What happens during a one rep-max lift, a lift that demands all the effort you are capable of exerting to perform one repetition? In my experience, successfully completing the lift is won before the lift physically begins.
“Do or do not; there is no try” – Bruce Lee
We will use the example of a maximal effort deadlift. First, I position my feet where I want them, and angle them to create the greatest mechanical advantage possible. Then I make sure the rest of my body is positioned, tight, and prepared. Using my diaphragm I flood my lungs with air, grab the bar and rip it off the ground as hard as I can. However, two things must occur before the weight moves through the entire range of motion. First, the body must have been strengthened enough to withstand the pressure and tension created by its interaction with such a load. Second, a maximal weight repetition will never be completed if there exists doubt in the mind of the lifter. A barrier that will prevent the weight from being moved, despite the adequate physical preparedness of the body. There must exist either no doubt at all, or solely beliefs of affirmation that the lift will be completed. Anything less becomes a temporarily insurmountable wall that can not be broken, only removed.
Once those two prerequisites are established, I am ready to pull. In this instance in my mind I am either calm, or exploding with thoughts of tearing the weight from the floor (for me neither is preferable over the other, sometimes I need one and sometimes the other). What does stay constant though, is the supreme focus and alteration in awareness that occurs right before pulling. External stimuli are perceived, but are immediately overridden by the focus on the task at hand. Everything becomes still and silent, the well rehearsed motion begins, I pull with everything I can give; at least this is how it should be. But do I? This is not a question I can answer yet, as I can not say for certain that I am giving everything I can.
Once the pulling begins, there is no longer any way to alter the outcome. I can use my mind and flood it with thoughts positively affirming my successful lift, or telling me I can do it, etc. But those won’t change anything in the heat of the moment, I learned that long ago. Now, instead of letting these thoughts in, I enter a void. In typical day to day activities, I hear sounds, see things, feel objects, observe thoughts in my mind. Continuous stimuli and entertainment surrounds me. I notice a great deal of it. However in this void, none of that exists. Now “I” am aware of my body and the bar, as a unit, moving. At most, if the lift drags out, I may notice how the bar moves (I type “I” because in this instance it seems to no longer refer to the entity that is my body, but rather an observer that is witnessing from within the body).
From the outside, were I to watch myself, I would see a body, attached through its hands to a heavily loaded barbell, contracted to the point of implosion, muscles bulging, face grimacing and clearly focused on fighting the resistance with everything the body is capable of giving. So much strain and effort that it would tire me out just watching. At first, determination, when the motion becomes difficult, maybe a look of hope, or of doubt. Beyond the sticking point, a sense of victory emanates, accomplishment, success, relief. The single lift becomes a myriad of single events placed one after the other, each with its own individual emotions and story to tell.
However, my experience of the same, single lift, is practically opposite to what is seen from the outside. Once the bar is set in motion, there is no tension, there is no contraction of muscle, there is no pain, there is nothing. No feeling lies in this moment. A simple awareness of the body and the movement it is performing. Eyes watching from somewhere beyond what the body senses. “I” enter the void, a space detached from the physical senses of the world around. I hear nothing, I feel nothing, I merely observe the “struggle” between the body and the weight. The struggle that I don’t feel, but that can clearly be seen by those watching. I am one of those watching, but from the inside. I am the body that is struggling, yet I am not struggling. Between do and do not, there is no room for trying.