Excelling in Testing Week
This week is the final week of our training cycle. For those of you that don’t know, this training cycle was running for 8 weeks with a focus on squatting, pulling off the ground and horizontal pressing. With 8 weeks of work in these lifts, we’re hopefully going to see a lot of PRs and you’ll come out stronger than the beginning of the year.
Here are a few things to set you up for success:
1. Don’t change your routine - Switching what class you come to, eating different types or amounts of food, trying new supplements are all ways to mess with your potential. Unless your current routine involves little sleep, bad food choices and dehydration, this isn’t the time to be trying to switch things up.
If you’re concerned about the way you approach everything else outside of training, send me an email and we can talk about how to get you on a better routine.
2. Don’t idolize a number - Sometimes numbers can get us caught up in chasing something arbitrary which holds us back. My personal max on a back squat is 395lbs. I’ve hit 375-395lbs probably more than 20 times now. I’ve also failed 400/405lbs about 15 times in the past 5 years. Now percentage wise there’s very little difference between 395 and 400, but the mental block of getting it can be enough to throw out doubt before a lift. Don’t get caught up in the milestone numbers - trust the work you’ve put in and approach your lifts confidently. This rolls us right into:
3. Visualize success - Before you approach the bar for a lift, run a mental rehearsal of the lift. Think about how it’s going to feel as you first get tension on the bar (hint: it’s going to feel heavy) think about the movement pattern you’re going to hit, think about how you’re going to have to drive hard when it gets tough. Think about how good it’s going to feel when you complete the lift. If you go into the lift with self doubt it’s not going to happen, you need to believe you can hit it and do everything you can to make it happen.
4. It’s ok to fail - There are a lot of factors that can affect your strength on any given day. Just because you don’t hit a PR on that day, doesn’t mean you haven’t got stronger. Personally, I have lifetimes maxes and “everyday” maxes. My lifetime maxes are the most weight I’ve ever hit for a lift, my everyday maxes are a number that I can hit 9/10 if I decide to max out one day. If my everyday max increases then I’ve got stronger, even if everything doesn’t align for me to hit a lifetime max.
I would estimate most people will hit 2/3 PRs this week, some will go 3/3, some will go 1/3. Whatever you hit is fine, don’t get frustrated if you don’t hit a new PR on everything this week. Know that you’ve put the work in and even without a new PR you’ve got stronger!