Comp prep, how do you prepare for something that you don’t know the outcome to?
Being a competitive Weightlifter, you need to be comp ready, when you need to be comp ready. There are no second chances on the day so how do l prep for this?
I work every day on my Mindset. I find if l miss a day l go backwards, mentally.
Mental preparation needs to be done daily, without putting the work in daily, it is like turning up to run a marathon without any practice kms on your legs. Turning up on comp day and accepting to be mentally strong isn’t going to work. Self-doubt and negatives thoughts will override any positives beliefs you have in yourself.
Being human is our natural instinct to go right for the negative, for some reason, it is what we are programmed for. It easy to find the negatives on comp day and any day of training. Oh, I’m not good, l suck, and so on it goes.
Then expecting on comp day to pull yourself around in a massive 180, mentally, only just adds to the pressure of the day. And really, we want comp day to run with the least amount of pressure as we can, to be able to deal with whatever may come up and how to react to the situation.
Here are a few things that l do daily to help prepare me for not only comp day but also everyday life.
Breath Work - 10 mins every day, l breath. It could be classified as a meditation, but l wouldn’t say l meditate.
Journal - Gratitude journaling - find the good things in life, and you will always see the good thing, the learnings, and when you do fail at something you can see the reason why more clearly.
I don’t hold onto any negative - this can be a tough one. I don’t keep any of my lifting clips that l fail at. This way when l scroll through my phone all l see is good lifts. Others may see a photo as a negative but what l see isn’t. I see that l had a crack, the moment where l let everything go and just went all in.
I am always doing a short course, on well-being, mental health, and or personal growth. There is something most of the time ticking away in the background.
Belief in yourself is hard to muster up but if you already believe and back yourself before you begin, the battle is half won.
Personal growth never stops nor should it. There is always an opportunity to learn more to develop your skills and your craft if you are willing to put the work in daily, not at the last minute.
For me preparing for the unknown, starts with working and continued work with a belief in myself, knowing who l am and what l believe in gives me the strength to achieve anything.
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