This weeks email is coming a day early because I want to help you prepare for and navigate testing week! You put in so much hard work over the last 6 weeks, I want to make sure you have all the resources possible to have a good week of PR’s.
Lets start off by letting you know what we’re testing and when, I usually don’t do this but its good for you to mentally prepare for the physical challenge. Here is this weeks list of tests… SO EXCITING! (insert Will Ferrels Elf screaming “Saaaaaaanta”)
Monday- 1 rep Max Front Squat
Tuesday- 3 rep Max Bench Press
Friday- 1 rep Max Squat Clean and “Diane”
Let’s start off with what you can do today to set the tone for the week. Carb Load – I would add an extra 100-200 grams of carbs throughout the day today from pasta, rice, potatoes and fruit. Making sure your glycogen stores are maxed out will help your muscles contract at their absolute best.
Then I would take a 30-60 min walk in the sun, bloodflow promotes well being and recovery and if you follow it up with 20-30mins of mobility on your tightest joints your body will thank you! Today at some point I would the write down what numbers you’d like to hit on each lift and visualize yourself doing it. Tonight I would take a 20 min Epsom salt bath to help your whole body wind down and relax before bed. Make sure you get to bed early and get a solid 8 hours.
The day of, make sure you warm up well and with intention, play your favourite music and if Tyler plays a poo song slap him, unless that somehow gets you going, then you should see a therapist. We want your warm up to get your nervous system fired up without tiring you out. As you build up in weight your intensity should increase and you should get more aggressive with your lifts and self talk. Failure is NOT an option.
When its time to PR you gotta be in the zone, dialed in, excited and agressive, if your nervous thats GREAT, it means you CARE! You should care, use that energy, and you get that weight.
Supplement wise your best bet is Caffeine, it will prime the nervous system and you feel less pain when you use caffeine. Coffee works great or 200mg of a caffeine tablet works wonders.
One of the best books I ever read when I was fighting was called Mind Gym, it was all about the mental side of performance and it taught me so much. Your mind can be your biggest friend or biggest enemy. You need to understand that we all come into a competition or fight or PR lift attempt with our emotions and mentality on a scale of 1-10. Some of us have a hard time rising to the occasion and we sit at a 2/10, those people typically are the flight type during a flight or fight situation. Not good for PR’s, some people are the fight typer and come in at 10/10, these people usually make dumb technical mistakes because they’re too ampend up and have an adrenaline dump. You have to find your 6-7/10 where you have an attack mentality while being under control. I learned that from a young age and its served me so well.
I did a Snatch cycle leading up to a comp against OWA(Ontario weightlifting association) President Mike Miller and we went head to head. Do you know during my prep I didn’t miss one snatch attempt over 8 weeks, not one, then I destroyed him on comp day by 12 kilos. I snatched 280 pounds breaking the Canadian National record for 35-39 year olds. That was all mindset.
Come prepared this week and you will crush! Im so excited for you!!
Congratulations to 6amer Rob Weir for WINNING our Halloween Costume contest!!! Wolverine Bench Pressing made my day! I got a supplement prize pack for you Rob. Thank you to everyone who dressed up and joined in on the fun, being Coach Ty for the day was absolutely exhausting, his energy is unmatched and his style cannot be touched.
Have a great SUNDAY!!
Coach Dan