But nothing will compare to the day I saw one man, with the look of anger and suppressed adolescent sadness in his eyes, smack another man as hard as he could on his back.

When I did my first powerlifting competition, the onslaught of “rituals” I witnessed were…well…interesting…

 -Chugging bottles of honey

-Running around the gym with sweat suits, sweat pants, sweat shirts and then a letterman jacket on top

-Monster drinks

-An aroma that can’t be matched (and not a good one, either)

 But nothing will compare to the day I saw one man, with the look of anger and suppressed adolescent sadness in his eyes, smack another man as hard as he could on his back. I was shocked, humored, but more importantly puzzled as to how this was a normal “thing” to experience at a powerlifting meet. But as time went on, my questions were answered as I was the one that wanted to be smacked not just in the back, but even on the face. Although it seemed like a gimmick or another way to seek attention, it was a ritual performed by lifters to help elevate their level of arousal in order to destroy monster weights!

Does this mean that for you to be your strongest, you need to take lashings from another individuals? No, that’s not the case…but it is important that when you consider the movement you’re performing and the outcome you desire, you have to consider the level of arousal you tend to engage before the movement happens.

 Before we continue, let’s backtrack to a word I had just mentioned…arousal. No, our use of the term “arousal” isn’t in the same sense as your frat days back at kappa alpha delta. Arousal, in the context of weight lifting, would be defined as the level of engagement and excitation of our anticipation towards performing a movement. To understand this concept, I have supplied a very famous visual aid used by many to describe this topic in depth:

This graph shows how the level of arousal also has a direct relationship with your performance as well. Let’s talk about two tasks: putting a golf ball and performing a 1 rep max deadlift. For golfing, it would be ideal to have calmness, focus, and moving the club with precision to aim for your target. To perform a one rep max on deadlift would require an intense approach, grasping the bar with a tight grip and yanking that weight off the ground with a ton of piss and power. This graph differentiates these two movements as when you’re performing a complex task like putting a golf ball, you need more of a balance of calmness and focus, while performing a simple task like the deadlift could allow the lifter to apply their levels of anxiousness and nervousness towards delivering a viscous pull of the ground while having a complete disregard for their body. This is why when we see movements occurring, we see various types of lifters and these different types of rituals, just like smacking a mans back.

 Because we are a group of individuals who aspire to sling heavy loads wherever we go, we need to have this high level of arousal to elevate our performance to a new level. This could range from physical triggers like slapping the back to mental stimulation regarding thoughts of warfare, combat or anything else that could increase your aggression. Major movements performed in the world of powerlifting are squat, bench, and deadlift. These movements could be classified as more “simplistic” and could allow for higher levels of arousal, while Olympic movements like cleans and jerks could lean slightly towards “complex” so stimulating yourself to hard could take away from your focus and attention to detail. It’s a conversation that could last for days to those who are true ambassadors in the world of strength training.

 It also falls back to our previous topic of “mental imagery”. For you to seek a higher level of excitation and engagement regarding the preparation for your movement, you need to be engaged in mental imagery as well as seeing yourself be SUCCESSFUL! Adding these two concepts together could be a vicious pair that exceeds the reputation of Brown and Houston. Get out there and start elevating your performance beyond the physicality of your sessions. Get pumped, get mad, prepare yourself mentally and yank that bar harder than you’ve ever imagined! I need slabs of beef to intimidate my enemy, make sure you meet the job description…