PODCAST

What is always fascinating to me when it comes to powerlifters and them attempting their one rep max:

How do they hype themselves up?

The art of the hype:

What is one of the most important skills in life? I believe it to be the ability to hype yourself up. A primal technique, to awaken the maximum amount of physiological power in your body.

Hypelifting

Something I have realized about modern day life; we are not allowed to be loud. Yet the funny irony is that we are allowed to have loud cars, loud clothes, and loud possessions. However, we ourselves are not allowed to be loud auditorily.

For example, proper and bland folks tend to disdain a lot of rowdy young lower class kids for being “too loud”.

Unlearning this

Thus it seems the first step is this:

Discover great joy and pride in hyping yourself up!

Good sources of inspiration

The Hakka war chant by the All Blacks New Zealand Māori rugby team. Downright frightening to the souls of their opponents.

Also, Ronnie Coleman (lightweight baby! Ain’t nothing but a peanut! Whoooo)

How and why does hyping yourself up work?

I believe it is an adrenaline thing, and a priming of your muscles thing.

Going blank

How do I hype myself up?

First of all, via negativa. No music. No headphones. No distractions. I believe the art of the hype is to empty your mind of thoughts, fear, hesitation, doubt, etc.

I know a lot of lifters and powerlifters who rely on listening to music to hype themselves up. And truth be told it is very effective. However, something which interested me when watching the old-school pumping iron weightlifting documentary with Arnold Schwarzenegger; nobody had headphones on while working out. Also, one of the things I was inspired by John Cena is that one of his rules of the gym is no music.

When I was initially on the road to try to deadlift 405 pounds, four plates, I heavily relied on music. I probably listenened to Kanye West’s YEEZUS album and black skinhead song at least 1 billion times to hype myself up. However, ultimately the downside was this; I became too dependent on the music. For example, there was a certain part the track where the drums hit super heavy, which would allow me to fully hype myself up before I attempted a one-rep max. And if I missed that spot in the track, I would no longer have the focus or the energy or the hype to attempt the new one rep max.

Also, one of the great downsides of dependency on music is this; what if you accidentally leave your headphones at home? Or you don’t have music easily readily available to you? Then you’re screwed.

Zero doubt

Also, something essential for me: before I attempt a new one rep max, in my mind and in my soul I must have zero doubt. The basic idea is that I know that I can already do it, and all that I require is focus, and maximal activation of my muscles and body at the right time.

For example, yesterday I just had a new one rep maximum for my deadlift. Yet about four or five days prior, I attempted something heavier, and failed. My prior attempt, I attempted a far heavier weight, and I was able to just get a little bit off the ground, but I was not able to fully lockout.

Therefore my strategy was simple: just reduce the overall weight by 5 kg on each side, and then I would know that I would actually be able to easily successfully fully deadlift the weight.

This is why I think it is very important for you to know what your one rep maximum is, and to actually kind of lift the weight, but fail. It gives you a benchmark of your strength, and therefore when you attempt the weight again in the future, do you know how much more or how much less to add, to modify the weight.

Or in other words, let us say you attempt a very very heavy deadlift, and you kind of get it off the ground just a little. Then give it about four or five days, and then try the deadlift again, with a little less weight. Then you should know that you will be able to do it.

Practical suggestions with weightlifting

I personally believe that the best lift is the deadlift. Why? To me it makes the most sense. You have a very very heavy weight on the ground, and it is a binary thing; you could either lift it off the ground or you cannot.

Also, from an ego perspective, physiologically you should be able to deadlift more than you can squat. Therefore, the higher the weight, the healthier it is for your ego.

Why trap bar deadlift, or why hex bar deadlift?

The reason why I am such a huge proponent of the trap bar and hex bar is this: you can lift heavier weights with it. Also, I believe that the neutral grip is anatomically superior.

Also, superior leverage. Consider how superior it is for you to be in the CENTER of the weight, without concern for your ankles, shins or legs to get in the way of the barbell.