2007 (Nationals) - 170

I had not been able to get beyond 170 since March. I had many excuses and rationalizations as to WHY my bench press wouldn't move much beyond 160-170. My ultimate goal is to beat the current bench press record in either 60 kg class (187.5) or 67.5 kg class (209) WITHOUT the assistance of a bench press shirt.

I hate the shirts, they mess up rotator cuffs; they destroy the integrity of the sport of powerlifting; they contribute to myth and fantasy about people's actual strength and ability; they are downright dangerous and they are one of the biggest reasons powerlifting will never be an Olympic sport or being taken seriously by the sport / athletic community. I do not blame lifters who do chose to wear them (which is 90% of IPF powerlifters), because it is hard to compete at the same level otherwise, but I feel strongly that they are NOT GOOD for the sport in any way and not good for the physical and personal development of the lifter or their structural balance.

I plan on achieving my goal by looking into the MENTAL aspects that hold me back (which are more important than physical) and WORKING my ass off and FOCUSING on one lift at a time. I am not doing much deadlifting right now but I am doing squats - serious weight and work because I believe that the mental and physical work in the squat carries over positively into the bench.

I will not compete until I have accomplished this goal.

"Never rationalize laziness" (Arcaro).

Your current goal may related to a certain lift, ability or skill like mine, such as bodyweight bench press or weighted chin ups or positive body composition changes, but the same rule applies. NO MORE EXCUSES. NONE!

Any rationalization will only take you one step further away from accomplishing your goals. And trust me, as human beings we have rationalizations and excuses that pop into our heads and / or out of our mouths at an alarming rate!

Here are some of my excuses as to why I have not been able to even come close to my bench press goal to date:

  • I have bad shoulders
  • I don't like to train biceps
  • I have pathetic forearms
  • My grip is a limiting factor
  • If I stay lean, I won't ever be as strong as I could
  • I am very sensitive to sleep
  • Too much benching hurts my shoulders
  • I always get injured if I bench more than 3 weeks in a row
  • I'll never do kind of the numbers my competition does without the bench shirt

 

All these excuses and rationalization for LAZINESS are the Law of Attraction in action. If I tell myself these things, they are true. NO MORE.

However, you have to be really ready and prepared to face your rationalizations because once you do, there really are NO EXCUSES.

So, What rationalizations hold YOU back?

Eliminating Rationalizations

Starting NOW…

  1. Identify your goal … don’t make it a whimpy or easily attained one but pick on that is realistic. A “stretch goal”. Write it down in concrete language like “do 5 full chinups” or “squat 225”
  2. Post the identified goal all over the house, on the bathroom mirrors, on the fridge, in your car, on your locker, at the office
  3. Set a date to attain the identified goal at a reasonable time in the future (August 31st or 8 weeks for example)
  4. Write down all the excuses and sad rationalizations that keep you from this goal. Try to list 10.
  5. Share this list with someone or post it HERE – take ownership of your pathetic fabricated excuses

 

The NO MORE EXCUSES WORKOUT

To reinforce your goals and to truly take ownership of your excuses, perform the following 2 workouts over the next 3 days.

Workout A

A1 BB Squats 4 sets of 8 reps (4 second negative)
A2 DB Step Ups (knee height) 4 sets of 10 reps each leg
B1 BB Squats 4 sets of 8 reps
B2 Lying Hamstring Curl 4 sets of 10 reps
C1 BB Squats 1 set of max reps (20-25% less)
C2 Jumping Split Squats or walking lunges to failure

1 minute rest in between each set.

After you squat, look at the clock then don’t sit, walk instead. Count the breaths you take until it is time to go. While you are counting your breaths, you are chanting your mantra in your mind and reminding yourself of your pathetic excuses and that they WILL NOT DOMINATE you any longer.

By counting breaths, watching the clock, chanting the mantra of your goal (I will squat 225, I will squat 225, I will…), and acknowledging the excuses as just that, you do not allow your brain’s weak mechanisms to take over.

Don’t think – just do. Thinking too much about the wrong stuff is the death of us in the weight room and the death of realization of our goals.

Workout B

A1 BB Bench Press 4 sets of 8 reps (4 second negative)
A2 Chinups or modified chinups 4 sets of 8 reps
B1 BB Bench Press 4 sets of 8 reps
B2 1 Arm DB Rows 4 sets of 10 reach arm
C1 BB Bench Press 1 set of max reps (20-25% less)
C2 Lat Pulldown 1 set of max reps

For your working sets in the bench press and squats, work up to a weight that the last 2 reps are difficult to perform. You must get all sets and all reps so if you need to drop weight by your middle or later sets in order to do that depending on your conditioning or muscle fibre type, do it. But the ultimate goal is to keep the weight you are at the entire workout.

To give you an idea of weight, I do this at 145 lbs in the squats for a high bar Olympic stance and full ass to the grass depth and a pause in the bottom (not required for you) and my 1RM in this type of squat is 230.

In the bench press, I do this workout with a medium grip on the bar with 125 lbs and my 1RM with this width and tempo is 165 lbs.

Now if your goal is in fact squats or chinups, keep at this workout for 2 weeks doing each workout 2x weekly (ie Monday Workout A, Tuesday Workout B, Wed REST Thursday Arms, Friday Workout A, Saturday Workout B, Sunday REST).

The objective of this workout is to keep your mind busy by focusing hard on the goal, being completely open and honest about your excuses and bringing them right to the forefront and to work your ass off. You are doing 9 total sets of squats and bench press with little rest in between and working antagonists at the same time. Then you end with a brutal finisher to failure.

How well you do with this workout is dependant on picking the numbers right and not wussing out by choosing weights below what you can actually handle.

How much you get out of this workout at the end of two weeks depends on your ability to work through your mind’s attempts to make you do less work. Those failure sets at the end mean PHYSCIAL failure more than MENTAL - where you ACTUALLY can’t do another rep because body will not physically allow you to with moderately good form. Your brain will have wanted you to quit much earlier. But you will have set yourself up to spot the lazy bastard brain with your mantra and your awareness of your excuses.

(This article was inspired my own laziness and my coach and mentor's ability to throw it in my face good and hard)

DE Coaching Team

Krista Schaus PICP CPT
Ontario CANADA krista@definingedge.ca

Kate Kline PICP CFT
Arizona USA
kate@definingedge.ca

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info@definingedge.ca

 

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