Reply With QuoteThe part that gives away that you are old is the fact that you didn't even think about listening to music on your iPod or whatever portable music device.
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Crotchety old fart issue or focus problem needing medication?
I'm 45, not sure if that qualifies me as elderly but here's the issue. I get seriously pissed off on my working sets when some douchebag nearby starts yaking away about sports or some silly shit that has nothing to do with weight lifting instead of actually lilfting. I've had this happen in the base gym and it happened the other day at the Y gym in the "Olympic Lifting" area. I seriously cannot focus on my heavy squat form with distractions going on around me. I have a power rack in my garage but it's hot in Alabama and humid plus kids etc. so my question is: What techniques work for getting rid of distractions?
1. bullet to the eye socket for him?
2. ear plugs for me?
3. politely ask him to shut the fuck up?
4. is this just some thing I need to accept as part of modern gym life?
Bill
Brazilian Car Jack
The part that gives away that you are old is the fact that you didn't even think about listening to music on your iPod or whatever portable music device.
Member
Had a Microsoft Zune but the largest armband was too small so I gave up on that. I guess I could pull music from a cloud server to integrate my droid x2 with a bluetooth duel wraparound headset to crank Disturbed or Slipknot plus an integrated virtual reality visor but my coach would rather I pay him. Used to crank loud music in my garage but that did tend to distract me from focusing on form.
Brazilian Car Jack
Loud music helps me focus, strange though it may be. It doesn't need to be loud or extreme heavy metal. See if from this perspective: what's better? listening to whatever you like to listen, or listening to what joe shmuck did over the weekend with his frat buddies?Originally Posted by BikeJAG
✓ Member
According to the officially sanctioned geezer taxonomy, you are a geezling at 45. Welcome.
I've worked out in commercial gyms since my mid 20's and I'm 60 now so 35 odd years or so have given me the ability to block out the geezer dude bros in my local Gold's who carry on like spider monkeys at O-dark 30 when I lift. The music can work too, but my choices are different. Power classics like 1812 Overture, Ride of the Valkyries, Night on Bald Mountain. I don't need even that these days, I have largely learned to ignore these bonzos. Think of it as a sweaty meditation session.
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Any of the above (under the right conditions) might be appropriate. Wait...nix #1. Too messy.
What about wearing ear buds, but without playing anything? Then you can ignore him; just point to your ears and shake your head if he tries talking to you.
The last time I was in an iron gym was in 1979. Guys (yup, men only) came to the gym to work, and if we wanted to socialize, we did it over burgers after we were done. "I'm working" meant "Shut the fuck up." I'm sure times have changed a bit, but maybe a reasonable person such as your friend would be able to hear "I'm working" and make the translation. Good luck with it.
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I thought about ear plugs for silence. Ironville has the "Less Talky More Lifty" t-shirt for passive-aggressive types. Maybe various combinations will work but tonight dragging my bumper plates to the gym and the stares while doing power cleans seemed to have the effect of scaring off the dweebs, so maybe it'll take time for the YMCA folks to get used to a powerlifter actually using the "oly" section of rusty old plates and racks for classic lifts.
Member
Hi Bill,
Not being a dink, but the problem is yours not theirs. How do you propose to get the entire gym to be quiet while you squat? It would be nice if they would, but their lives don't revolve around yours. Look within and resolve to be tougher than them.
No easy answer I guess, sorry, but it's more up to you than them.
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Bif, I do appreciate it and know I have a LOT of problems, this being one of many as Rip and Steve know. I guess the question I really should have asked is what are some successful techniques for improving mental focus and elimination of distractions to optimize performance during heavy working sets with emphasis on mental control of form during movement?
Mental focus training (meditation, visualization etc) has been a part of my training program in the past and I should restart actively working on it again with application to strength training. Plus working on techniques to eliminate distractions. I also need to time my lifting sessions around the aerobics class to avoid the little blonde hotties at the Y who are a huge distraction (so I'm done by the time they get finished, I'm not stupid!).
Thanks guys, sometimes it helps to talk it out! So unless there are some good resources on mental focus training as it applies to strength training to share or wisdom from Rip on the subject it's time to do as he says and just lift the f---ing weights!
Bill
✓ Member
One of the things that has always helped me in blocking externalities is to use what aikido calls "soft eyes" and I have also heard it called the thousand yard stare. In soft eyes, you look straight ahead or slightly down (which you should be doing anyway with Rip's program). Let the focus of your eyes get fuzzy so that everything is slightly out of focus. Let your peripheral vision dominate but don't turn your head to look just think of seeing through the edges of the eyes at your margins. I have found that in spaite of talking and movement around me, even by the chicklets in Gold's, that during my set it all goes elsewhere. It seems to have some effect in blocking or at least me being less aware of chatter around me. Of course once the set is over I get back to complete reality and that can be annoying. But it goes away again as I soften focus for the next set.
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