Bill Starr - (IM) - The Mental Factor in Strength Training

8/14/2019 Bill Starr - (IM) - The Mental Factor in Strength Training

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or athletes to be successfulin their chosen sports, theyrequire many attributes.Having a high degree ofathleticism, which includes

such things as coordination, bal-ance, quickness and a sense oftiming during the performance of aphysical skill, is key. Having a strongbody that can endure repeated im-pacts in contact sports as well as theability to play longer at a more in-tense level are genuine advantages.That’s the physical side of the coin.

Then there’s the mental side, which, as many great athletes con-tend, is even more important thanthe physical. I happen to agree.During my competitive years in

Olympic weightlifting, I saw count-less examples of lifters who wereclearly not as strong as their op-ponents emerge the winner due totheir mental superiority.

At the pinnacle of every sport thedifference between the competitorsis minute. All have similar quali-ties in terms of athletic ability andsport skills, yet invariably one ortwo always seem to come out ontop. Lance Armstrong is a perfectexample.

In high-dollar sports, psycholo-gists are frequently brought in to

help players who are struggling toovercome their problems. They ob-viously have all the necessary toolsto excel, but they’re faltering badly.Hypnosis and other forms of induc-ing a state in which the athletes arevery responsive to suggestion areused, and in nearly every case it works. The players snap out of theirfunk and return to their previouschampion caliber.

And yet I’m fairly sure that veryfew readers have the means to seekout professional assistance whentheir confidence has hit bottom.They have to figure out how to cor-rect the problem on their own. Thegood news is, it can be done and willnot cost you a dime.

Many are of the opinion that hav-ing self-assurance is innate—either you have it or you don’t. While it’strue that some do possess a higherdegree of natural confidence thanothers, that doesn’t mean the traitcan’t be improved. It’s a skill, andas with any other skill, the more you practice it, the more proficient you will become at using it in yoursports activities, including weighttraining.

In team sports an athlete’s confi-dence can be bolstered by coachesand teammates, but that isn’t quite

the same for individual sports. True, your coach can encourage you andprovide some form suggestions, but you are very much alone during theperformance of your event. And while an athlete in a team sport canbe a member of a championshipsquad without playing a significantrole, the individual-sport athleterelies 100 percent on his or her ownaccomplishments. So self-assuranceis more critical to success for those who go it alone.

Nevertheless, the methods I’mabout to present can also be use-ful to those who play team sports.They’re not restricted to those whoparticipate in individual sportsrequiring independent action. At

Johns Hopkins, all of the membersof the Olympic weightlifting teamalso played football. I taught themhow to mentally prepare for a con-test, and once they learned thatskill, they used it to their benefit when football season rolled around.

I’ve mentioned that practice isnecessary in order to become bet-ter at this skill, and so is patience.Some think it’s a magic formula. It’snot. Time must be spent becauseproficiency doesn’t come overnight. And that’s exactly why the majorityof those who start practicing mental

Mind, Muscle and Might

The MentalFactor

in Strength Trainingby Bill StarrPhotography by Michael Neveux

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328 JUNE 2006 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

rehearsal don’t stick with it. A men-tal skill is harder to achieve becauseit has to be done precisely each andevery time. You might get strongereven though you use poor tech-nique on some exercise, but that’snot the case with a mental exercise.

It also needs to be understoodthat some are able to master thisskill rather easily while others mustspend a longer time working on it.I’ve observed that those who tookpart in a wide range of competitivesports when they were younger,and did well in them, have an easiertime dealing with the stress of com-petition than those who didn’t playsports when they were young. Suc-cess breeds success.

One of the nice bonuses of learn-

ing how to use mental rehearsal isthat you can also apply it to day-to-day activities—to help you planfor an upcoming hectic scheduleor deal with an invasion of in-lawsduring a holiday or a bunch of mid-terms or finals. In other words, it’sa really good skill to have whether you’re engaged in a competitiveactivity or just desiring a stress-freelife.

