Mind Games and Music

The good news is my safety catch works.

New year. Peaceful morning. I had breakfast with a close friend who just came back from performing the Hajj a few weeks ago. After breakfast I loaded up my bar. The other day I barely did a set of back squats. So today I tried again.

Warmup of 20kg x 12 reps. A breeze. Then 30kg x 8 reps. A bit challenging but nothing major. Then I loaded up the bar to what I thought was 40kg. I put the bar on my back, the tried to squat. Went down, didn't get up. The crude safety catch saved the day.

I was confused. What the heck was that all about? I looked at the bar again. Oh. Sheesh. I loaded 50kg instead of 40kg. Duh. I took out the excess weight and 40kg wasn't too bad.

But my mind was playing games again. I started doubting myself. I felt scared of the bar. It took me quite a while to psych myself up. But once I started squatting everything was okay. I did okay. Although I know I can do better. I think my neighbours think I'm crazy because I was shouting at myself. Trying to give my self motivation. Part of the pitfall of solo training.

And during times like this, when you need some extra psychological push, playing good background music is actually important. Back when I was training at the Bangsar gym, they played 60s Malay pop songs, songs by Take That and other songs by various pop tarts and tartlets. Thank god they didn't get Bieber Fever in the gym. But I didn't really care about songs then because I had a trainer to push me along.

Training solo's a bit different now. Today, as a way to psych myself up, I chose to put on Eminem's Not Afraid, Kanye West's Stronger, Breaking Benjamin's Let's Start a Riot and Guns N Roses' version of Hair of the Dog. Not too shabby for a training soundtrack, if you ask me.

What kind of music do you put on when you're training?

p/s
This was today's workout;

Back Squat

20kg x 12 reps (warmup)
30kg x 8 reps
35kg x 8 reps
40kg x 7 reps (2 sets)
40kg x 8 reps

Overhead Press

20kg x 8 reps (warmup)
22.5 kg x 6 reps
22.5kg x 7 reps (3 sets)