Mark Brown
May 24, 2022
A well trained discipline expands and contacts when it needs to but has some rigidity to it to be able to bring some kind of consistency to the days, weeks and years. That kind of structure produces positive results in the gym or in whatever thing someone is serious about. It also creates dependencies. While it could be argued that the dependencies I’m talking about are the things that make up the consistency, I find dependencies to be largely negative. I’m not talking about physical addictions, which I am utterly unqualified to write about so I won’t. Dependencies are weaknesses to me. Strength training is all about hunting weaknesses and making them stronger. They represent some of the biggest tests of a person’s discipline. This chapter will be all about dealing with them and some strategies help defeat them.
Dependencies take all shapes and can be hard to distinguish from each other. In some cases, it’s something physical like a drug or supplement. In others, it’s a physiological or psychological cue. I will leave the scientific nature of addictions and the biological effects drugs use to those who are far better at it than me. The reason why I look at dependencies as weaknesses is because be potentially harmful to discipline if not addressed. A lifting session happening shouldn’t be tied to an energy/preworkout drink, headphones or music. It’s one thing for these act as aids but it’s different if they take any importance beyond that. It doesn’t take much for something that started out as a minor aid to being something that plays a major role in getting one mentally ready. It’s a sign that the mind-muscle connection isn’t strong enough. If something as small as forgetting earbuds at home can mess up the connection, I’d hate to imagine what something bigger would so.
The first thing one needs to do is take a good hard look at all the elements of what they do and then evaluate what makes them up. This step is important because it tests a person’s recognition, which is especially important for those who lift on their own. Anything that creates a physical or psychological need to do before any task qualifies as a dependency. Asking oneself “Can I do this without (blank)?” is the most basic and best way to start training recognition. If the answer is no, then one needs to really think about what goes into what they are doing. These answers will determine the direction of the overall plan, especially the budgeting of time, energy and money. The first two are important to a lifting session but the last one will create what the session looks like and what all can be added to it. This process is doable solo but bouncing ideas off other people, especially ones who are qualified, is always best.
The early stage of a lifter’s journey into strength training is filled with temptation from supplemental resources of information. They are bombarded with ads, sometimes disguised as entertaining Youtube videos, for energy drinks, preworkout drinks, supplements, equipment and countless other things they “need” for their fitness routine. I’m guilty of hyping some stuff up as well. The thing to remember all of “that” stuff is supplemental to what really matters. That is, and always will be, doing the work to get better technique, get physically stronger, get mentally stronger and get smarter. Psychosomatic dependency is the term given when a person gets it into their head that they need some kind of external aid to complete a task. It is the first step towards a physical addiction. When a psychosomatic dependency becomes entrenched every decision made flows through it. For example, smelling salts are a powerful way of tricking the body into producing more adrenalin for a minute or so. Lifters use them to help them lift loads in the 95-100% 1RM range or RPE 10+ range. What happens when they forget to buy more, bring it along or had enough for only 1 or 2 reps? If they have good discipline. they’ll just do the lift any ways and not care. If the lifter is dependent on them to produce the lift, something could go very wrong or they might not even do the lift.
Dependencies are often covered up, even after taking a hard look at the overall plan and budget for them. A lot of that is the use of psychology to to do mental gymnastics around issues in the biological effects of what is done to get ready that paint a different picture than desired. I look at energy drinks and preworkout supplements through this lens. I personally don’t understand why I need 200-400 milligrams of caffeine to do my normal 2.5 hour long sessions, much less the 1.5 hour long isolation lifting session. I do drink a pop on the way to the garage out of habit so there is some level of caffeine dependency there when I am completely honest with myself. Energy drinks, which most are described by Derek from MorePlatesMoreDates Youtube channel as under dosed vitamins, have never been more abundant because they promise the energy desired without the ill effects of sugar on the body. I’ve had enough conversations with people who say they drink them or pop because they taste good, not the effect of the caffeine. While this could be a true statement, it also very much ignores the effect that caffeine has. Drink enough of them and the caffeine gets harder to ignore, especially when one gets nearly half a gram in a single serving. I can barely feel the effect of caffeine. There is no jolt of energy anymore. Alan Thrall, owner of Untamed Strength in Sacramento and Youtube content creator, commented in a video that he started to feel caffeine’s effect only after removing it from his every day routine. There have been quite a few caffeine overdose medical emergencies, mostly heart attacks, in the fitness Youtube/Tiktok/Instagram community over the last few years. Caffeine is something to take very seriously.