I call the process mental re-hearsal. Others use similar methodsand give it other names, but a roseis a rose. As I mentioned, it can beused for a wide range of activities,but I’ll restrict this article to howit can benefit weight training andcompetitive lifting. I should men-tion that I always did a form of men-tal preparation—even before I gotserous about Olympic lifting. WhenI wrestled and boxed, I would reviewthe fundamentals and try to pumpup my self-esteem prior to goinginto the ring or on the mat.

Once I started devoting all my

energy to lifting, I continued touse this same idea—going over myintended attempts and thinkingabout the keys. I did it in a perfunc-tory manner, however, and neverset aside a specific period of time tomentally plan for the contests. I’msure it helped some, although I’mnot sure how much. I was missinglifts that I should have made.

The value of this discipline wasbrought into perspective as I wasgetting ready to compete in the ’66North Americans, which were heldin York, Pennsylvania. It was by far

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You can usemental rehearsalfor a wide rangeof activities,not just yourworkouts.

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contests, like the ’68 Olympic Trials, where the stakes were so high.

When I tried to go through my in-tended attempts, I would get so ner-vous that my pulse rate would soarand I could feel my muscles tighten.No matter how hard I tried to relax,I couldn’t, particularly when I got tothe final lifts. The rehearsals did meno good at all, because I just wasn’table to relax enough to focus on mylifting.

I knew that I was missing a criti-cal part of the process, but I didn’thave a clue what it might be. ThenI stumbled across it. I was leafingthrough a book on martial arts, hop-ing to glean enough information toput together an article for Strength& Health , when I came across a

chapter on systematic breathingand relaxation. Bingo, I had foundthe piece of the puzzle I was need-ing to make my mental rehearsalsbear fruit. Or at least I thought Ihad. In two weeks there was a meetin Wilmington, Delaware. I would

the press and snatch but never gotto the clean and jerk because Barskiinsisted we join the rest of the party.

At the contest I felt extremelyconfident. I proceeded to make allmy presses and snatches, settingpersonal records on both. I was ona roll. That is, until I got to the cleanand jerks. My high confidence leveldisappeared. I only made my open-er. There was no doubt in my mindthat if I had rehearsed my clean and jerks as I had the other two lifts, I would have succeeded with everyattempt that night.

I was convinced that goingthrough the lifts and picturingeach one from start to finish wasa tremendous asset, yet I couldn’timpose on Russ to talk me through

the preparation every time. I hadto figure out how to make it workon my own. I began mentally goingthrough my planned attempts andhighlighting the various form pointson the night prior to a meet. It didhelp, but not for the significant

the biggest meet I’d ever qualifiedfor and I was understandably ap-prehensive. The month before, BobBednarski, Russ Knipp and I haddriven to Boone, North Carolina, totake part in a contest. As every lifterknows, a certain amount of bondingtakes place on a road trip, especiallya long one, so we all got to know oneanother and became friends.

The night before the North Americans, Tommy Suggs, Russ andI gathered at Bednarski’s trailer atBrookside Park, only a few milesfrom Bob Hoffman’s residence nearDover. That’s the site of the an-nual York Barbell Company picnic.Sometime during the casual affair,Russ pulled me into a back roomand asked what I planned on lift-

ing the next day. I told him, and heprompted me to go through thethree lifts step by step from the first warmup to the final attempt. Hetold me to visualize each lift as Iverbalized it and focus on the formpoints. I worked my way through

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put the idea to the test. I’d like to sayI did great at the contest. I didn’t.I was full of confidence, however,and basically missed some attemptssimply because I was not yet strongenough. My mind, on the otherhand, was more than preparedbe cause I was able to go throughalmost an hour of mental rehearsal without getting too nervous to con-tinue.

It was all due to the breathing. AsI began the procedure described inthe book, I felt my body relax. ThenI started my intended attempts,thinking more of the technique thanthe numbers. Whenever I began toget anxious, I would start the deepbreathing again and stay with ituntil I was once again calm. It was

exactly what I was looking for and was so simple that I wanted to kickmyself for not figuring it out on myown. But that’s the story of my life.

