Optimal Training State: this is the one thing that I think is best learned under the bar. By optimal training state I’m referring to the mental state and level of arousal in which you're training throughout your core lifts all the way into your accessory work. An optimal training state means you are aroused enough to put the required effort into your training but not over-aroused to the point where you can’t focus on what you need to focus on. Many times, I see lifters that don’t train hard enough physically but train too hard emotionally. They expend a lot of emotional energy without the matched physical exertion (which is the part that will get you stronger).
Lifters get too psyched up- they get under the bar to squat, and they never get set up right because they were focused on getting crazy, not on their cues. This carries over to all their work sets. They weren’t focusing on keeping their back tight and pushing out on the floor- they just got under the bar and went for it, thinking that the most important thing to do was attack the weight. I know the risks of over-arousal from experience. I was one of the guys that used to bang my head against the bar and have my forehead bleed- on training sets. It took years of me doing it and Louie pointing out how stupid it was and how it was doing more harm than good to get me to stop. Training is for reinforcing and building technique- not ignoring it. If what you're doing mentally is reinforcing bad technique, you have a long road ahead. It's only going to be amplified when you get to the competition.
The most common technique flaws I see due to over-arousal are: back not being tight on the squat, hip position in the deadlift, and shoulder position for benching. Many times this goes unnoticed because the lifter makes the weight or the lifters in the gym are too busy giving high fives, praise about how awesome the approach was, and posting dat shit on the gram. Sometimes I think they look to their phones to solve problems that lie within themselves.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't be emotionally prepared, but the level of focus should be the same for every lift, from the bar all the way up to your top working sets. Instead of emotional hype, you should have emotional focus- determined to make sure that every rep is solid and fundamentally sound.
You can only learn about optimal arousal under the bar since you need heavy enough weights to create a certain training environment. In other words, you're not going to get psyched up with 50%. You need to be able to practice under heavy loads and determine where your optimal training state is. This is actually a really good reason to utilize the max effort method but we'll save that for another post. You have to be able to think when you strain- that's where you're going be able to make corrections to your technique. Otherwise, you're just going to strain and your brain is going to go blank and you will miss the weight or reinforce shitty technique. When you learn to think through this, you will process adjustments and make them before missing the weights. Optimally, these will become automatic.
When it comes to your state of arousal before and during a lift, there should be a difference between your training max and your competitive max. Outside of tapering and peaking for the meet, there's also a different mental aspect and higher level of arousal come meet time. Unless you’ve taken a bunch of Xanax, you should be more amped up on meet day than you have been in training. This is fine and good during a meet. You have a long day of hitting numbers you’ve never hit before. Your arousal level will change when it comes to a competition but if you have the repetitions and experience training within that optimal state, whatever you do in training will carry over to the meet. If you're maintaining your form and technique while straining in the gym, you're going to be able to do that in a competition.
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