Upon waking up I realized that over the last two or three nights I’ve had something happen reoccuringly in my dreams :
Sets of 20+ pullups.
Now at present I can get around 5.
The dream was set in the present, the difference in performance was going to a different place psychologically.
It wasn’t seeing red, though that can make you stronger.
It both was and wasn’t putting on a show for onlookers, in one dream I did 20+ off of some scaffolding while waiting in line at some movie premier in nyc.
That was to show off for my girl, and amusing myself rubbing in my superiority to a couple dudes who I knew from school and their girls.
It wasn’t particularly asshole either, I wasn’t being vindictive, it was just zen – thinking “look scaffolding, I’ll have some fun” saying “babe you see them all staring angrily, watch this”, and done with innocence and a smile on my face.
There was something far more base, far more primal, far more natural than showing off as the reoccurring motivation to do however.
I clicked out of the modern world’s conditioning, and into the “alpha state”, a place of zen, a place of truth.
One set at the gym was the thought I can keep going as I’d hit 5, then again at 10, and 15.
I dropped at 20 when I realized what I had just done which caused me to get out of that state.
Moments later in the same dream someone (pf manager) said “I’d like to see you hit 20”, and I immediately went and did so with them watching.
This time thinking at 6 reps in “I can do more”, then again at 11, 16, and dropping at 21 when I realized what I had just done which caused me to get out of that state.
They realized that I’d said how I went from around 5 to 20, and noticed that I’d just did 21, another improvement.
As the dreams progressed the reps progressed from a set of 20 to a set of 30+.
You know those usmc pullup bars set up at events?
With some guy who had advised me before on pullups (an older felon who had done federal time, character based vaguely on a real life dude I’m acquainted with from the gym) steadying that rickety setup upon having told him of the few times from 5 to 20+ he told me ; “this time keep going, at 20 something say to yourself I can do one more, then keep saying it”.
I jump up, soon it’s 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, “I can hit 30”, 27, 28, 29 are hard, I do one difficult rep to get 30.
At 30 I realized that throughout the set I was actually getting progressively more powerful each rep, that is was just mental my perception of struggle on the ending reps.
The guy is congratulating me for going from 20 to 30 just like that, I’m still hanging from the bar, I look at him…
I see…
Instantly I’m free!
30 pullups in I start repping extremely explosive STRICT muscle ups.
No kip, no hip usage, just the mental clarity that “I’ve got the power”, and “this is my natural ability as a human” as I’m exploding without needing to attempt the pullup to dip transition.
I’m throwing myself to the top, easy as pie, on back power alone.
The guy is barely keeping the rickety setup from falling over.
I don’t think anyone else was around, but in the state I was in I wouldn’t have noticed.
I was present.
I knew that the setup was tipping, but it was of no concern, if I had to jump off I’d just backflip off landing on my feet like a cat.
I’ve got the power! This is my natural human physical ability!
I awoke, the line between dream world and real world being very blurry.