Insane in the Membrane: Brain Train

Use a Recalibrated Mindset to Improve Performance and Physique

Use a recalibrated mindset to improve performance and physique.

I have been a formal meditator since 1972. I got into the “mind game” even earlier, seeking ways to boost sport performance by recalibrating my mental state. My strength mentors spoke at length and in depth about Brain Train and the power of psyche, concentration, intensity, adherence, willpower, and other mental traits that, when tamed and harnessed, improved athletic performance.

Real Psyche Cannot Be Faked

Psyche refers to an altered mental state a lifter or athlete will purposefully put themselves into right before an all-out effort. I have been around dozens of national and world champions over the last fifty years. I have seen all types and kinds of psyche up close, from a coach’s perspective, from mild to wild, from the quiet, barely noticeable psyche of Hugh Cassidy or Lamar Gant, to the highly demonstrative psyche of Kirk Karwoski or Willie Bell.

Be it demonstrative or introspective, psyche needs to be real, not faux.

My mentors developed highly personalized and unique psyche-up procedures. Because they were intelligent and subtle, these champions understood that every lifter had to find their own psyche procedure. Psyche can’t be imitated or mimicked. Psyche is not acting. Psyche must arise from within and be an honest expression of true inner fire. Fake psyche is ineffectual and obvious to an old pro.

The initial goal for Brain Train rookies was, and is, to develop two types of generalized psyche.

• Instantaneous psyche: berserker mindset used immediately before an all-out athletic effort.
• Sustained psyche: low-level wattage output that keeps the athlete adhering to the process.

Desire, Willpower, Results, and Enthusiasm

Initially, willpower powers the process. Willpower is a finite mental propellant, and before it runs out the athlete needs to find another mental propellant. The transformative key is to obtain results before willpower runs out. Results are defined as tangible increases in strength and / or real and measurable improvements in physique. When real results appear, enthusiasm comes online and takes over from willpower. Enthusiasm now powers the process.

It all begins within the mind of the athlete. The athlete forms a mental picture of themselves radically improved, dramatically better. These mental visualizations of what the athlete can be birth willpower. When our mental imagery is strong, a tipping point is reached: mental thought, yearning for improvement and transformation, creates a strong, burning desire for change — a mental yearning so strong that pure thought births concrete action.

• Desire begets willpower: strength of Will turns thought into action.
• Willpower powers the process: willpower has a 7- to 21-day shelf life.
• Results need to appear before willpower fades: total commitment is required.
• Results beget enthusiasm: solar power comes online; results replenish.
• Enthusiasm begets momentum: quality workouts create sustained progress.
• Momentum begets adherence: continual results make adherence easy.
• Adherence begets progress: melding physiological with psychological.

When we are enthused, training becomes exciting. We look forward to the next session. When enthused, precision, and disciplined nutrition become effortless. Enthusiasm is a frictionless form of propulsion in that new results replenish depleted enthusiasm. Sustained enthusiasm is a product of sustained results; sustained results beget momentum. It all dovetails together.

Quality Workouts Begin in the Mind

Psychological recalibration is a necessary precursor to physiological improvement. No one casually or absentmindedly improves, physiologically, to any dramatic degree. Psychological recalibration improves the quality of each individual workout. A quality workout is achieved when all the predetermined goals of the workout are attained.

The sophisticated strength athlete always has specific goals going into a workout. This is what differentiates “working out” from training. The key to radically transforming the human body is to string together, like pearls on a strand, an extended series of quality workouts.

Nutrition Is Not Optional

Without a sophisticated nutritional approach, one coordinated with the training, results will be subpar. Only by coordinating a sophisticated training regimen with an equally sophisticated nutritional regimen do we realize optimal results: dramatically improved performance and a radically transformed physique.

An athlete can be strong as a proverbial ox, possess excellent cardio conditioning, and still carry far more body fat than the athlete wants or needs. The NFL is loaded with strong, fit, large athletes, men who can bench press 450 pounds, sprint a sub-5-second 40-yard dash, and run up and down a football field hitting and bashing all day long while weighing 325 pounds. Strength and conditioning alone do not automatically equal optimal body composition. A sophisticated approach to nutrition is not optional.

