Squatting well is 50% mental toughness

The more I squat heavy the more I believe squatting well is 50% a mental exercise. Let me explain my thinking.

Last night was the intensification week for my 8 week rep scheme on Juggernaut. My previous squat session felt shit even though I got the reps so manning up for my final set I new it had to be game on. Notwithstanding that seed of doubt in the dark recesses of my brain said maybe 5 reps I punched out 8 with probably 2 still in the tank.

So what gives? Well as we know squatting can be down right uncomfortable with a heavy loaded bar across the traps, it feels like shit and there is always that slightly sick feeling that you can get buried under the fucker if things go badly. I mean lets be honest bench is easy and while I love the deadlift there is no risk, either the bar moves or it doesn't, you aren't going to get stapled on that lift.

So for me the squat is king. That's probably why I view push pull and single lift events as soft. So a guy gets a big pull in a push pull..fuck off..do it after three limit squats then we are talking.

Last night I was still fucking around with foot spacing and this is half the problem for me as every rep is still not consistent. So finally I found a good foot position and got big Dan to mark my placing with chalk...hey presto each set felt good! So I measured that distance which conveniently is about the width of a 15kg bumper plate. So from now on no excuses related to foot position. I think most of the issues with foot position arise from my injury last year when I started to compensate for the pain by changing position etc.

I won't be wrapping or belting up on the next two months of training cycles. I want to feel as natural as possible so that when I finally put the soft suit, belt and wraps on next year I will get a nice poundage kick.

Stay Strong
Thomo