The Last Stand
You just plowed your way through four of five sets of squats, leaving the final set to stand between you and your freedom from pain and nausea. The allotted one minute of rest has quickly turned into two. The last thing you want to do right now is to shoulder the bar and free it from the pins.
Taking on the last stand with the same level of vim and vigor you had when you entered the gym some forty-five minutes ago has left your body; it’s already hit the showers.
For gym warriors, this is challenge we face more often than not. We live by the mantra of “no pain, no gain” still we are not immune to the pain needed for the gain.
So what can we do, how can we kill that final set?
Before explain my approach, I want to explain my thinking. Our bodies react to what our mind tells us to do. The more creative you are the less convincing needed to get your body to react. At the end of the day, our body loves our mind; therefore it is willing to do anything the mind tells it to do. Creativity and vision is key, as such, these are things I do to kill the final set:
1) I count backwards: You’d be surprised how much easier it is to kill off that final set by starting off with 12 and working your way backwards to 1.
2) I count in groups: If your last set is 12, count those reps off like this; [1, 2, 3, 4]...1, [1, 2, 3, 4]... 2, and so on.
3) I start off the final exercise with a complete understanding of how many sets I need to do before I am done. I commit myself in the beginning to completing all of them. This eliminates any thoughts of utter fatigue setting in until I am done.
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