ON LIES

 

As much as I am a fan of living authentically, I think it’s worthwhile to discuss the value of lies and deception as it relates to getting bigger and stronger.  Before you begin thinking I’m talking about “e-stating” and rounding your bench to the nearest 100lbs when people ask, or calling yourself 12% bodyfat when you’ve got male breast tissue and love handles (or how, somehow, NO ONE on the internet is ever above 20% bodyfat), I’m not talking about lying to other people: I’m talking about lying to yourself.  And, of course, in order to appreciate that, one must have an understanding of the “self” being a separate entity than the body and, in many cases, the mind.  With that deliciously psychotic sounding intro, let me dive in to when and how lies and deception can be valuable for the trainee looking to get bigger and stronger.

 

The catalyst for this post comes from a recently performed 301 rep set of 135lbs on the high handle trap bar pull.

 

 

I’ve received MANY questions regarding that set, the primary one being “why”, which seems obvious to me: it makes me bigger and stronger.  But “how” is the second most popular question, and THAT is where lies and deception kick in.   Yes, I DID need to be strong and fit to accomplish this set, but many individuals are strong and fit (and strongER and fittER than me) and find themselves unable to accomplish sets like these.  That is because these people, most likely, lack the ability to lie to themselves like I can.

 

My previous PR on this exercise was 251 reps, set on Thanksgiving morning, in an attempt to make some room for some nutritional debauchery.  I felt VERY good that morning, and the 251 reps moved rather smoothly.  The day I set 301 did NOT feel that way.  I hit fatigue far earlier in the set than I did previously, and by rep 100 already knew I had made a mistake.  And that is when I told myself my first lie: I was only going to do 150 reps that day, and I would make it for it by taking fewer breaks at the top of the rep.  Well that was a lie, because we got to 150 reps and kept on trucking.   Observe my use of “we”, because yes, I DO consider my body, mind and self all different entities, and we’re all forced to work together on this awful group project I’ve come up with.

Like this, but more psychotic

 

But that first lie got me to 150 reps.  In the absence of that lie, I most likely would have quit at 100 reps, because it sucked at that point and I didn’t wanna do it.  I told myself we’d stop at 150 reps KNOWING it was a lie, but my body and mind can be pretty stupid, and they bit.  So 150 happened and reps kept coming, and I told myself “look: you’ve done 150.  What’s 50 more at that point?  That’ll be close to your first PR of 212, and then you’ll know you got good training stimulus”.  200 happened and I told myself “Are you really going to get to 200 reps and NOT set a PR?  It doesn’t have to be 300 today, but get at LEAST 252.”  252 happened and I told myself it was going to be 270: split the different.  And, of course, am I really going to do 270 and not hit 300?  And the cherry on top, of course, being, that ending at 300 JUST because it’s 300 is really stupid, so 1 more rep happened.

 

These sort of lies and broken promises are incredibly regular features in my training, and I know many endurance athletes that have laid claim to a similar approach.  The truth is: in times of duress, people are more willing to believe deception so long as it’s HAPPY deception.  People create more hope in dire situations, because it’s the only way to continue onward.  You can take advantage of that fact by openly deceiving yourself and having yourself believe YOUR OWN LIES.  It’s madness, but sanity never got anyone jacked.

See!

 

Other common lies in training: breaking high rep sets into smaller rep clusters.  A 20 rep squat is awful: counting 5 reps 4 times?  So much more manageable.  You’re at rep 12, but you’re TELLING yourself you only have 3 reps left rather than 8.  And you get those 3 and tell yourself you only have 5 reps left.  And Dan John turned me on to the idea of counting DOWN rather than up, which I found works really well too.  Running on a treadmill?  Keep telling yourself you’ll stop after the next quarter mile.  On a diet?  Promise yourself a delicious cheat meal at the END of the week.  Soul breaking conditioning workout?  Just 1 more round.  They key is, YOU have to know when you’re lying.  If you lie to yourself but then actually do what you lied about well, quite frankly, it was no longer a lie.  You told the truth, and that sabotaged your results.

 

Don’t feel bad about lying to your body like that either: your body sucks and lies to you ALL the time.   It’s always telling you that it CAN’T do any more, that it has reached its limit, that if you keep going something will break, or you’ll puke, or etc etc.  Bullcrap.  Your body has SO much more to give when you start pushing it.  Anyone that has ever done a set of Poundstone curls knows that the biceps start cramping around rep 30, but that, if you keep pushing it, the cramping goes away around rep 50-60.  So many trainees, saying they’re going to puke, upon being given permission to go do so, find themselves coming up dry.  The body lies to you because it wants to UNDERperform, because the body is lazy and only concerned about self-preservation and maintaining the status quo.  It’s not at all interested in getting bigger and stronger.  The body is a hedonist: it’s up to YOU to force it to do the things that will result in growth.  And that’s going to take a lot of lies and deception.

Even the great ones do it

 

And that’s no lie.