12 Jan What’s Your Hardcore?
By Tucker Loken
How do you get into the zone and what’s your version of it? I found this to be a really important theme for myself since getting serious about powerlifting. Years ago when I was just bodybuilding, if every couple months I had a good day and I wanted to go for a heavy couple reps or a single, I just went for it. I would try to get myself pumped up, visualize it and get after the weight, but they happened so few and far between it was tough to judge what really worked. I could get intense for my normal sets, but if you’re doing a top set of 8 the first couple reps aren’t really that hard, and the intensity kicks in midway through. Besides the NFL combine, there aren’t any contests which judge you based off of your rep strength though, and powerlifting is all about one max single, so I had to learn how to best engage myself to go from 0 to 100 all at once.
[wa-wps]
Step 1 was going to a gym full of experienced powerlifters because I got to see everyone’s version of their pump up. I would see some people pacing back and forth, mumbling angrily to themselves. Others would sniff the ammonia tabs and scream. What was mine though? To be honest I was nervous and didn’t really know what to do before a big set. I was concerned with technique, feeling my body, figuring out the lift, and trying not to look like a dumbass when I went for it. That last part was unsuccessful, everyone who saw me deadlift asked if I was a bodybuilder after I would do a set. Before my big sets I felt my energy go flat, like it just oozed right out of my feet and into the floor, never to be seen again.
Lift Angry
I’ve heard this one more than I can count – “get mad at it!” “get angry!” “get pissed off!!!”. This was the number one thing that made me lose my mojo. To me, anger isn’t a motivating emotion, it’s more like depressive and upset. I feel like a little kid throwing a fit when I get angry, and my lifts suffered. It was distracting and hard to feel fully in the moment, and my set ups never felt stable and solid. It just wasn’t for me.
Lift Cool
The Fonzie’s of the weight room. Always cool as a cucumber. These folks are usually the dark horses. Nobody expects it but when you look over they are steadily throwing one plate on each side over and over, and with a calm look on their face they walk up to the bar, take a deep breath, and proceed to do a lightning fast single with a weight that might crush you. You don’t really know what these lifters are feeling inside, but regardless of their inner motivators, they’ve found a style that works for them.
Lift with Passion
This is the word I used to replace angry. Anger is draining, and even though it can boost you for a brief period of time, it’s inherently negative and will never be as strong as a positive emotion focused on your goals. Passion, on the other hand, meant being pumped up, believing in yourself, and knowing you can accomplish your goals so confidently, it feels like it’s already happened.
I’m a big Bruce Lee fan, and I always think of his movie Enter the Dragon. There is a scene in the beginning where he is training a student. He tells him to hit him and the kid misses. He tells him to focus and use emotional content. The student tries again and misses. Bruce talks to him again and says “Emotional content… Not anger!” Then the student begins to fight more successfully. Not everyone buys into the Kung Fu “find your center” idea, but for me something about it stuck. It didn’t mean quietly approaching the bar like you didn’t care, it just meant approaching the bar with full belief and 100% focus, rather than scattering my energy with anger.
Lift like a pro
Have you ever seen the real greats lift heavy? Almost none of them go wild. Ronnie Coleman is fun to watch, just YouTube his powerlifting meets and you’ll see him get intense, but it’s inherently positive and passionate, not angry. The real pros are already winning in their own head, they walk up with eyes so intense it could burn a hole through you, and they move some heavy ass weight. Ed Coan is a great example, he just picks the shit up, 900lbs like it’s no big deal. Dan Green just flips his hair to the side and gets to work. I even saw a 58 year old guy deadlift 700 some pounds. He didn’t even realize it was his turn, someone just told him they called his name, he walked up all classy and picked up the weight, looked around and then set it back down. There’s something to be said about quiet confidence, if it’s a strategy the best do, it might be a good idea to invest some thought into it.
Maybe I have taken more time to analyze the whole thing than most, I’ve tried all these different ways to see how I perform the best – staying quiet until I walk up to the bar and hit the weight, distracting myself by talking to people so I don’t think about it and get performance anxiety, getting angry (of course I had to give it a try), and then I finally found my version of pumped up and hardcore.
For me, a big clap on the back (it has to be two hands on the traps, I hate being clapped on one side and feeling asymmetrical…. Just one of my little particulars) and on particularly exciting days, some hooping and hollering is what it takes. I can make a scene sometimes, but more than anything it’s about getting myself riled up and getting my CNS turned on. That doesn’t mean rage, anger or any of the negative emotions, it just means channeling all of my energy and focus into one thing, and being passionate and positive to bring out my best ability. I want to bring the best out in the people around me too, I don’t want to be the guy you’re afraid to talk to before a set because he’s frothing at the mouth, I want to be the guy you don’t talk to before the set because you see me focused and intense, and you don’t want to distract me or yourself from the goal at hand. When you bring up the people around you, you bring yourself up as well.
Find your own hard core. If anger and yelling is what does it for you, or quiet confidence is your style, more power to you. If you’re with a good group nobody will care, and you’ll probably gravitate to a bunch of people who are the same way and you’ll all feed off of each other. Either way just figure out what you need to be in the zone, and let it flow.
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