Why You Need To and How to Lift With Intent

Stop Spinning Your Wheels and Going Through The Motions

I am an observant type, you could call me a “creeper”, but I am far too handsome, so thus observer is the proper term.

When I go to the gym, I like to look around and observe what others are doing. This helps me become a better coach because I get to see common shortcomings and flaws within other’s training. The reality is most people, 50-80%+, depending on the gym, have no fucking clue what they are doing.

The biggest one that always jumps out at me is how people train in terms of the effort and focus of their training, or rather, the complete lack of effort and focus.

Most people in the gym look like they are at a social club rather than a gym, or when actually working out are more focused on hitting some arbitrary rep number or stop before a set actually gets difficult, which is where progress actually happens.

You cannot go to the gym, unfocused and with zero intent and expect anything to happen, if it does, it’ll be painstakingly slow and wasting your time. You don’t need to look all extra and psycho, but you need a degree of grit and high focus to make your sessions meaningful.

If we are all being honest with ourselves—even myself at times—we have workouts where we are just kinda going through the motions, maybe lying to ourselves that we are working hard, but in reality we are more focused on just being done than the workout itself. This is HIGHLY counterproductive. You are there, make it worth your time or you’re just wasting it plus an opportunity to grow and progress.

What Is Intent?

Intent is simply the purpose and goal you have when you walk into the gym - intent is the focus on the outcome you desire for that focus.

You need to have this intent, walk in knowing exactly why and how you need to workout, and execute on that intent with ruthless focus.

Intent is the opposite of just going through the motions. You know exactly why you are there and what you need to do and focus solely on that. You have 60 or so minutes—give or take—in the gym. That is a small portion of your day, but it is one of the most important portions of your day. Maximize that time by giving it 100% focus based on your intent for the workout.

Not working out with intent is actually just a waste of time. You could’ve given just a little more effort and focus and made great progress. Instead you just haphazardly went into the gym, spent 60 minutes fucking off, and have no progress to show for it.

Know what the fuck you need to do, focus on just that, execute on your intent, and get out and reap the rewards.

Proper intent is being in the zone, almost having tunnel vision.

How To Develop Intent In The Gym

Intent is a product of proper planning and to a degree knowledge and education. You need to understand the importance of what just a little more effort can yield and how detrimental a little less focus can be.

Understand that you really only have a few sets, and even then a few reps, the last ones, the hard ones, the ones you really need to focus on to grow. Skimping out on these moments is make or break for the productivity of your session.

This is easy to get right, just requires the proper protocols, planning, and mindset before we even step foot in the gym.

Having An Actual Workout Plan

Don’t walk into the gym with some half-cocked idea of what you’re going to work that day. Don’t walk in thinking “oh I’m going to hit chest today” and have no other intent than this.

Have a good program (I legitimately have over 10 of them here, the Upper/Lower, Full-Body, and everyone’s favorite—the PPL) and go in knowing exactly what you’re working, in what desired order, with actual rep range targets, the whole 9 yards.

This is the first and most important step to actually having the right intent with your workouts. Sure, some can get away without one, but you’re adding another obstacle and complication that will make you think. You don’t want to think about what to do next, you should be focusing on your workout, 100% in the moment.

Track Your Lifts & Have Micro Goals

Not only should you have a workout routine to follow, you should track your sessions so you can actually gauge and implement progressive overload—which as we all know is the main driver of muscle growth.

You know you need to add either weight or reps to elicit a growth response, so you know that you need to beat the number from your last sessions—this is your “Micro Goal”, your goal within each set for each movement to try to hit to ensure you grow.

Your focus should be in the moment, on whatever that number is to beat last session, and only that. If you can focus and attack these micro goals you will be maximizing your progress. This will force you to bring proper intent to the gym in order to beat the numbers.

Put The Phone Down and Stop Talking

You are there to lift, you are not there to chat up some bro or try to pick up some gym chick (a lot of them are bad news anyway). Do this before or after your lift, this will take you out of the zone and that can completely ruin a workout.

Some people, including myself, can use their phone between sets, rest the right amount of time, and get right back into the zone, no issue. A lot, probably most cannot do this. It will be a total distraction and waste time and mental effort.

Be honest, you know yourself, if it’s an issue, put it down, only touch it to change a song, and stop snapchatting push-up bra Susan, she will be there after your lift.

If you have an issue with people talking to you and distracting you, either nicely tell them you can’t talk or wear headphones (over the head ones work best) and act like they don’t exist… or be a total psychopath like me and just straight up ignore them.

Take Some Caffeine Before Training

Caffeine is well documented to promote better performance in the gym, but it also has the benefit of increasing focus as well. If you need more focus, especially if you need more energy, 100-300mg of caffeine prior to a workout can provide that enhancement.

Caffeine can help you get into that “zone” during your workouts which in turn is going to improve your performance and focus during sets, which can directly lead to better muscle growth. While not anabolic in itself, this performance boost absolutely is.

There are other additives you can find in pre-workout supplements that further enhance focus, but that is a rabbit hole for another day.

Understand This BIG point

This ties everything together, this is why we are even talking about this in the first place. As I mentioned above:

Understand that you really only have a few sets, and even then a few reps, the last ones, the hard ones, the ones you really need to focus on to grow. Skimping out on these moments is make or break for the productivity of your session.

When we really break it down, we have maybe 1 or 2 movements that are make or break for our session. Probably the compound or first movements in the lift. Even then, most of the set doesn’t matter, it isn’t going to stimulate the growth response.

What’s going to stimulate the growth response is the extra rep—if we had 10 reps last session in our logbook, getting rep 11 today is where we grow. Why? Because that is novel or a new stimulus—our body has never done that many reps with that weight so it’s new, the body must adapt to overcome this, when that adaptation happens, that is when we grow!

This doesn’t mean we get to fuck off the rest of the lift, it all matters and all is going to contribute to growth. The point is, those few moments to get that extra rep or push that extra weight is where growth happens.

You cannot afford to lose focus or stop short of the effort needed to push beyond your previous capabilities.

That is lifting with intent, the intention that we will do whatever it takes to beat the last session and beat the numbers in our logbook.

Don’t Fucking Miss!

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#WAGMI

Your friend,

- BowTiedOx

DISCLAIMER

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Please consult a medical professional before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol. These are opinions from a Cartoon Ox.

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