John McCallum and the First Psyche Lesson

The most fundamental form of Brain Train is to get psyched up before the top set or sets of the core exercises of a progressive resistance workout. An improved top-set psyche improves the training session. By recalibrating the mind, the overall quality of the training session is improved.

As a teen, I was initially influenced by John McCallum’s articles on the powers of applied concentration and psyche. His was the first mind method I ever read and tried.

He instructed his male readers to fetch the bathroom scale and hold it in their lap. Without psyching, he had the reader squeeze the scale as hard as they could. Note the number. He then repeated the drill, only this time he verbally coached the reader along with a series of written cues leading up to McCallum “yelling” at the reader, “...now squeeeeeze!!!!” I squeezed 37 pounds harder and, at age 14, became a lifelong believer in the power and athletic applicability of psyching.

Psyche Up Like a Soviet Olympic Weightlifter

I read all the mid-to-late 1960s Strength & Health articles written by Tommy Suggs and Bill Starr on how the top Olympic lifters of the day approached mindset. The mysterious Soviet and Eastern Bloc lifters were obviously using some sort of formalized pre-lift Brain Train. The Soviets, East Germans, Poles, Czechs and Hungarians would come to the weightlifting platform before their attempts and stand motionless over the barbell, eyes shut, usually for 15 to 30 seconds.

The lifter would then open his eyes and tear into the barbell, setting yet another world record.

The question that every serious American Olympic weightlifter asked was: what were they doing? And why and how did this help their lifting? They all appeared to be using the same script, that was for sure.

Aladar Kogler and Auto-Suggestion

Decades later I interviewed, for Muscle & Fitness magazine, Dr. Aladar Kogler, the Hungarian fencing coach and sports psychologist associated with high-level mental preparation, visualization, biofeedback, relaxation techniques, and Olympic-level fencing success.

In the old strength-culture telling, Kogler was the man behind a highly formalized Iron Curtain psychological method used by great lifters and athletes of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I cannot document every “state secret” detail here, but Kogler’s sports-psychology credentials and mental-preparation work are real enough. This Brain Train approach had one purpose: improve athletic performance.

To oversimplify, Kogler taught athletes how to use auto-suggestion to improve performance. Be it lifting a barbell, running a sprint, throwing a discus, or driving a bobsled, repeated auto-suggestion was intended to make you do whatever you do better.

Auto-suggestion is the creation of a mental movie in the head of the athlete. The mind movie is of the athlete successfully performing whatever the athletic task happens to be. Modern research on imagery supports the usefulness of mental rehearsal for some athletes and some tasks, but the old lesson was always practical: see it, feel it, repeat it, then do it.

Go to YouTube and pull up Soviet Olympic weightlifters such as Vasily Alekseyev, Anatoly Pisarenko or Yuri Zakharevich. Watch the way the great lifters stand over the barbell, running one final, highly detailed visualization of themselves successfully manhandling the barbell that sits at their feet. With the world watching, they open their eyes and attack the barbell.

How to Use Auto-Visualization Before Top Sets

A serious Olympic weightlifter would commence his pre-lift visualizations a few minutes before the attempt. The lifter would sit and chill, close his eyes and relax, getting into the zone. The lifter would run a mental movie of himself successfully making the about-to-happen lift, over and over and over. The more detailed the internal movie, the more effective the visualization. With each successive internal viewing, the lifter makes the movie more detailed, more realistic. He feels it more.

Kogler taught that over time, and with continual repetition, the athlete improves the depth and quality of the auto-visualization. The seasoned lifter sees his surroundings exactly as they are, as though looking through the lens of a camera placed 10 feet away. The lifter’s mental movie pictures the lifter standing over the barbell, then bending down to set his hands. He draws breath and launches the effort. He sees himself flawlessly executing the lift, with great ease, power and exactness. Over and over, in his mind, he launches the weight, using lightning speed and perfect technique.

