Wednesday's movements:Strength/Skill: Bench Press and toes to barWOD:Squat Cleans, Front Squats, Ring dips, Box JumpsMember News:-We love that you're using our new shower facilities but we ask that you please take home your soaps, shampoos, razors, etc!-If you’re new to BCF, within the last 6 months, we’d like to welcome you to the BCF family with a good ole’ fashion happy hour. Come and meet other new members, and members who have been here for a little while. This event is open to everyone, but if you’re new to the gym, this is especially for you. Let’s raise a glass and share some Kool-aid together. Where: Colonel Hart's, 7342 W State St. Wauwatosa, WI 53213 When: Thursday, May 1st at 6:30pm-We'll be putting in another order of Stronger Faster Healthier for the month of May. Order here>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnBO82pHZ-zhdGxaUmk3QzhrYVlOMUFhdVpKNklkTWc&usp=sharingThe protein and fish oil are split up by tabs. The "fish oil" tab is found on the bottom of the page. We'll be placing the order by May 10th!A great repost from Matt Foreman and Catalyst Athletics"You’re a weightlifter, and I know what one of your biggest problems is. I’ve never met you, never trained with you, don’t know anything about you. But I know something that’s going on in your mind. Hell, YOU might not even know about it. Here’s what it is:When you train (and compete), you make up your mind about all the weights you’re going to attempt before you put your hands on the bar. The problem is this…you make up your mind ahead of time that you’re going to MAKE certain weights, and you’re only going to TRY other ones.I’ll give you an example in case that’s unclear. Let’s say you’re a lifter and you have a snatch PR of 90 kilos. When you’re progressing through a normal workout, you’re probably working your way up by snatching 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, etc. Now, before you attempted all of those weights, you made up your mind that you were going to MAKE them. In other words, you approached the bar with certainty. Your technique was snappy and authoritative. Those weights were all well within your capabilities, and you knew the attempts were going to be successful. You expected to get the job done, so it happened.However, you reached a point in the workout where you started approaching your PR. You expected to make 75, 80, and 85, but now you’re sniffing right around your all-time maximum weight of 90. All of a sudden, you changed the way you mentally approached the bar. Instead of deciding that you were going to MAKE the next lift, you started planning to just TRY it. And believe me, there’s a big difference in the way you move your body once this change has happened. Instead of putting your hands on the bar with the intention of dominating it, you’re now shifting your whole psychological perspective. You’re not entirely sure you’re going to make these top lifts, so you decide to “give it a try and see what happens” instead of “kicking the crap out of it.”For some people, this only happens with weights above 90. Some athletes have the mental ability to equal their PR any time they want to, but the weights above the PR are the ones they’re going to just TRY. Others people start getting sketchy earlier, when they’re getting within 5ish kilos of their max lift. If they’re anywhere reasonably close to that all-time top number, they approach the whole thing differently. Their confidence gets soft and instead of attacking the bar with a search-and-destroy mentality, they allow themselves to simply…make an effort.Some people openly admit to this. I’ve coached athletes who told me before a lift (or maybe afterwards) that they didn’t think they were going to make it. They didn’t plan to be successful, plain and simple. Others don’t confess that it’s happening, and they might not even truly know that they’re doing it. It stays in the subconscious, but it’s still having the same effect....Did you notice how I described this problem as “normal human behavior” a second ago? That’s exactly what it is, brothers and sisters. If you’ve got these tendencies, where you have certain weights that you plan to MAKE and other weights that you’re only going to TRY, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make you weak, or cowardly, or inadequate. In fact, it doesn’t make you different from any other weightlifter in the world. I was a pretty successful athlete, and I can positively admit to you that I had several struggles with this throughout my career. I’ve also trained with some of the best competitors in the entire sport, and they’ve told me the same thing. You know those champions you worship? Those are the people I’m talking about.I’m not going to mention any names here, but I was at a national championship back in the 90s where one of the top weightlifters in the United States attempted a new American record in the C&J. He failed with the clean…didn’t get the record. Later that night, we were having some drinks in the bar and I asked him, “What happened on that record attempt?” I’ll never forget his answer. He said, “The weight freaked me out a little bit. I kinda got scared of it.”Yep, you heard that right. By the way, this guy went on to break the record later that year, and eventually he lifted ten kilos more before he retired. He also made two Olympic teams and solidified his name as one of the best we’ve ever had.He fought the same battle you’re fighting. So don’t get too down on yourself if I just publicly discussed your biggest mental challenge.How did the Olympian guy break through his mental barrier? What did he do that allowed him to move up to a higher level of performance? He did the same thing I had to do, and it’s the same thing you’re all going to have to do.He just kept trying. Obviously he used sensibly planned training, made technical improvements, changed things when they needed to be changed, all of those essential components a competitive athlete has to manage to be successful. But once those pieces were all snapped into place…he just had to keep trying. Same as you."