How much of squatting is mental do you think? mental toughness/psychological

[jstar007]

I read a lot about the connection between mental willpower and hard exercise. Especially with bb squats even more so because i feel like it's one of the hardest exercises. It's uncomfortable, feels heavy when you have a heavy bar on your back, you have to hold your breath in when you go down plus it's almost painful to push up. Not real pain like a bad pain but an uncomfortable feeling like you have to use all your strength and a fear of maybe not trying to get up or feeling you may not get up etc...

Do you find that there is a strong correlation between mental toughness/willpower and doing bb squats? The more weight you add on the more willpower it seems to take?

[anonymous]

You think?

[nickyfondz]

F&*% yeah dude. Bodybuilding and powerlifting in general are very much a mental game. It all has to do with your attitude and mental state. Always believe you're gonna put the weight up even if you've never done it before. Have no doubt or fear. Don't even think about it. Just do it. It's more mental than many people think.

[Brofessor]

You think?

On occassion, but I try to keep it to a minimum.

[RearDeltoids]

[Xuaxace]

Squats are probably one of the movements that people leave most in the tank, both mentally and because their technique makes them worse for maximum work. it is extremely rare to see grinders on a squat, but how many times do you see a grinder on a bench?

A cool way to strengthen the mental aspect of squatting is to do 20 rep breathing squats (10 rep max for 20 reps), the sets usually take 3minutes, pretty grueling stuff. A true test of will power srs.

[anonymous]

Awesome video

Yes, they're a head game.. But now I'm older i call it quits on squats all the time, since pushing to the edge in the past left me with all kinds of annoying injuries. Today I planned to do ten reps but called it after six as my hip and knee were reminding me it was six am and I had Only had a few hours sleep, and it was my first day of a new job. Next session I'll try for 20 with 365 to make up for this mornings slacking, but only if nothing hurts

No shame at all in only giving 100% on that or deads on those days when nothng hurts and your cns is firing in overdrive

[Highjumper21]

This is 10% luck,
20% skill,
15% concentrated power of will,
5% pleasure,
50% pain,
And 100% reason to remember the name!


But really I think it's 90% mental. I believe that about everything in life.

[Vaylor]

Heavy squatting makes me feel like a boss.

[ProgressIsGood]

Personally I actually find it to be true. I never find my upper body strength fluctuates nearly as much as Squats or any major lower body lift for that matter.
My body can be physically ready and well rested, but if I'm not mentally ready, then my squats will suffer. I never managed to set PR in Squats when my mind is not there. In fact I always find myself weaker considerably if I'm not focused (even if I'm physically rested).
While on upper body exercises (even on major compound movements), even on days where my mind drifted somewhere else I managed to set personal records. I guess in upper body exercises, so long as my body is well rested that's mainly what matters.

[k9pit]

yes, even moreso at higher reps.

the body is telling you no, but your mind has to convince it to keep going.

[Jasonk282]

50% of this game is 90% mental

[sanooke]

I definitely notice a difference when I let myself get worked up before a heavy squat. I've always been a grouchy fella so I guess it's the perfect release. But if I get a little angry and tell myself to just do it, I get a last rep or heavier single out better. So it's mental for me, but some other guys may work better staying calm and cool.

[ironwill2008]

Why so red, OP?

[KrypronSteve]

I think a lot of people's struggles and disdain with squatting centers around a poor warm up scheme. If I load a bar up at say ~75%+ your 5RM for my first set, I'd need a whole lot of "mental toughness" to put up a few reps and continue on towards my work set. What I do instead is a much longer warm up like below, which both warms me up for the lift and I think puts me in control of lift:

BWx10
barx10
85x8
115x6
..

I do this warm up pretty quickly, taking maybe 30 seconds rests in between or roughly the time it takes to reset the weight.

[anonymous]

20 mins hard cardio
20 mins rolling and dynamic / static stretching
20 mins warmup sets before hitting the max effort set(s)

nope, still tough to do