The weight on the bar keeps increasing. Every session, every week, the numbers creep higher. You know this was the plan – 5 lbs at a time, like clockwork – yet suddenly you find yourself doubting whether you can even lift it off the pins, let alone squat it for three sets of five.

The symptoms are familiar:

• Anxious before training.
• No appetite.
• Doubting the program.
• Thinking your coach is insane.
• Toying with the idea of switching goals.
• Wondering if a “subtle” cut would make sense right now.

Congratulations. You’ve got a full-blown case of Intensity Day Jitters. Let’s be honest: we all go through this. You sit there, staring at your logbook, questioning whether today is the day the weight finally crushes you. What if you fail? What if you don’t even want to show up? I get it, I’ve been there.

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And I can say this with absolute certainty: every big lift I’ve ever done came with intensity day jitters. Every. Single. One. Of. The. Damn. Things.

The key? How you respond to fear.

Doing the Program: You Knew This Was Coming

This isn’t a surprise. This is exactly what we signed up for. From day one, we made it clear – the bar weight increases every session. That’s the entire point. The load on the bar is the main stressor that makes you stronger. If this were easy, it would be called sitting. We are lifting.

We never promised comfort. We promised progress. And guess what? Progress isn’t supposed to feel easy.

Why Are You Anxious?

Before we talk about how to deal with intensity day jitters, let’s break down why they happen. If you’re naturally an anxious person who spirals over everything, okay – maybe therapy is a better solution than changing your squat programming. But if this anxiety suddenly shows up out of nowhere after weeks or months of smooth progress, let’s look deeper.

Here’s what I’ve noticed over the years: lifters tend to get anxious when they haven’t done their homework.

Common culprits:

• Poor sleep
• Not eating enough
• Nagging pain from bad form
• Extra stress from work/life
• Sneaky cardio sessions (without telling your coach)
• Not eating enough (yeah, I said it again for a reason)

Most of the time, people get nervous because they know they’ve cut corners somewhere. And when the bar is loading up heavier than ever, it exposes that. The solution? Fix your habits. Stop trying to out-think the program and start following it properly.

Why Being Nervous Is Actually a Good Thing

Nervousness means you care. It means you give a damn about your training and want to perform well. That’s a good thing. But it’s a fine line – too much self-doubt will choke your performance before you even get under the bar. That’s not where you want to be.

Instead, shift your mindset:

• Nervous energy = fuel
• Fear = a sign this matters to you
• Pre-lift jitters = your body preparing for battle

This energy can either work for you or against you. Which one will you choose? When you embrace it, fear forces you to level-up. You start taking your recovery seriously, prioritizing nutrition, dialing in your technique, because you know the bar isn’t going to lift itself. That’s what separates the lifters who keep making progress from the ones who stall out and then quit.

Respond Positively to Fear

Easier said than done, right? But here’s the reality: this entire program has been leading you to this moment.

• You didn’t just wake up and put 405lbs on your back for no reason.
• You built up to this, one session at a time.
• You trained properly, lifted with good form, recovered well, and stayed consistent.

So what’s one more step forward? Look back at your logbook. See the numbers you’ve already conquered. Remind yourself of every weight you once feared but now warm up with.

The goal isn’t just hitting numbers – it’s becoming the person who does.

I was – and still am – you. I’ve stared at the bar in disbelief when training partners and coaches told me I could lift a weight I was certain was impossible. I’ve been that same scared skinny little boy, running from bullies, weighed down by self-doubt and convinced I wasn’t good enough. And yet, here I stand today. Living proof that fear isn’t a wall – it’s the engine revving at the edge of transformation. To become fearless, you can’t tiptoe around it. You have to dive headfirst into that fear, smash through the glass, and emerge stronger on the other side.

Fight Mode vs. Flight Mode

This is your body’s fight-or-flight response kicking in. It’s your biological alarm system saying, Hey, something big is about to happen.

Now, you have two choices:

• Fight – Step under the bar and grind through the reps.
• Flight – Make excuses, change your goals, and convince yourself, “It’s not worth it.”

For the sake of your training, and your long-term success, I pray you choose fight mode. Because this is more than just lifting. This is character-building. Stepping under a heavier bar than you’ve ever lifted and coming out the other side victorious changes you. It teaches you how to focus under pressure, overcome doubt, and deliver when it counts.

That’s not just a gym skill. That’s a life skill.

When the Rubber Meets the Road

This is where it happens. This is where you prove what you’re made of. It doesn’t matter if you squat 135lb or 405lb, at some point, every lifter reaches a weight that scares them. But the strongest lifters lean into that fear, not away from it:

• They don’t run.
• They don’t goal-hop.
• They don’t suddenly decide it’s time to “lean out” when things get heavy.

Instead, they put in the work, trust the process, and embrace the grind. Because at the end of the day, this is what we signed up for. This is the system. This is progress.

Turn Jitters into Laser Focus

Your fear and anxiety about intensity day are not weaknesses. They are signs that you are leveling up. So turn that energy into laser focus:

• Eat right.
• Sleep enough.
• Recover properly.
• Stop over-complicating things.
• Step under the bar and do what needs to be done.

The weight isn’t going to move itself. It’s time to get under it and find out what you’re made of. Show the world – and most importantly yourself – that you are a somebody.

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