That’s intense

I came across a tweet the other day about bringing a picture of your ex-girlfriend to the gym. When you need to fuel your workout with rage and anger, you take a look at the photo.

While I understand the sentiment, I’ve realized from my own training that peak intensity doesn’t feel like anger. It actually feels like fear. Frankly, if you’re bringing your absolute best to a set, there isn’t brainpower available to focus on anything other than surviving the task at hand.

Under a killer set of squats, what am I afraid of?

• I won’t complete the number of reps I set out to do
• I won’t be able to get out of the bottom of the squat
• Injury

And let me add to bullet point one: If I fall short of my goals for the set, I know I’ll be tormented by a whole new bag of issues: am I getting weaker/older/softer? Am I sick?

Better to just finish all 10 reps, I think.