In life, and especially when weight training, people are going to tell you something can't be done. They are going to look you in the face and tell you that you cant do it, and if you are like a lot of people, you will be disheartened by it. You may even drop the goal completely.

However, as a reader of elitefts™, you are not like most people. You are a dedicated athlete, with a deep desire to get strong(er)—something others see as simply working out and gaining muscle. Therefore, it should be easy to ignore the negativety about your training or lifestyle. What do they know, anyway? The naysayers can't magically see your inner potential or feel what drives you, and they certainly aren't there when you are pushing with everything you have to do just one more rep. So, do not listen to them. Do not let them tell you what you can or cannot do. And do not let anyone tell you that your goals are impossible.

You may not know it, but at one time 500-pound bench press was doubted. The very thought of a human being pressing 500 pounds was laughed at.  A handful of men were even so close that they could practically taste it, but no one could get that 500-pound mark. The mental barrier was too high. Then, on a cold November day in 1950, someone did it. Doug Hepburn, born cross-eyed and with a clubfoot, shook the world. Five hundred pounds by a human? People were astounded. The limit was passed after so long, especially by someone seemingly genetically condemned from birth.

It was not long before a handful of men, who were stuck just below the 500-pound mark, passed the barrier too.

Nowadays, you can go into almost any college and find an athlete who can bench 500-pounds or very near to it. Sure, training and nutrition has advanced in the last half a century, but most importantly, the limits of the mind have as well. You see, as thinking beings, if we see something done, or know someone who has done it, us doing it seems ten times more possible. In short, we need heroes. No, not the Bruce Wayne-type of hero from the new batman movie, but real heroes—everyday men and women who push the limits on what we, as humans, can do and set all of our bars higher than ever before.

Your Super Power

However, what is a hero without his secret weapon or power? That is what allows him to help and inspire people worldwide. Well, my friend, you have a superpower already. It is inside of all of us: our minds. With positive thinking and the desire and determination to overcome any obstacle in your way, you can reach any goal you desire (lifting wise or elsewhere in your life).

Positive Thinking  Techniques to Apply

The first step will be applying positive thinking to your training and your everyday life. When Bill Pearl went to bed at night, he would say, "I will wake up bigger, stronger, and more muscular." When he ate a meal, he would THINK about the food building muscle. In turn, Frank Zane practiced meditation daily and recited mantras to improve his mental attitude and focus. You often probably hear about how imagining yourself completing the set will aid you in actually doing so, right? Well, I am telling you again, it will. Try any one of these mental drills and tell me if you do not get some kind of benefit.

  • Mediation: Upon waking, think about all you have or will do today. How you will surpass your training expectations, and how you will become bigger, stronger, and more muscular? Mediation is a vast world, and if you enjoy it, you can use it to relieve stress for the rest of your life.
  • Visualization: Before your workout or the hardest set, visualize yourself completing the entire process exactly as planned. Visualize doing one rep, the two, then three, and so on...struggling on the last rep but completing it. Visualize the thrill of success.
  • Mantra: A daily mantra can bring positivity to your life and push out the negative. To test this, just repeat a mantra in the morning such as, "I will use every opportunity today to grow stronger and bigger, I will eat to fuel my body and not my cravings, and I will train harder then ever before."

We all have setbacks or plateaus in our training, but we need to stay positive to keep improving. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. Maybe your progress has slowed, but use that opportunity to find new training techniques that work for you.

When I was younger, I became terribly sick with a chronic stomach problem that lasted for years. For all those years, it seemed like a complete curse. However, what left me weighing 120 pounds fully grown inspired me to begin weight training to correct what the illness took from me. I trained harder then anyone I knew, and in a year my bench tripled from 100 pounds to 300 pounds. Now, several few years later, I am fully recovered at nearly 200 pounds and with a 27.5 inch waist and a bench closer to 400 pounds. With positive thinking and dedication, anyone can do the same.  Given a chance, and if you stay positive, weight training really will change your life for the better. It improved mine tenfold. So, you can be a hero. Your own hero.