I recently lifted in the 2019 USPA National Championships where I totaled 1767 in wraps at 198 via a 655 squat, 451 bench and 661 deadlift. Next up is an off-season and picking a meet.
Besides walking through my garage, I haven't been inside of a gym this week. Zero desire to do so. My body feels great as a result!
Last weekend at the meet I had an interesting conversation with Ryan and Cody. We were talking about the broad spectrum of attitudes you see in the warm up room. None of them necessarily bad, or better than any other, just a lot of different ones. You see all kinds and plenty on the angry and amped up end of the spectrum. Ryan said something to the effect of "and then you have Dan over here, hippie stoned and as polite as I have ever seen him be."
While that hasn't always been true, its something I am working really hard to do on game day.
Some of it is intentional
I don't want to say it is faked, but some of that attitude is intentional. Outside of just a couple minutes prior to taking the platform, I want my level of arousal to be as low as possible. Staying up high all day is exhausting and in my opinion a complete waste of energy. I also know that on game day my temper fuse is super short so I'm intentionally polite to avoid an outburst.
I'm not going to lie and say I haven't lost it in a warm up room, because I absolutely have, but I work hard to keep the intensity low in the back. I don't want to waste energy back there. "Normal face" goes on and I try to maintain it.
Some of it is natural
I love powerlifting. I love being around people who are powerlifting. Being at meets makes me happy mannnnn. Seriously, I just like being in the warm up room, whether it is for my own lifting or helping someone else. I really enjoy it, so its easy to soak up the moment and have a decent attitude about the day.
It does get turned off
Usually when I am about 4 lifters out until a couple lifters after me, I take the guard down and let the arousal rise up. I want to channel all of that energy into the nine attempts that matter and keep it out of the warm up room as much as possible. I know this doesn't work for everyone. Some people need to stay up at least a little bit all day. For me, I am far more successful and focused when I force calm most of the day and save the energy for the platform.