The reason that the deep breath-ing enabled me to avoid becominganxious is the basic fact that themind can only concentrate on onething at a time. I learned that inmy college psychology classes buthad never considered it to be in-strumental in helping me preparefor a contest. When I was focusingon inhaling and exhaling deeply, I wasn’t able to think about my lifts. As I said, it’s a skill, and the longer Ipracticed it, the easier it was for meto go through all my intended at-tempts without getting anxious andhaving to stop and start over.

Eventually, I gave little attentionto the numbers and concentratedon technique. I didn’t even set myopening attempts firmly but keptthem flexible. I might start with 270if my warmups went well or 260 ifthey didn’t, reminding myself of the

often forgotten truism in competi-tion that it doesn’t matter where youstart, only where you end up. I alsodidn’t lock in my second or thirdattempt either, so I could changethem according to what my compet-itors were doing without affectingmy confidence.

I began using the deep breath-ing during my warmups and beforegoing on platform. It served twouseful functions. It enabled me tocalm down and conserve my energyfor the upcoming attempt, and ithelped me focus on the small form

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Preworkout

visualization canhelp your formand focus in thegym.

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keys—both most useful when 10pounds often means the differencebetween winning and watching thevictory ceremony from the audi-ence.

So here’s a short course on learn-ing how to relax that anyone canmaster if he or she is willing to putin some practice time. It’s just asuseful for athletes who are primar-ily interested in improving theirtraining lifts as it is for competitiveathletes.

Find a quiet place. For some thatposes a problem—like a friend ofmine who has four young childrenor an athlete who lives in a frathouse. My advice to both: Go sit in your car. I prefer a dark or dimly litroom and want it to be as quiet as

possible. Many people find lightmusic agreeable, but you shouldstay away from anything that dis-tracts from the task at hand. Noradio or TV, and unplug the phoneand fax.

If you can sit on a fat pillow andassume the lotus position, do so.That places you in an ideal posturefrom which to breathe deeply. Themain thing is to be comfortable,however. You cannot concentrate on your breathing when some part of your body is screaming in pain. So you can sit in your recliner or evenlie down.

Take a few moments to try tolet your mind go blank. Keep yourback flat, and lift your head slightly.That will enable you to take deeperbreaths. Slow and steady, draw in airand while doing so, try and picture your lungs expanding. When they’refull, suck in a bit more, then hold your breath for eight to 10 seconds.

In the beginning you may not beable to hold the air in for that long,

but with practice you will. Don’tlet the air gush out. Rather, slowlyrelease it, emitting a soft whoosh-ing sound. When your lungs feelempty, contract your diaphragmand squeeze out a tad extra. Do notinhale for five or six seconds, andafter that you must resist the urge tosuck in huge quantities of air. In-stead, inhale slowly, as you did with your first breath.

The holding times are merelyguidelines. What you are trying tolearn is the rhythm of the exercise.Once you accomplish that, you will

Mental rehearsalis a learned skill.

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be able to extend the amount oftime it takes you to fully inhale andexhale as well as hold the air in yourlungs during the oxygen-starvationperiod. As you breathe in and out,concentrate on the action of your

diaphragm. Visualize it expanding in your relaxing abdomen while you’reinhaling and contracting far up in your chest cavity when exhaling.

Once you’re totally focused on your rhythmic breathing and the

motion of your diaphragm, you won’t be able to think about any-thing else, and that’s the idea.

After you’ve completed threecycles, turn your thoughts to yourupcoming workout or competition.Since I’ve covered a great deal aboutcontest preparation, I’ll show howto get ready for the next session inthe weight room. While I said thatI eventually stopped fixing specificnumbers to the various lifts in ameet, I do want to lock them in fortraining. That’s because you’re onlycompeting against yourself in thegym and should know exactly whatpoundages you’re aiming for at anygiven workout.

Write down all your projected warmups and top-end lifts before

you do your mental rehearsal. Thatgives you a tangible game plan.Otherwise, it’s hit or miss.