Sometimes the things that get covered up are the things that are in the plainest of sights. Caffeine is not exactly hidden because of a broadening of education of what foods and drinks it’s in, but it is much more so than the equipment that is used to strength train. The equipment used can absolutely cause dependency issues for training. It’s big part of why I will never write a program for mass consumption based on my lifting in the garage. How I lift is entirely dependent on what equipment is available to me. That much became much clearer to me 2020 when I started lifting in Pete’s garage and added equipment to it after going 4-5 weeks without any equipment. A lifting program is just one piece of a larger fitness plan. Discipline can be drastically effected when what is available is suddenly lost. The mind-muscle connection is among the most important things to maintain for lifters. It can be lost quite quickly if one isn’t vigilant. I have a hard time getting up for bodyweight exercises. I’ve done a lot more bodyweight squats between sets over the last couple months and they are quite useful, but push-ups and the like are just….no. There’s just something about seeing the bars, racks, plates, benches and dumbbells that gets me psychologically ready to go. Whatever that “something” is, it isn’t present in bodyweight exercises. It would be a mistake for me to believe I am not 100% dependent on equipment. That includes compression shirts or shorts, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, straps and lifting shoes.
Some dependencies are strictly biological in nature and are pretty non-negotiable. Sleep, for example, is one of those things. Sleep allows the body to rest and recover fully through hormonal balance. It is something bodybuilders and lifters on social media harp on a lot for a good reason. I am not the best authority on sleep because I short myself constantly. I know at some point I will be paying for that on the back end. I have passed out from exhaustion in bed far too many times. Proper rest lets the body’s full potential be used for tasks when awake. Part of the energy drink/preworkout boom is because people don’t feel they are awake enough to complete some task to the fullest potential. When that feeling is combined with a competitive spirit, a caffeine dependency is already well on its way. Eating and drinking are more examples. The human body is dependent on outside sources to nutrition to survive and make it the best it can be. There are tons of ways to get that done.
Figuring out what do to with the dependencies found in the recognition stage is not easy because the physiological effect of some of them have on the body. The first strategy used for overcoming them involves consciously choosing to not use something that acts like a dependency part of the time. Not having that caffeine shot before lifting, not using straps for the deadlift and committing to going to sleep earlier a couple nights a week are all ways this can be accomplished. This can be a lot easier said than done. When the body gets acclimated to some effect, it doesn’t always want to let go of that feeling or it stops doing what the person wants it to do. Choosing consciously to put aside the things that supplement the main thing being done is important to remind ourselves that they are supplemental, not primary. This will become key when something happens that cuts us off from those dependencies. The best personal example I can come up with is the 4-5 weeks I couldn’t train in March-April of 2020. Everything that kept me in balance physically and mentally was lost. My discipline was broken. It was only reforged when Pete asked me if I wanted to lift with him in his garage.
A second strategy is to use the biological dependencies as the guide for all of the others to follow. Getting enough rest puts a person in a much better position to be able to consciously understand if they need something or they can bypass it this time. This doesn’t require perfect sleep, but it does require enough of it. Eating enough of the right things throughout the day to keep hormones that effect mood in check. Better decisions are much more likely to be made by a body that doesn’t need as much outside assistance to get what it could from itself. Discipline will be much harder to break when the mind and body feels it can feels can overcome circumstances that start to break negatively in one’s favor. It’s so much easier to just do it when that’s what the body wants to do. Once discipline is instilled, get out of the way.
A third strategy is to go all in and educate themselves as fully as they can on what effect those dependencies will have physiologically and psychologically so they determine if they have the time, energy and monetary budget too accommodate them. I write often that to become great at something, they have to become a slave to it. This is that strategy. Employing it causes the one who uses it to go deeper down the hole to chase what they are after. As a result, the budget becomes a primary source of tension. When the various part of the budget get stretched, either more deposits will be needed to be made or withdrawals need to become smaller and better used. A secondary effect of this strategy is that it tends to isolate people in all the ways they can be isolated unless they go out of their way to not have that happen. Everything about this strategy says “This is what I am, this is what I do, and this is what I depend on to get it done” publicly.
I tend to lean towards the last one instinctively but I recognize it’s the most dangerous and least well rounded approach. I’m not bogged down by the details though. I’ve forgotten my knee or elbow sleeves on a few occasions going to Genesis, failed to bring my earbuds to work with me so I didn’t have them available for lifting after, lifted when I am dead ass tired and remembered that my powerlifting belt was still in the garage only after after parking my car in the Genesis lot. I have used the first strategy unintentionally so I know I am not a total slave to the equipment I wear. I am quite aware that there is a difference between intentionally doing it and doing through forgetfulness but the end result is the same. Eventually all 3 strategies come into play, but the ratio of which they get used changes dependent on the person employing them.
Managing what one is dependent on it is an extremely important thing to both understand fully and monitor so they don’t become full on addictions. When one attaches supplemental aids to the primary activity, they can feel as though they are one process. They are not as important as the primary activity. That needs to be understood so they don’t become limiting factors in the long run when circumstances work against someone. That is why dependencies are a major test of discipline. Being able to do the primary activity without the supplemental aids help discipline by not becoming dependent on them. It’s necessary to know that stuff can get accomplished without being dependent on one part of the process.
Life Through Lifting 