Psyching up, burning out the CNS and knowing when you're fully recovered

Nothing has the potential to end someone's lifting career as much as psyching up constantly, for every session, every set. Indeed I have trained with people who even used to do it before every single set of assistance work, and sadly watched them burn out over the course of a few years.  Many people who use the iron as an emotional outlet have gone the same way - rapid gains over a short amount of time and then crashing and burning.

So when is the correct time to psyche up for lifts? For me, it is when I go for a new PB in the gym. And always in competition. Going nuts for all your sets of assistance work and muscle building is totally pointless. Save the 'on' switch for when you actually need it. Same goes for the excessive use of stimulants. Smashing a ton of ephedrine before a light biceps and triceps workout is a bad idea, because when used too often it becomes less effective when you actually need it (in competition). Also when you psyche yourself up in the gym put yourself in a happy place. Negative motivation and reliving unhappy memories does work extremely well but the emotional stress it places on you is excessive. I save that for competition time only.

The nervous system varies from person to person but everyone needs to ensure that theirs is completely primed and fresh for competition. You may want to find your own method of knowing when yours is ready, so you know how long to deload for. You might find that when you are ready to roll that you become jittery and anxious, even without any caffeine. I personally found that playing chess against the computer was a good gauge. If I was still tired from my training cycle, I would get beaten easily. If I left it too long without training I would become too jittery to the point where I would rush things and end up making silly mistakes. Through trial and error I found I played best 5-7 days after my last training session, so this is how long I deloaded for last competition. I went to comp primed, fresh and ready. 240kg bench flew up faster than ever, followed by a close miss at 251kg which would have been the British record. This was after getting crushed by 247.5kg in training only 6 days before.