Bigger and Badder

If any of you follow The Rock on social media, you may have seen his short Instagram videos, in which he pauses in the middle of a set and yells across the gym at whoever he sees talking, “Hey … focus!” Then, with a smile and the People’s Eyebrow, he goes right back into his set. It’s always funny. He says he likes to bring intensity to the gyms that he trains in and remind others that if they want gains, they gotta shut up and focus.

Aside from being entertaining and humorous, it got me thinking about social media and our focus as bodybuilders. (Now here comes the “back when I started” crap.) I remember getting ready for my third show, the 1999 Alberta’s. I was only 23 and was going to college at the time. Flat broke, buying chicken from Costco on my friggin’ credit card. Hoping that after the show and the semester were both over with, I could somehow earn enough to pay for the food bill I racked up. Hoping there would at least be a first-place trophy there to console me for my efforts. 

I got up every morning at 6 a.m. and did my cardio. Went to school. Ate my meals. Smoked my workouts. Then returned home to cook food for the next day before cramming in some sort of studying. Then I’d pass out at midnight with an open book and Blood and Guts playing on my VCR. (C’mon Diesel! Mighty back!)

I remember people asking me how I was going to do. I answered every single one of them with “I’m going to win the whole fucking show.” It was that simple. I was going to win. I knew it. I felt it. I believed it. I can’t help but think that a lot of that was simply because I was ignorant of my competition. I was living in a small town, hours from the host city. So I had no contact with anyone doing the show. I had no idea how anybody looked or who was training hard. I had done well the previous year, so I knew of a few guys who might be “threats.” However, I really had no idea what type of package anybody would be bringing … except myself.

I was completely focused on me. I saw only myself in the mirror and my diet stuck to the fridge. I had nothing else on my radar. School and gym. No social life to speak of. No girlfriend. Nothing. It was perhaps the most solitary four months of my entire life, and it was all pure focus. The only thing I compared myself to was that famous black and white side triceps of Yates that was on my fridge. A high bar to set.

So I wonder now, with all the progress pics, IG clips, and media overload, if we always benefit from it. I’m sure it helps to motivate some, but I know it distracts others. So make sure you’re aware of all of this. It can hurt you if you don’t have the right perspective. It’s one thing to watch a video of Kai while you prep for a local show, but if you’re creeping all your fellow competitors’ pages, it can distract you from what you should be thinking … which translates into what you do and how you perform. Your physique starts in your mind. Remember that bodybuilding is a 100 percent mental exercise. I’m dead serious about that.

I wonder—would I have still won that show if I’d had Facebook to mess with my head?

Focus.

Train like hell,
Ron

For pictures of Ron to see just what FOCUS really is, check out his very own photo gallery!