The auto-visualization process has the added benefit of shutting out outside distractions. The combination of intense physical effort and the centering effect of repeated visualizations creates a meditative quality. When coming out of meditation, you are purposefully placid and mellow. Coming out of a series of auto-visualizations, you are purposefully psyched and aggressive, a warrior ready to do battle with a head full of visualized perfection.

I teach powerlifters and hardcore athletes Kogler’s auto-visualization technique. It is as simple as it sounds. Run short clips of yourself ripping into the top set or sets of an exercise. I would initially shoot for three visualizations before an all-out set. With each of the three mind movies, seek to improve the detail and realism. With each successive visualization, try to feel it more. Allow the trance-state to take hold.

I have my guys shut their eyes and listen to music while doing the visualizing. This cuts them off completely from the outside world: no distractions, no conversations. One vivid visualization is better than ten superficial, half-ass visualizations.

Do Not Waste Psyche on Warm-Ups

Close your eyes, listen to the music, begin your first visualization. Make the mind movie unfold in real time, not accelerated time and not slow motion. Pick each visualization up as you ready yourself to approach the barbell.

Don’t waste visualizations and precious psyche on warm-up sets. Psyche is finite. You have a certain amount heading into a session. Be stingy. Only use visualization and psyche on the top sets of each progressive resistance exercise.

Beware of Getting Over-Psyched

Here is a subtle point: you can get over-psyched. Psyche Masters like Kirk Karwoski must be on guard to not get too deep into their auto-visualization psyche-trance. Champions can visualize so realistically that the body believes the body-shattering effort is happening and prematurely dumps precious fight-or-flight resources into the system. This is disastrous for the about-to-happen attempt. Psyche masters must be careful not to over-psyche.

The payoff comes when you hit psyche just right and, after coming out of a triple visualization, a personal-record poundage feels light. The more often auto-visualization is used, the better the athlete becomes at using this tool. Keep in mind, it takes continual and repeated practice: daily, weekly, monthly practice to truly master and optimize this old U.S.S.R.-style mental training tactic.

This Brain Train tactic was once so highly regarded in strength circles that it was spoken of like a state secret. Now you know the secret. Do something with it.

Equipment Notes for Brain Train and Strength Practice

Brain Train does not require exotic equipment. It requires a real training goal, a real top set, a real exercise, and a disciplined athlete willing to practice mental rehearsal with the same seriousness used to practice technique.

For barbell-centered strength training, lifters and facilities can compare barbells, Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, and dumbbells. These are the basic tools that create the meaningful top sets worth psyching for.

For commercial or structured training spaces, compare selectorized gym equipment, plate-loaded leverage gym equipment, and cable tools such as the Body-Solid Pro ClubLine cable crossover. Specific free-weight options such as Troy VTX round urethane fixed barbell sets and IRON COMPANY urethane hex dumbbells can support progressive training when matched to the lifter, room, and goal.

The equipment does not create psyche. The athlete creates psyche. The equipment merely gives that psyche a place to be expressed.

Safety Note for Psyche, Visualization, and Maximal Attempts

Psyching up should sharpen the lifter, not make the lifter reckless. Visualization, music, aggression, and arousal are tools. They should never override technique, pain signals, safe loading, spotter needs, rack setup, recovery status, or common sense.

Stop or scale back for chest pain, dizziness, faintness, confusion, numbness, sharp joint pain, unusual shortness of breath, panic, loss of control, repeated technical collapse, or any rep that becomes a different lift than the one being trained.

Visualization and meditation-like practices can be useful, but they are not medical or mental-health treatment. This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW Brain Train coaching perspective. It is not individualized medical, mental-health, rehabilitation, or programming advice.

Related Psyche and Brain Train Reading

For the old-school history of extreme psych-up methods, read Psyche Enhancement Evolution for Weightlifting. For a companion article on the line between productive psyching and chaos, read Weightlifting Psyching or Psycho?.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.