Saturday, It's my accessory bench day— I have to take 305 for two sets of 25. It's a beautiful blustery midwest morning, and I'm feeling decent upon arriving at the S5 (the new shiny motherfucker). I walk in drop my bag on the bench, talk a little shit and get to warming up.

Across the way I see Dave whos trying his hardest to become bionic and Ted whos fresh off a bicep surgery loading up the SSB. Two guys busted to shit on a Saturday morning— training, you have to be motivated by that, or you just don't get this. Also in my vision, a guy no one knows, so even if I used his real name, it wouldn't matter but I won't.

"JD"

So, this guy JD shuffles his feet up to the squat rack, and 30 minutes later he's in his fancy little space suit and works up to about 85% —being a couple of weeks out he shuts it down. I won't talk about speed I don't think I have the vocabulary capacity to begin to explain that "speed" in words. On to his deadlift opener, this is where the magic happens.

JD's best pull previous is 405-415 or something pitiful like that. He takes 435 and pulls it like trash, but he pulled it never the less— I say 500 today. JD looked me right in my face and said " I can't do that, " and I lose my shit- mind you Dave and his fake hips and Ted with his lousy jerk-off arm are loading up plates and killing the infirmary method 30 feet away. I'm paraphrasing here, but I'm pretty sure I called him a pussy and told him to put a fucking plate on and pull 500.

Dave must have heard all the commotion and comes over and verbatim tells him " what the fuck is this pussy bitch shit I cant— if you're going to think like that don't even come here" My laughing hysterically probably didn't help. Jd being two weeks out is running hot- you can see it— he is now sitting on the bench 10 feet in front of the bar loaded with 500 pounds. He has a look on his face I've never seen; I like it, he also looks like he wants to punch me in the face, I love that.

At the chalk bowl (god I love that feeling) he chalks up, walks to the bar Dave yells at him and makes him rechalk. I decided to make sure to let him know he is a pussy if he doesn't pull it, Jd grabs the bar-he pulls it like absolute dog shit, but he pulled it! He sat on that bench and visualized himself pulling that for ten minutes, and earned himself a 60-70 pound pr. Powerlifting is a sport where an ounce of doubt will crush you like a  disposable foil turkey pan.

Testicular Fortitude

All the superstitions, good luck charms, and lucky socks won't do shit for you-you need to see yourself executing the lift, and if you are leading up to a meet or a max effort day, you better eat sleep and breathe that shit. Play it over in your mind hundreds if not thousands of times over and over and over to the point you almost feel like you've done it already; it'll pay off trust me— I've tricked myself into some pretty cool shit lol.

"I can't"  that is a terrible fucking phrase, to me, that's the easy way out—I'd rather take something for a ride and fail knowing I had the mindset and balls to try. I feel I should say this before one of you cynical dweebs start talking about knowing your limits and all that shit pussies use as excuses to not push the envelope, blow me.

Flip Side

The mental aspect of powerlifting isn't only about execution, train 20 weeks, spend money on food, sups— spend hours upon hours away from family and friends, and shit the bed on meet day. You will need to be mentally fit to accept defeat and regroup and do it all over again, knowing it could all be "for nothing" this time around as well.

Tear something, blow something off the bone, sounds morbid to you, well guess what it's always one rep away, and this too will take mental toughness. There are two parts to this, you'll need the balls to accept it and get under the bar and give it a ride, and you'll also have to have some significant mental toughness to come back from an injury. Let's be honest— a lot of people would skip training over a sore throat these days, but some will duct tape themselves together just to train, it's usually the guy that beats you every meet.

When it comes to powerlifting, you are taking your body through the ringer in pursuit of finding your real potential as a strength athlete. You need to train your mind to follow suit with your body. You have to be mentally tough, and that comes through preparation, put in the work, believe in yourself —say your prayers and eat your vitamins, annnd I lost it, fuck—moral of the story don't be a mental mind fuck.