Over the Hill

This morning was arm day. There are four of us working the GVT program so we have to split into groups of two to get through in roughly an hour. Mike and I usually work together because the other two guys are in a much lighter weight class. I decided to do 10 sets of ten with everyone else because we were working smaller muscle groups. We started with incline dumbbell curls. It's an impersonal exercise because you don't ever really need a spot and so there is no one really encouraging you. I made it through several sets and then started failing at around 7 reps with 35lb DBs. The last set I got pissed off and eeked out 10 with good form. Then we moved over to the close grip bench press. I decided to push 185 for 10 of 10 and was confident that I could do it. By set six I was in a world of pain, but my mind was made up. I decided it would take attitude rather than strength to finish and the plan paid off. I was hurting as bad as anyone, but experience has taught me that I could handle the pain. Mike started dropping reps by set 5 and with each set I could see his mind starting to break. He mentioned several times that he was doing worse than the week before. On set 9 he got pinned under the bar on rep 5 and I had to lift it off him. Between 9 and 10 I explained to him that this set had nothing to do with strength in his muscles. This was all about mental toughness. I told him that he couldn't crawl under the bar again looking like he was gearing up for a good nap and expect to finish strong. I told him that intensity was the only key to progression. 90 seconds after set 9, he pushed 10 clean reps out for set 10. He has no idea, but I'm pretty sure I learned more than he did this morning. Now, if we can just apply this principal to every other aspect of our lives....