Your experience with the arousal-performance curve.

[RottenWillow]

Do you find you have a greater anxiety about something you haven't done before (fear of the unknown) or something that you have tried & encountered trouble with (anticipation of failure)?

great question! With me I actually have the most anxiety regarding difficult tasks at which I've previously succeeded. I guess I feel pressure to live up to my past accomplishments. When it's a new task, especially an athletic one, I experience mostly the really mild kind of anxiety we usually perceive as excitement.

 

[gingernuts]

i use visualisation techniques. if i am due to go up 5 or 10kg on squats i load up the bar, glare at it, see myself with the weight on my shoulders squatting the bar all the way down and all the way up again. i forget the weight just see myself doing the reps. then i dash in and get them done before the image can be removed or any negative thoughts arise. usually works for me!

 

[Sassy69]

I have issues about my back & squats, but starting w/ a box squat is helping me a lot knowing I have a bail-out if I buckle or get a spasm. Though if I'm stuck sitting, I still sort of look around to see if anyone looks like they know how to spot just in case.

Here's one place where the not knowing actually freaked me out worse -- working w/ the trainer who won't tell you how many reps he expects you to do -- but just keeps counting. I fuckin hate that. He says if you know how many reps you are doing, then you cheat yourself out of any more that you could've done. Which is bullshit in my mind because if I have a rough target then I know roughly where I'm trying to get to - I usually know how much I can do within a few of the total amount I can do. But if I have this guy who randomly pushes beyond what I am mentally focused on, I actually developed huge anxiety. Its a mental thing, but that's where I need that amount of control to focus on achieving the next rep and not worrying about someone else's percieved view of how many reps I can handle.