FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

hello there!
i was wondering guys and maybe dr Scott and Altamir can give their opinion t
also on this subject..
-how can we make sure we gave our "body and soul" on the loading sets -MRs-pump sets ? what sighns we must looking for and be sure we "earned" those sets and accomplished our purpose off stimulating our muscles to grow?
Very often many people in the industry ( dorian nyates ,jordan peters,dr Scott stevenson ) talking about training hard and with a purpose and we should make sure we "milk"every sesion and EVERY set to the max in order to give our body no other way but GROW...( you dr Scott talk about advanced bodybuilders using tier 1 and be able to make tremendous gains and often they are unable to go to tier 2 due to their max effort.... )
I guess im asking how i can make sure im in that zone too?

I think that some of what you're seeking is something that is, to some degree, inborn and/or brought about via one's experiences.

You question is similar to asking why you haven't become a painter (or perhaps you are), a musician, a race car driver or delved deeply into any particular pursuits that you're not *inclined* to engage in...

Both of my parents, when the do so, exercise pretty hard. My mom has no desire to do so without a trainer there counting reps. My Dad will do it on his own, as he's (by nature and nuture) highly disciplined and knows that exercising is important for his health, and being able to spend time with my Mom doing the things they want to do together.

So, the first question is perhaps how does know that they've left it all in a set or left it all in a gym. The second question might center around how one can develop a desire to do that. In psycho-babble, this is sometimes connected to the concept of "internal motivation:" The drive to do a behavior because it's intrinsically valuable or desirable, in and of itself.

(The below are my personal thoughts and probably not in alignment with how a psychologist might see this...)

Some behavior could be internally motivated because it's rewarding per se, like eating or having sex for instance, or because it satisfies some other desire or drive that one has (and thus releases the tension between one's current state and what one desires to become). You might also do something because you feel it solidifies your sense of self (your ego).

So, someone might dig the anxiolytic, endorphin-filled sense that comes from a ball-busting workout as well as that one knows that those training sessions will bring him / her closer to a desired physique. It could also be that the ego is driving you to re-affirm your sense of not being a quitter, being "hard core" or having whatever other attributes come along with training as hard as humanly possible.

So, the question for you bill2, might come down to why in the world you'd want to train like Dorian, Jordan, me or Altamir?... What's the intrinsic reward in that?.. What's the value in that?... Why in Sam Hell would you want to torture yourself in such a way?... Most people don't exercise for the sake of exercise (health benefits, etc.) and very few want to exercise to the point of maximum self-imposed pain and agony, so why would you do such a thing?...

Another way of looking at it that I use often is differentiating between pain and suffering. Suffering is pain that one would rather not endure, whereas pain is just that, and is not suffering if one chooses it, and perhaps even desires it, because it is a means to a desirable end, be it down the road (physique) or immediate (ego satisfaction, relieving the sense of not having done something exceptional, etc.).

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So, here are some things you can ask yourself...

Did I train such that if someone had a gun to my head and was going to kill me and the people I love, I'd not have been able to get another rep?...

Did I put into my head each and every set the above?

Did I visualize my sets rep by rep and know beforehand that I'd beat the logbook and essentially do so?...

Am I consistently doing the above (esp. with the log book)?...

Am I damn certain Im' training as hard as anyone in the gym and pretty damn certina I'm training harder than anyone there?...

Wlll people look at me when I'm training and think, "My God!" or "How in the Hell?..." or "he's out of his mind?" Or "THAT's how you get shit done" or "I want to train with that sum bitch!" and the like?...

Am I scared shitless sometimes before I go to train?...

Am I doing things int he gym that would be totally socially unacceptable anywhere else in terms of displays of aggression / focus, etc?...

Am I feeling like I might puke, pass out, shit myself, etc. now n' again?...

Am I most definitely in an altered state of consciousness at times, where there's no chance of doing higher order processing or having a conversation of any depth whatsoever?

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Hope this helps, Bud.

The short version though, really, is that you likely either have this killer instinct in you and it needs to be brought out (which should be easy) or it's not there such that you simply need to express this because it's part of (as Altamir said) who you are.

-S