I'm wondering is anyone has ever had this experience. I think we can all agree that barriers of all kinds can be more in our heads than our actual ability, and this is an example. This morning I was doing my bench sets. I had warmed up well and then added on what is my max weight for doing 3-4 reps, no spotter. I guess I just spaced it out, but I added 25lb. plates rather than the tens I thought I had put on. When I lifted it off the pins I immediately knew it felt somewhat heavier, but I blew it off to just having a bad day. Brought it down and pushed it back up with some obvious extra effort, but it was good form. At that point I did feel that the weight was more than I thought, so I rested the bar back on the pins. When I got up I saw that I had put 25's on, not tens. I never would have tried a 30 lb. increase over max, but just goes to show, we're stronger than we think.
I forgot where I saw it but did read about this effect previously. It was explained to be a “safety feature” to prevent yourself from taking on a too heavy load and thus damaging/tearing your muscles. Your muscles are stronger than your mind makes you believe they are.
I've forgotten to add a plate on one side of a bar, I've pulled a big plate off a bar forgetting that there was a smaller one I didn't see in front of it (I know a guy who did that resulting in a broken foot), and I've also added more weight than I thought on occasion. I blame the young women in the gym for any weightlifting errors. Constant distraction. It is interesting that sometimes when you put extra weight on, you can press it. The risk of such a mistake, however, is blowing a tendon or a muscle. As you know, there is a turning point where mind over matter will reverse to matter over mind with age or inactivity if we don't adjust our limitations accordingly. I double check my weights now after each inc/dec for the errors listed above, and I test each weight with a partial rep or two to determine if I can handle it and how deep I can take it.
I do agree that at some point the weight comes crashing down. It did get my attention to stay focused. However, the chicks doing romanian deadlifts are impossible to not watch. Wasn't the case this time, I just spaced out.
The mind indeed controls the muscle. When I was a teen, I used to squat 440 for sets of 8-10 reps. One day I somehow "noticed" that's a lot of weight. I never squatted that heavy again.
Psychology is a bigger factor that most "hard" trainees would admit. If someone, hypothetically speaking held a gun to the head at end of the set demanded 3 more reps ...probably get 4 more! LOL. Pain & effort are subjective, and exist largely in the mind. One man's debilitating pain is another's mild discomfort.
I've found that I can lift more weight when my mind is distracted by thinking about something besides the workout. The conventional wisdom is to focus on good form while lifting, but that makes you sensitive to every pain and ache during the lift. I do better when I'm spaced out thinking about something else altogether, but then I incur the risk of poor form. If I can practice good form on "auto pilot" while thinking about something else, I'll have the best of both. Need to work on that!
Does this make me not be the only one who thinks of managing his trade setups and developing new trading software while in the gym?
I'm the exact opposite. I can quiet my mind in the gym by being mindful of each exercise as it progresses. It is an escape from everyday worries and stresses. Hell, depending on the intensity it can be a downright exorcism. Towards the end of each set it almost becomes a bit of a life-or-death thing. I find that when you're going all out and giving it everything you've got (in good form), it's difficult not to be fully focused on exactly what you're doing in the moment. As an aside, I don't do post-failure work; I just go to true positive/static failure and then finish with a very slow negative.