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Thread: Thinking too much about lifting/not enjoying it

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    To be honest I haven't really noticed any increased muscle on my frame to the naked eye, though know I must have put some on as the weights keep going up.

    I have bipolar which is pretty severe (I've spent time in mental hospitals a bunch of times and take five different types of medication) so my moods are all over the place. I just don't feel any better during or after training. I know it must be good for my health so I keep plugging away. I suppose the only thing I notice that it feels good to keep hitting PR's during this novice phase but its like a 5 out of 10 feeling of happiness/achievement.
    A few thoughts for you, Caleb:

    1) Satisfaction is proportional to outcome over expectations. This is important to keep consciously in mind. It's a principle for dealing with other parties, but it's at least as important with dealing with one's self. The more tightly you can manage that denominator, the better.

    2) In your depressive phases in particular, do you experience anhedonia? This could be an outworking of that. Discipline and sticking with healthful routine despite that is essential to managing it.

    3) It's a common refrain here, but I'll echo others in the thread on getting your testosterone checked. I have fought depression most of my life, and I can say without question both that low T attacks very, very much like depression, and that TRT helps with it just as fast as Rip says it does. It doesn't make it go away, per se...but it makes you able to take hold of it and thrive in the face of it.

    4) A common thread here is agency. Taking up agency over all these things is what's indicated. Feelings are often the enemy of agency.

    5) Dreading the next workout is not abnormal, but a sign of progress and of opportunity. It's getting hard. It's getting heavy. Good. This is where you decide to become strong. Right now. Right here. Every time.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    Well at the moment I'm not seeing the aesthetic benefits (maybe they are to come) and it doesn't improve my mood that I can observe.

    When I play soccer once a week I look forward to it, enjoy it while playing and feel good after.

    Maybe I can't change it and just need to keep going.
    Maybe you just really enjoy soccer and don't enjoy lifting so much? Not everyone gets a kick out of it, but everyone can still benefit from it. As for looks, that is subject to your own perceptions and expectations. Don't expect one of those Hollywood "6 month body transformations", those are the product of a lot more than just training. How long have you been at it?

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    To be honest I haven't really noticed any increased muscle on my frame to the naked eye, though know I must have put some on as the weights keep going up.

    I have bipolar which is pretty severe (I've spent time in mental hospitals a bunch of times and take five different types of medication) so my moods are all over the place. I just don't feel any better during or after training. I know it must be good for my health so I keep plugging away. I suppose the only thing I notice that it feels good to keep hitting PR's during this novice phase but its like a 5 out of 10 feeling of happiness/achievement.
    You spend 6hrs a week in the gym at the most.
    What happens during the other 162hrs of the week is also very important and not related to training most of the time.
    Medication is obviously impacting your mood and checking T levels is always good

    What are your stats (age, height, weight, current numbers on the bar)?

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    Well at the moment I'm not seeing the aesthetic benefits (maybe they are to come) and it doesn't improve my mood that I can observe.

    When I play soccer once a week I look forward to it, enjoy it while playing and feel good after.

    Maybe I can't change it and just need to keep going.
    Play soccer more.

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    I can get that done.

    What numbers do I want (im 37)?
    In excess of 900.

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Donaldson View Post
    A few thoughts for you, Caleb:

    1) Satisfaction is proportional to outcome over expectations. This is important to keep consciously in mind. It's a principle for dealing with other parties, but it's at least as important with dealing with one's self. The more tightly you can manage that denominator, the better.

    2) In your depressive phases in particular, do you experience anhedonia? This could be an outworking of that. Discipline and sticking with healthful routine despite that is essential to managing it.

    3) It's a common refrain here, but I'll echo others in the thread on getting your testosterone checked. I have fought depression most of my life, and I can say without question both that low T attacks very, very much like depression, and that TRT helps with it just as fast as Rip says it does. It doesn't make it go away, per se...but it makes you able to take hold of it and thrive in the face of it.

    4) A common thread here is agency. Taking up agency over all these things is what's indicated. Feelings are often the enemy of agency.

    5) Dreading the next workout is not abnormal, but a sign of progress and of opportunity. It's getting hard. It's getting heavy. Good. This is where you decide to become strong. Right now. Right here. Every time.
    Yeah I do get anhedonia.

    Managed to get in there today and get all the reps despite not wanting to go so thats something.

    I have ordered a testosterone test from a company that can then prescribe TRT if necessary.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by francesco.decaro View Post
    You spend 6hrs a week in the gym at the most.
    What happens during the other 162hrs of the week is also very important and not related to training most of the time.
    Medication is obviously impacting your mood and checking T levels is always good

    What are your stats (age, height, weight, current numbers on the bar)?
    37 years old,
    Height: 6 feet 2,

    Squat 137kg
    Press: 51kg
    Bench: 74kg
    Deadlift: 120kg (lagging behind as I had injured my back deadlifting previously).

  8. #18
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    May 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by asm44 View Post
    Squatting sucks. I just wrote about this in another post. I'm thinking about the next 5RM days in advance. Warming up with 250lbs feels heavy already, even if the workset is gonna be 500.

    This mostly applies to low-bar. It's more physically and mentally demanding lift than high bar. When I've done high-bar it's kinda fine.
    Yep, same here, although I've never walked 500 out. I went through a phase where I was constantly obsessing over the next workout. A couple things I have found that have helped lately.

    1)Before the workout: visualization. If I'm worrying about my next heavy squat or pull or whatever, I take a few minutes to go through the lift in my head. Usually as I'm lying in bed trying to sleep the day before. From the warmups right through the work set. And then I'm done. No more thinking about it until the next day when I'm actually doing the workout. Could be imagining it, but I think I've fixed some form problems by doing this too. I find myself not thinking about it much the day of--because I already did the set in my mind.
    2) During the workout: only think about one lift at a time-- the lift you're doing. If I'm pressing I can't let myself be distracted by the heavy squat set I'm going to do next. Focus on the set you're on. One rep at a time.

    To the OP, yeah, it's not always fun. In fact it gets less fun over time. At least it has for me. PRs are nice, though. Regardless, the benefits are nice. And the consequences of not training outweigh the consequences of training, for me.

  9. #19
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    Jun 2016
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    There are other methods of lifting that aren’t as grindy as the end of a lp, if you hate it that much you could just switch to one of those. Whether they are as effective is a different story.

  10. #20
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by CalebM View Post
    37 years old,
    Height: 6 feet 2,

    Squat 137kg
    Press: 51kg
    Bench: 74kg
    Deadlift: 120kg (lagging behind as I had injured my back deadlifting previously).
    Caleb, you're just not trying. How much do you weigh?

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