Seriously... Get Your Fucking Head Right

In my most recent entry, I stated that it's important for a person to have their head right when they're entering the gym. I posited that we're so saturated with negativity (which is really just a boatload of excuses people have compiled to excuse shitty performance), that it's tremendously difficult to have success no matter how enthusiastic or willing the lifter. I truly believe that this is a massive problem facing most people, and it's one of the most difficult to overcome- forget the training routine selection, adherence to the routine selected, dieting, etc- the biggest battle you're going to fight will be against yourself, inside your head.

You'll notice, reading through old blogs, that I've made comments like the following:

"When you hit the gym, you should be focused on the larger picture- hitting your goals, whatever they may be, and making everyone weep with fear when you stomp around the gym like a miniature Godzilla, not quibbling internally over nonsense that will have little to no bearing on achieving your goals."

"Here I was, perusing a bunch of New Age books in search of alternative methods of getting so pumped up that you could slaughter legions of your enemies, Arnold-in-Commando-style, when it occurred to me that I knew of a way, right offhand, that'd work."

"If you're a hooligan, you eschew bullshit and all of its unpleasant trappings, and you grab life by its throat and fuck it into submission."

These aren't meathead-esque exhortations to act like an asshole in the gym or on the street- they're statements meant to set the stage for how you should feel when you're in the gym- you should feel indomitable, like an immovable object, a force that cannot possibly be opposed. This is not because you're to physically beat everyone around you into submission- you should feel this way because you should be so infused with positive aggression and overall positivity that you feel invincible. Why? Because your mind controls your body, and if you constantly proclaim to it that you're awesome, it will have no choice but to physically realize that thought. That is why I'll generally suggest that someone try harder and get more pumped up before a deadlift attempt rather than spending time dissecting their form. Let Bennie Magnusson be your guide- get pumped the fuck up and wreck shit.

This is not just some esoteric, happy-go-lucky, Tim Robbins bullshit- this is science. It has been proven ad infinitum that one's mind is far more powerful than one's body, and that one can alter one's physiological processes simply through the power of one's mind. I'm not suggesting that you should get all Jean Greyed up and utilize your telekinesis to levitate your next deadlift PR- I'm stating that you can actually make yourself stronger, bigger, and leaner through the use of positive thought, and by the same token, if you constantly obsess over being fat and weak, your body will alter itself to match your perception of reality. Like Henry Ford said, "If you believe you can or if you believe you can't... you're right."(Lipton 112)

Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is that of a sect of Tibetan monks in Northern India, who are able to drastically alter their body temperature to stave off hypothermia through the utilization of intense meditation. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators' shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering. If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour. Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monk was required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours." (Cromie) Similarly, monks in Sikkam, India can lower their metabolisms by 64%, and other monks in the Himalyas have been documented sleeping in sub-zero temperatures with only a thin cotton blanket as protection from the elements. Despite this fact, the monks didn't even so much as fucking shiver in response to the cold, as they simply did not believe in its effects.

I realize that it must sound as though I'm about to offer you a choice between a red pill and a blue pill, but this isn't the Matrix, and this shit is fucking real. The power of belief is so strong that Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer proved that she could induce weight loss in hotel maids by explaining to them exactly how many calories they burned at works- a number that vastly exceeded their perceived metabolic expenditure. (Spiegel) Similarly, studies have shown that the placebo effect is so strong that 32% of severely depressed people show marked improvements with a sugar pill, compared to only 50% who actually receive medication for their illness. (Lipton 110) In most clinical trials, "fake" drugs prove just as effective as the real ones, simply because the people being tested believe in their power. (108-9) This is not simply limited to drugs, either- a 2002 study at Baylor School of Medicine showed that a faked knee surgery was just as effective at reducing chronic knee pain as was the $5000 surgery, a fact that the doctors conducting the experiment found disconcerting, to say the least.

If your spotter gets negative, that barbell may end up rearranging your teeth.

By the same token, you can royally fuck yourself up with negative thoughts. I've always fucking detested spotters who will call the lifter a pussy while he's lifting, or other assorted nonsense. That sort of negativity has never fucking worked, in my mind. It's another thing altogether, however, to think to yourself that "so and so thinks I'm a fucking pussy, but I've got their fucking pussy" and then crush a bunch of weights in outright defiance of their suggestion, and to prove what you know to be the truth- that you're a fucking badass. It's a subtle distinction, but a vastly important one. Just as the placebo effect can work in your favor (I've heard of people gaining weight and getting stronger within 24 hours of taking "oral GH", for instance), it can fuck you up royally. In 1974, a guy named Sam Londe was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, a disease for which there's little hope of recovery once it's in an advanced stage. Londe was given a couple of months to live, and he ended up dying in a few weeks- in spite of the fact that an autopsy showed that the initial diagnosis was incorrect, and he showed almost no cancerous cells in his throat. (Lipton 111) This effect, called the nocebo effect, can have just as profound an impact on your health and lifts, but in a massively negative way.

For those of you still unconvinced, I can understand your skepticism. Whether it's the effects of the mind on quantum physics (as asserted by Lipton and friends) or that reality is mere perception, and that one can change in on a whim (like the Buddhists and Hindus think), or if it's simply that we've some untapped reserve of energy that can affect our internal chemistry on an atomic level- our minds control our bodies. Not only that, but they control the bodies of others. Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation participated in a study that was published in the Social Indicators Research journal, wherein they allegedly lowered the crime rate by 20% over an 8 week period utilizing group meditation.(Hagelin, et al) Exactly like Ghostbusters II, right? The power of positive thinking might sound like some homosexual "The Secret" bullshit, but there's something to it. Thus, I enjoin you to stop being so fucking negative about yourselves- and there are those of you who are massively, horrifically negative about yourselves- and buck the fuck up. You're likely more awesome than you think, and if you're not, you can literally fake it until you make it.

Now go fuck shit up.

Sources:

Cromie, William. Meditation changes temperatures: Mind controls body in extreme experiments. Harvard Gazette. 4/18/02. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html

Hagelin, JS, et al. Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, DC: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July 1993. http://www.mnaimhac.org/resources/Effects%20of%20Meditation%20and%20crime%20-%20DC%20study.pdf

Lipton, Bruce. The Biology of Belief. Carlesbad: Hay House, 2005.

Spiegel, Alex. Hotel Maids Challenge the Placebo effect. NPR. 1/3/08. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17792517