Ego training will get you injured
Generally this is a problem only the ‘newbie, inexperienced or just plain dumb tend to get involved in.
Because weights don’t hit back, many people abuse them and their bodies with their misuse. If you’ve ever done any fight sports (boxing, MMA, wrestling, judo etc) you will know first hand that training with your ego is a no no. Unless you are off the chart talented (Floyd Mayweather, Rhonda Rousey, Aleksandr Karelin) you have no rights showboating in the ring or on the mat. You WILL get your ass handed to you. Confidence is good but cockiness leads to knockouts.
Weights however are just big and heavy and unless you drop them on yourself (very possible) they don’t hit back. For some reason people start going to the gym and think they are all of a sudden ‘tough’ because they have put half an inch on their biceps and can quarter squat 300lbs. Well, let me just say that a half decent, light weight boxer will knock the biggest bodybuilder or powerlifter out with no fight training any day of the week. Weights don’t make you tough, tough makes you tough and that means knowing what it’s like to get hit, get choked and get kicked in the head!
But I digress…
What else constitutes ego training? Well simply lifting heavy week in week out with no plan. This will always get you niggles and nagging injuries.
- Are you one of those people who has weeks when they feel good and lift heavy only to come back the next week and have less strength? Then you are an ego trainer and you are stupid.
- Do you lift heavy because your friends are there and you want to try and outlift them no matter what? Then you are stupid.
- Do hitch every heavy deadlift? Then you are stupid.
- Do you cut short every rep of squats, bit by bit each week to make that 400lbs squat into a partial squat but, ‘hey bro, now you squat 400lbs’. Then you are stupid.
- Do you bench press with a massive bounce off your chest, lift your butt, squiggle and squirm, flare your arms wildly and get your ‘bros’ to do forced reps and negatives every session. Then you too are stupid.
- Crossfit…meh…too easy a target…
I could go on.
I rarely fail heavy weights. This year I may have failed one repetition possibly two on my top end sets. The reason is I have a plan which I generally stick to. It is realistic, has consistent but sensible progress and allows me to build into to top weights and intensity over time. I rarely get injuries from weight training. My form is good on all reps of any given exercise, it’s a full range of motion and very few sets are ‘grinders’ where the weight is moving slowly.
You have no right to be maxing out every week. There is no need to show off in the gym every week. There is no need to throw weights down for no reason (they’ve done nothing to you and the gym owner will appreciate it). You owe it to your longevity in the gym to PERFECT your form on EVERY exercise. You would be advised to work through a full range of motion to maintain mobility.
Another thing. Screaming and shouting and getting psyched. Stop it! Unless your competing or going for a personal best (once a month at the VERY MOST) there is no need. Most of you don’t train very hard anyway. So STOP screaming it’s embarrassing. And psyching up. There’s no need to do it very often. You should save ‘adrenalin’ lifting for your maximum effort attempts and competition. There are little chinese women who lift more than you anyway.
In short. Ego training is uneccessary. It looks silly. It is silly. It will get you injured and it does not make you tough.
Nick
For those of you who don’t know…this is Karelin and he is proper tough!
