So I just watched the show the Apprentice with my wife and heard country music star John Rich say something along the lines of “My mind willed my body to over come it and I did.” This was in reference to him lifting a heavy generator for their task.

I thought to myself “Hmmm. That is kind of like what legendary strongman Slim the Hammer man Farmer said to me which is something he also said to uber Strongman Dennis Rogers, which was something his teacher the Mighty Atom told him, and is something that Dave Whitley told me is ‘the real secret’.” It was strange to hear it coming from the mouth of a musician.

It was basically that you have to treat the feat like failure is absolutely, positively NOT an option. You see his will, overcame his lack of physical strength and he lifted the generator up. Yeah it might not be the greatest feat of strength but the lesson is there nonetheless.

You see there is a lot going on under the surface. If you ever attempt something that is extremely difficult there will always be those nagging voices that tell you the weight is too heavy, or that you aren’t strong enough or whatever. I have no idea why this fear exists but it does. Belief, true belief in yourself can overcome this.

Think about what true belief has accomplished. It wasn’t that long ago when people thought no one would ever run a 4 minute mile. Roger Bannister did it, then bam! not long after that others started doing it as well. Was it because there was a sudden improvement in our genetics? I don’t think so. Was it because they uncovered some super secret training program? No. What happened was that it was proved to not be impossible which made people believe that they could do it too. It was the belief that changed. Nothing else.

Now how can you apply this to whatever it is that you do training wise. Not that long ago I was teaching my clients how to do a one handed overhead press. I handed her a kettlebell that was heavier then she had ever used before. We put it in the rack position, and she feels the weight of it and says “No way.” I took it back, looked her in the eyes and said “You can do it. I know you can…now go ahead and do it.” I sometimes jokingly say that I am always right and if I am wrong then reality will shift and make me right. Well either reality shifted, or her belief shifted. It doesn’t really matter to me which one it was. The only thing that mattered was that she mustered up the tension and it went up no problem. Her response as she got the 16kg over her head after only having trained with me a month was “Holy shit!”. One thing I would like to add was that I had just taught her how to press 2 days prior. Not too bad huh?

Now I’ve bent pressed 106lbs. Yeah there are people that have done more and maybe that’s one of the reasons I was able to do it. The previous training sessions I had done 32kgs, 36kgs, 40kgs, a stacked 44kgs since I don’t own a kettlebell in that weight. Me being able to do those built up my belief that 48kgs (the 106lb beast) was not only possible but was going to happen and happen soon. I’m certain I did this because I was sure I could.

The question is how to cultivate your belief system. How would you do it? Would you go to bed every night telling yourself you are a pile of trash and you need to train to get better? Well if that’s how it’s done I’m sure I am doing it wrong. What I do is before I go to sleep I’ll say to myself “It’s just a matter of time baby.” It led me up to a 106lb pistol squat as well. (I don’t have footage but I have witnesses).

If a mother who never lifted a weight in her life can lift a car off her children, don’t you think you have that power also? Take that one to heart.

Now the more you do something the better you get at it. That’s the basic rule of efficiency and the basis behind synaptic facilitation (greasing the groove for those not fluent in geek speak). Basically that teaches your nervous system that something isn’t too bad and it makes it better at doing it because you have taught it that by doing it many times easily. So can that concept be applied to your beliefs? Only you can decide if that is possible (if you don’t think that is possible you just completely missed what I was talking about). Convince yourself that you can do something. Practice convincing yourself and you will get better at it. Practice accessing that part of your brain that one strong dude called “the crazy switch” and you can become stronger then you presently believe.

I am a fitness professional residing in Hopatcong, NJ, who is dedicated to making myself and my clients as strong as (or stronger than) they look and to look beyond sexy. I helps my clients drop body fat quickly, gain strength quickly and I use kettlebells as my main tool and the RKC system as his main methodology. I am a personal trainer with kettlebell fitness bootcamps in Morris and Sussex County NJ. This fitness blog is where I have become known as a straight shooter with a unique writing style and I have been known to force companies to take videos down where they teach unsafe and ineffective technique with just a couple written words. It has become an inside joke that I don’t wear shirts but that is mainly because I have built up my physique along the lines of a Greek statue and exhibit it proudly.

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