5 Powerful tips to help you mentally prepare for your next powerlifting meet

When getting ready to compete there are two sides to our training.

Physical and mental.

Most of us are familiar with physical preparation. We lift weights, periodise our training, eat properly and recover between our gym sessions.

Not as many people devote the same time and energy to mental preparation.

Preparing the mind for competition is just as important as preparing the body.

Your mental preparation involves your self-belief and confidence. If you don’t believe that you will perform well, then you won’t, and you will have beaten yourself before you even touch the bar.

If you truly believe you can achieve the task you are aiming for, then half the battle is won.

Physical training forms the mechanical base of allowing you to lift a weight. The mind is what controls the body and makes you believe you can do it.

Think of it like a car. The engine makes the car go, but you are in control, you decide when and where to go and how fast to drive. The car would be useless without someone to drive it and your body is useless if your mind cannot control it.

Mental training takes time and effort. You need to practice it as much as your physical preparation.

With that in mind here are five strategies you can use to get your mind in the right place for your next competition.

1. Visualisation

Visualisation is exactly what it sounds like. Imagine yourself achieving your desired goal.

If you’re preparing for a powerlifting meet imagine yourself squatting, benching or deadlifting your goal weight.

See yourself on the platform, imagine the sound of the crowd, the music, the announcer, imagine yourself easily standing up from the bottom of the squat.

Imagine yourself driving the weight up from the bottom of the bench, feel your feet pushing into the floor, imagine how the bar feels in your hands.

Your body and mind cannot differentiate between what it imagines and what it experiences in the real world.

You need to make the experiences as vivid as possible to get the full effect. This is the tricky part but it is something which comes with practice.

Visualise everything. Warming up beforehand, hearing your name called, imagine yourself walking up to the bar, imagine chalking your hands up, putting your singlet on, the feeling of your knee sleeves, visualise everything you will experience on the day.

Find somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed, close your eyes and imagine. Block out 10 or 20 minutes a day, or as much time as you can to practice.

Just like your physical training this is a skill which requires time, effort and consistency. If you stick with it, you will feel the benefits over the long term.

2. Dealing with nerves

Accept that nerves are a part of competition. You will likely always feel them and your fellow competitors will feel them as well.

Your ability to manage nerves will improve with experience.

Prepare yourself for the fact that you will feel nervous. Nerves mean that you care, and that you are taking the competition seriously. Nerves also serve a purpose.

However, these feelings present themselves whether it is as anxiety, butterflies in your stomach, unease, feeling nauseous, they are all manifestations and degrees of fear.

Whilst fear is unpleasant it is our friend.

The famous boxing trainer Cus D’Amato, once likened fear to fire.

If you can control fire, you can use it to heat your food, heat your home, create things to make your life easier.

If you lose control of fire, it can destroy everything around you.

Fear is there to help us. When we get a jolt of adrenaline we can run faster, jump higher and lift heavier weights.

If you lose control, your fear will take over and destroy your ability to perform.

Remember, you are in control of your body, stay grounded and stay in the moment.

Nerves are your friend, embrace them and be thankful for them, but be careful not to let them consume you. Your visualisation should help you with this, as you will be used to being in that moment with the butterflies in your stomach and performing well as you do it.

3. Prepare yourself physically and mentally before the competition

This will help you build confidence and deal with the nerves. You can go into the competition knowing that you are fully prepared.

This confidence will form the basis of your mental preparation.

The root of success is belief, and belief comes from the knowledge you have prepared fully.

Tell yourself ‘The results are inevitable’, believe in your abilities and trust your training methods.

Adopt positive body language. Keep your head up and stick your chest out. This can help you feel more confident and in control. Understand that you can achieve your goals as you are fully prepared

4. Be adaptable

Not everything will go your way. The event order might change, you might struggle to eat properly, you may mis-time your caffeine.

Anything could go wrong and often it does. Don’t let it fester and take over your mood.

Try to look at the positive in every situation, accept that problems may happen and deal with them. Rather than think, ‘the event order has changed this is going to throw me off’ reframe that as ‘That’s good I now get to go on there sooner and compete in the sport I enjoy/ that’s good I now get to relax a little longer before I have to go on’.

There is a positive spin for every situation, you just need to find it.

5. Pre competition rituals

This is a good one for making you feel grounded. Have a ritual that you can use in training and in competition. This consistency can help you to feel calmer on competition day.

It could be anything from the way you warm up, the way you get dressed, the order you do certain things, the music you listen to before you lift.

Find something that works for you and stick to it.

The important thing is that there is a consistent set of actions which help you to feel comfortable.

Conclusion

Mental training could be the thing which elevates your performance to new levels, remember to dedicate as much time to your mind as you do to your body.

The tips provided here only scratch the surface, there are a whole range of methods out there for you to try and perfect. Mental training is just as complex as physical training. You need to find the methods which work for you.

Keep an open mind, try things out and the results will come.