Limits To Self-Trickery

Last Wednesday, I lifted 145 lbs for the first time in a long while. Now it was Saturday and I knew, just knew that I was strong enough to do it again. But would I let myself even try?

The clean and jerk is a hard lift to do: It takes strength, of course. But it also takes a fair amount of nerve and coordination too. It is not dangerous--you can easily push the weight away if things don't go right. But it feels like it is dangerous and the result are half-hearted attempts at a lift, which leads to failed lifts.

I thought of this trick I had read about: You tell yourself that a task is easy, or you have done it before, etc. and even though you know it is untrue, some part of you believes it and you are given a boost. Often what I will do when I have failed on a lift, is to take 5 lbs off and lift again. So, without taking any weight off, I told myself that I took weight off the bar and then did the lift at 145. Even as I was doing the lift I could not believe it worked.

It has its limits though:

Yesterday this same trick failed to work. I think I know why though. On Saturday I had not done anything tiring and had not lifted since the Wed before. Yesterday I was fasting all day, ran 4 miles AND had run 11 miles on Sunday. I was pretty weak and all the trickery in the world couldn't change that.

I did lift 140 twice though.

Update: The next Wed, Sat, Mon and Saturday after that featured 145 lb lifts. The Monday was at the hotel and I was amazed that they had a barbell that was not locked into a cage. I had to move some things around to have room to lift and felt a little rushed as well. In that session I made 145 on the clean but did not put it over my head. The rest were complete. I am (hopefully) getting into the habit of making this weight.