Positive Visualization!

There has never been something so simple and so correct!

To those of you who train at a high level, whether you compete of not, you already know how to see yourself achieving your lifts. You practice this type of mental preparation regularly and at times you find yourself getting lost in it. I know I do.

However a lot of you out there don’t practice this and I believe it’s because a lot of you don’t understand the importance of it. I wrote once about how important the leg press is for strongman prep because it allows you to feel a lot of weight crushing down on you, so that way when you’re harnessed up to a massive truck or tugging away on a heavy implement, you can recall what that felt like in training. Mentally, it’s just as important to see yourself crushing the lifts you need, because when you get to those few, cherished “champion” sets near the end of your workouts, your muscles will be lacking but your mind can be a source of fuel for them.

It’s important to store mental cues for later use, whether those are memories to remind yourself of certain movements and how they feel or certain images to use as motivation. For this contest cycle I’ve be basically relearning how to deadlift conventionally and it’s been a humbling experience. Now, with just under 4 weeks to go, I can say I feel confident about how I pull that way. In part because my training has been smarter but also because I’ve been preparing mentally very differently than I have for any movement in the past.

Thor pulling some heavy weight at 2015 Europe's Strongest Man

With short arms and a long torso, convention pulling is agony for me and I’ve always pulled sumo as a result. Now when I pull conventional I mimic the style of The Mountain AKA Hafthor Bjornsson who has a unique style that really helps limb deprived man such as myself. He casually adjusts his straps, then places his feet, rolls the bar way ahead of him almost like doing a Yoga position, then rolls the bar toward him and he drops his hips and then initiates the pull when everything his just above his ankle. It’s an explosive movement but it’s also very fluid and helps engage EVERY muscle into the lift. (Eddie Hall also has a similar technique.) To lift like this I experimented and found what’s best for my body. Then I took careful notes on how my feet felt at every stage of the lift. How my fingers felt gripping the bar. How rolling the bar back toward me helped me to drive with my whole foot. I was conscious of it all, because I need to remember what that feels like when I’m tired, my back hurts and I need to call it a day. Those hallmarks will help my body to ‘remember’ what it should be doing and help me keep that edge to my performance.

Mentally you can have some of the same cues. When I deadlift, whether it’s a light day or a heavy day I always think about Andy Bolton. When he pulled 1000 pounds back in the day I remember thinking that he should be on TV or something! He should be famous! However the other 99% of people in the world don’t pay attention to things like that and well, Andy has never been famous. What he has done though, is go down as one of the greatest deadlifters of all time and spreads the good word about deadlifting through his books and seminars. So every single time I get ready to pull, I think about how confident Andy looked that day.  He walked right up to the bar and with minimal hesitation just reached down and pulled it up. It’s not always that easy, but I always try to remind myself that the greatest deadlifter of all time set THE mark to beat and did it like a pro that day, so maybe I can too.

Iconic shot of Andy pulling a thousand pounds

It sounds simple but seeing yourself doing what you set out to do can make all the different in the world. Going to a training session unfocused and unsure about what you want to accomplish can result in a lot of wasted effort and outright insanity, especially as you begin to tire. If your goal is to bench 400 that day, think about it all morning. Imagine the resistance of the bar and how you will have to press against it. Feel the cool metal under your fingers as you grip it tightly. Think about how the bench will feel as the weight begins to crush you underneath. Run through the scenario in your head multiple times and allow yourself to get lost in the exercise. Same goes for competitions. Imagine yourself pulling that record deadlift and then climbing on the podium later to get your trophy. If you start to get goose bumps and maybe tear up a bit-you’re doing it right!

Being a warrior of iron is a great thing, but until your mind catches up to the rest of you then you’ll never hit the next level. Treat visualization just as you any other preworkout maneuver, dedicate a few seconds several times a day to getting that mental image just right and when you do, go live in that moment. Then when the time comes to do the damn thing, you’ll already be there in spirit!

Stay humble and stay strong! The only thing stopping you from being your best is you!

Oh and if you are interested in really improving your deadlift, check out any of Andy's books over on his website www.andyboltonstrength.com (I have them all!)