Our imaginary strength athletethis month is a football player who’sin the final weeks of his off-seasonstrength program. On Monday he

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Visualizeyourself asmuscularandconfident.




squatted 450x5, so on Friday he wants to do 460x3. Here’s how heplans to work his way up to that weight: 135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 385x3,435x3 and 460x3. It’s no trouble forhim to commit these to memory.

On Thursday night he sets aside30 minutes to do his mental re-hearsal. After three cycles of rhyth-mic breathing, he’s relaxed andgoes through each of his six sets indeliberate fashion. He visualizes thebar being loaded, placing his feet just right, locking his back tightlyand making each lift with power tospare. He knows he’s strong enoughto handle 460 for a triple since he’salready done 10 pounds less for five.The only thing that can keep himfrom making his final set is a break-down in technique.

So he does another cycle of deepbreathing, then proceeds to go

through his squat routine again.This time he doesn’t focus on theamount of weight on the bar butrather concentrates on key formpoints. No more than three, how-ever. More than that will only com-plicate the execution of the lift.

Recalling that he has a tendencyto round his back on the heavy weights, which often results in fail-ure, he built the potential form flawinto his preparation. One key fordescending (keep back extremelytight), one for the initial drive outof the bottom (lift chest up), and a

final one for bringing the bar to thefinish (no hesitation through themiddle). Of course, everyone hashis own set of keys, but this worksfor our athlete. I tell my athletes toimagine that they are taking a videoof themselves and try to picturethemselves doing each and everyrep in perfect form.

When our athlete walks in the weight room on Friday, he’s ex-tremely confident that he willsucceed with the 460 pounds andthat’s way more than half the battlealready won.

Yuri Vlasov, the great RussianOlympic lifting heavyweight of the’50s and ’60s, was also a publishedauthor. He wrote about being ableto center his mental focus on lift-ing a certain poundage so intentlythat he felt as if he were standing ina circle of bright light, with every-

thing around him blacked out, evensound. I had no idea what he wastalking about until it happened tome. It was at the William Penn HighSchool in York. As I stood over thebar, it was just as he described. All Icould see was the center of the bar,and I was standing in a pool of vividlight. It was a heady, euphoric, al-most transcendental sensation thatI dearly wished I could capture moreoften. Sadly, I only did so a couple oftimes after that. But the point is, if Icould achieve that ideal state, so can you. It’s not magic; it’s practice.

Even if you have no de-sire to lift heavy objects orto compete in any type ofstrength event and only want to maintain strengthfitness, it’s still beneficial todo some mental rehearsalfor your training. It willhelp you make your next workout much more pro-ductive. During my hourcommute to Johns Hop-kins I would preview myplanned workout. I didn’tdo any breathing exercises,since I wasn’t going to betrying any personal records,although I certainly couldhave while I sat for severalminutes waiting for all the

lights to turn green. WhenI got to the weight room, Iknew exactly what I had todo and was ready to do it.

One final note: The rhythmicbreathing is an excellent way torelax and reduce stress, whetherit’s the physical or mental variety.For several years I trained in non-air-conditioned gyms in Texas andMaryland. In both places the tem-perature often hit 100 degrees withmatching humidity. I had difficultygetting my pulse and respiratoryrates back down to normal. I duti-fully swallowed a fistful of multipleminerals and vitamin C, but it stilltook an hour or longer for my bodyto calm down. Then I rememberedthe deep breathing. Within five min-utes my breathing and pulse ratehad dropped appreciably. As I said,the simplest solution to a problem isoften overlooked.

So whether you’re trying to hurla shot out of the stadium, pole-vault over a tall building, be the first

human to elevate a half ton over-head or merely enjoy being fit andstrong enough to take long hikesin the country, start incorporatingsome mental rehearsal into yourroutines. By harnessing more of your mental energy, you’ll be able toachieve your goal much faster. It’stime well spent.

Editor’s note: Bill Starr was astrength and conditioning coachat Johns Hopkins University from1989 to 2000. He’s the author of TheStrongest Shall Survive and DefyingGravity . IM

Harness yourmental energy,and you willachieve yourgoals much faster.

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Bill Starr - (IM) - The Mental Factor in Strength Training