I have been doing volume training and bodybuilding for about ten years now. Like anything you do for a decade, there are ebbs and flows. People in the fitness community frequently talk about “the plateau” as it pertains to physical goals whether they are weight loss, body fat loss, muscle or strength growth or anything else. Simply put, if you push long and hard enough eventually you get to a point where no matter how hard you push you can’t make any more progress on your goals. This is the time when you need to step back, reassess your system, make the necessary changes and push.
However, the physical plateau is not the only one. Today I want to talk to you about the mental plateau. Lifting daily, constantly refocusing your goals, constantly changing your routines, constantly tweaking your diet…to be honest, it is fucking exhausting. We do it because we are passionate about it, because there is a fire in us and this is how we choose to channel that passion, that fire. Then one day you are in the gym and you are lifting or you are in the shower and massaging an aching quad or you are turning down some pizza and you think to yourself, what the fuck am I doing here.
The worst cause of this mental plateau is the body(builder) dysmorphic disorder. A common truism in this game is that the day you pick up the weights is the day you are never big enough, never lean enough and never strong enough.
Arnold looked in the mirror after this pose and felt he looked like a pile of shit. Keep that in mind.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said “I’d look in the mirror after I won one Mr. Olympia after another and think, “How did this pile of shit win?” At his absolute prime, while winning Mr. O award year after year, Arnold looked in the mirror and was disgusted by what he saw. Everyone in the bodybuilding game knows this feeling. We don’t talk about it. It is a dirty secret. When we do mention it we are laughed at or people get annoyed.
Like all people in the game I am guilty of this feeling frequently. Like the hand calluses, the DOMS and the excessive piles of gym clothes it comes with membership into this fantastic though strange life. Often times this feeling leads to that mental plateau. You may be lifting and lifting and lifting, your form is on point, your mind-muscle connection tight, your diet is locked in, you are hydrated, strong and still you are looking in the mirror and, like Arnold, thinking you look like a piece of shit. All of a sudden that mind-muscle connection is harder, the feeling of not wanting to go to the gym is stronger and even when there nothing feels 100% right. This is the point where you start talking, maybe to others or maybe just to yourself, about saying “fuck it” and just giving it up for a bit.
So what do you do with this feeling? The truth is, it is just the dark side to the passion that drives you. It is made of the same stuff as it were. The reason bodybuilders will always feel this way is because the incredible amount of intensity and passion it takes to push the way we push, take no shortcuts, bring our bodies to the brink of absolute exhaustion until our muscles and mind both fail and we are left to crawl out of the gym has to find its own balance. You can’t just have that level of intensity without it having a darkside. The casual gym goer won’t have this problem. This is a problem that comes from someone who only knows one way to do things….with every fiber in their being.
Truth
Arnold goes on to say, “There was always something lacking. I could always find a million things wrong with myself and that’s what got me back into the gym – because I started out with that mentality.” When you hit that mental plateau, when you suffer the body(builder) dysmorphic disorder, the trick is to focus, rather than fight it. Come on guys, you know the truth. No amount of hearing “you are crazy, you look so fit and strong” will help. No amount of thinking to yourself “this is all in your head, just stop being an ass and get out there” will fix it. The best we can do is to do what got us into this game in the first place, take that huge amount of energy, positive or negative, and focus that shit on the iron. Keep pushing.
The truth is, nothing will ever be good enough and, for what it’s worth, that is a good thing. If something is ever good enough you will stop pushing. In the meantime, remember what brought you into this life. Remember why you love this game. Remember that there is only one place to bring that energy and to put it to positive use and that is the gym floor.
I love this game and I love this life, but pretending that that isn’t something we forget from time to time is a
My progress as of last week.
disservice. I love how strong I feel and what the iron has done to my body, but pretending that, like Arnold, we don’t look in the mirror and see a piece of shit from time to time is a disservice. Bodybuilding is an honest man’s sport. You can’t cheat. You can’t fake it. 30 pounds is 30 pounds and 20 inches is 20 inches. As bodybuilders, as honest men, let’s tell it like it is. We are all a bunch of weak ass, scrawny, fat boys. That is what is going to be waiting for us in the mirror at times. Treat that image like a squat. The weight of it pushes you down, sure. But it is only when you are down, ass to grass, that you can tighten you core, squeeze those glutes and power yourself right back up to the starting point.
Keep on that grind fellas and remember these two immutable facts. Weighing ourselves down is the only way gains are possible and, in
In bodybuilding failure is the goal.
bodybuilding, unlike in any other sport, failure is the goal. Without failure, we can’t grow the way we want to. So be weighed down and make sure you fail so long as you remember to focus that weight and failure in such a way that it makes you better.
For my own part, my past few weeks of feeling I have hit a mental plateau seem to be over. My mind-muscle connection is stronger than ever in my lifts. I am feeling energized and when on the gym floor I am pushing like my life depended on it. Have you hit mental plateaus before? If so, how did you get through them? Let me know in the comments section below and, as always, keep that grind on team. This weekend is Memorial Day? Are you beater ready?