I am struggling a bit to get down to 212. It's where I want to be before I make my cut to the 198 class. That means I have had to put in extra training sessions in the form of conditioning and cardio. I love killing myself in weight training sessions, however, I don't enjoy pushing myself on the conditioning work.

Now I don't really mind moderate paced walking, bike work, jump rope, weight vest stuff, etc. Exercises like prowler sprints, running hills, and burpee tabata blow hard in my opinion. I have to force myself to do them.

This past weekend I told myself I would do 10 prowler sprints. After about the fourth I wanted to call it quits. I told myself to do two more for and finish up with six. When I got to six I thought to myself "Keep going you p#ssy!" So I ended up with the intended 10 sprints.

Right before writing this I was on the treadmill at 3.5 on incline for an hour. I think I wanted to call it quits after 20 minutes. It wasn't even that hard. It was probably that I was in no mood because I planned on doing burpee tabata when I got off the treadmill. I dreaded it, but I did it. Come to think of it, I went through the same thing with airdyne hiit yesterday.

It sucks that these self defeating thoughts pop into my head. The good thing is that I always beat them back. I don't think I'm special in that way, but my wife thinks I am. I grunt and swear when I lift. I yell at myself when I want to wimp out on conditioning. It seems irrational not to push myself to hit my goals.

This got me thinking, am I special? Do some people take the easy way out? I guess some have to. Maybe more than some. The one thing I know is that I never have to ask "Am I pushing myself hard enough?" I already know the answer. I'm sure this has something to do with how I held an all time world record in the bench press at one point (and no, it wasn't some half assed federation record in the sub master, half wrapped, not wearing a belt bs division).

So ask yourself "Am I pushing myself hard enough?" If you even paused, the answer is probably no. Then the bigger question is "Why not?" Isn't it irrational not to push yourself? You'll never reach your full potential taking the easy way out.

One of the things that has always helped me with competing is sports psychology. I have used positive thoughts and affirmations with great success over the years. When these self defeating thoughts crept in the other day I just started saying "215" over and over in my head and sometimes even out loud. That's my goal bodyweight for the week. It really resonated because it has helped me push through the past couple of sessions.

Now find what works for you and beat those self doubts back!

BE MORE AWESOME AND GET YOUR SFW GEAR HEREvd curl