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CONDITIONING YOUR MIND
Beyond pumping iron there is
another kind of preparation for bodybuilding competition, a preparation
just as important, and one that involves subtle factors concerning your
attitude and mental approach to training and competition.
You can
achieve great things with your body if you learn how to use your mind.
Learning to harness the power of your mind can advance your physical
training a giant step further. It can also make the difference between
winning and losing in competition.
Mind power and success through
mind conditioning only comes with a sustained and sincere effort. You
can't make a wish and hope that it comes true and forget about working on
it. The mind reacts much the same way the body does. If you train and
condition it regularly, it responds with great efficiency and
effectiveness. On the other hand, if you assume, as so many bodybuilders
do, that it's good enough the way it is, your chances of achieving your
maximum potential are greatly diminished. If you had foolishly assumed
that attitude about your body, you would never have entered the gym to
train in the first place.
Some of the key ingredients to an
effective mind conditioning program are 1) motivation, 2) incentive, 3)
visualization, and, most important of all, 4) belief.
You've gotta believe. You've
gotta believe in yourself, in your talents and capabilities, in your goals
and all you hope to achieve, and in your methods for achieving
them.
The key to understanding what your mind holds in store for you is
a simple realization. Realize that within you is all the power you need to
succeed both in training and in competition. Within you is all the
potential for success. Within you is the brain power of an infinitely
superior person, physically, spiritually and mentally.
Once you make
this realization -- that your mind holds a vast wealth of knowledge,
information, control, power, ability and potential -- you can start to tap
it. You can delve into your own secret depths and find out what you're
really made of.
MOTIVATION AND
DISCIPLINE FOR MIND CONDITIONING
Motivation is the
state of mind that generates positive feelings about achieving a purpose.
Some people are motivated by financial rewards, others by primitive urges
for physical pleasure. For you, the most highly motivating element in your
life MUST become your dream of acquiring unsurpassed, mind-blowing power
and mass.
But to be motivated isn't enough. It also takes discipline.
Discipline is what keeps you consistently scientific in your actions as
you strive to achieve your goal.
Here is a simple step-by-step method
to getting what you want:
Step
1:
Define your ultimate goals
clearly and write them down. This means being specific about what you
want. What kind of improvements are you looking for? Do you want simply to
increase your overall strength, your lean body mass, or reduce your
percent bodyfat? Or, is it the NPC Championships? The Olympia? Maybe
you’re "of Iron" and chose POWERLIFTING to excel in! That, friend, is
GOOD! Then concentrate specifically on the actual aspects you wish to
improve, and write them down. You'll be surprised at how much clearer you
can make it by simply putting it in words. When you have to select the
exact words to define what you want, you tend to develop a super-clear
image of your goal.
Step
2:
Devise a series of short-term
goals which will ultimately lead to realizing your main goals. It's easier
to attain a short-term goal that's within reach than to try and make great
leaps in progress all at once. When you try too much at once and fail you
tend to get discouraged. Instead, set a number of short-term goals that
you can accomplish and then knock them off one at a time. Focus
exclusively on the short-term goal you wish to achieve most of all, not
even thinking about the next short-term goal or the long run. Each one of
your short-term goals should lead you to completion of your major goal.
Each short-term goal is a stepping stone, not an end in itself. That's why
they have to be accomplished one at a time. And as you complete each
short-term goal, you will find that you are all the more motivated to
continue your trek to greatness.
Step 3:
Create your strategy for success. This is your
game plan, your INTEGRATED training program. On the same sheet that you
wrote your long-term goal and listed the short-term goals that will get
you there, you should break down your daily activities into the best means
to get you where you're going. This means the routines, exercises, sets,
reps, intensity, practice, rest periods, diet, naps, posing practice and
so on. Follow your own plan to success. Prepare a daily schedule that
takes you in the direction you want to go, and recognize right from the
start that you are a unique individual, and require a program that's
necessarily different from anyone else's. Keep your goal sheet current and
review it day by day. A good place to start is with the "daily clocks"
presented in this book. These daily clocks are devised to allow you to
take advantage of all the various technologies science has to offer and --
at the same time -- allow you to thoroughly PERSONALIZE your goal-oriented
training. So, the hardest part is already done for you!
Step 4:
Visualize yourself succeeding. No one would
attempt to build a house without a set of blueprints. Likewise, you must
plan your success strategy, and actually "see" yourself, in your mind's
eye, accomplishing your goals. Your inner feelings, your thoughts, your
daydreams must all be filled with images of your ultimate success. Twice a
day -- once after training and once before bedtime -- read your goal sheet
out loud. Then close your eyes and with crystal clarity see yourself
becoming exactly as you want to. But see yourself actually accomplishing
your goals of acquiring great muscular size and proportioning, not just
wistfully thinking about how nice it would be to look that way.
Step 5:
Align your mind, body and spirit with
achievement. By affirming your commitment to your stated goals, and
actually visualizing and verbalizing your commitment, you will find that
your mind, body, spirit and emotional self all become one. The power of
this union will send an emotional supercharge to your body by actually
stimulating secretion of your body's "emotion-producing" biochemicals. The
alignment is accomplished by actually verbalizing your commitment while
visualizing it. For example, say, "I am committed to becoming the most
massive and cut bodybuilder in history." Repeat your commitment statement
before, during and after your success visualization every day.
Step 6:
Give yourself a reward for your
accomplishments. After you've achieved a sub-goal or your ultimate
goal(s), reward yourself in a significant fashion. I don't mean just
having an ice cream cone after a contest peaking cycle! That's not
significant enough to "anchor" the significance of your achievement firmly
in your mind and soul. Personally dwell upon your achievement and your
success. Congratulate yourself and savor the feelings of pride and
confidence in having taken direct action to make yourself bigger and
stronger.
The key to mental conditioning is to make your new
thoughts and new approach a habit. The more regular your new habit
becomes, the more quickly old and destructive habits fade away. The only
way to continue making progress is to regularly reinforce your new,
goal-directed integrated training.
It usually takes
about three weeks to implement this revised way of thinking. During that
time you're likely to feel tempted to return to old patterns and habits,
feeling that the old way was easier and "good enough."
Don't do it!
The more you
resist old habits, the stronger you'll become until you develop an iron
will to succeed and you no longer even think about returning to old
habits. Going back to your old mental habits would be akin to leaving the
gym forever.
Remember to create a goal, visualize it as real, and work
regularly to successfully attain firm footing on each of the stepping
stones that will take you to it. When you get there, you'll
know.
HOW TO GET MOTIVATED
AND STAY MOTIVATED
Let's back up for a minute before we review the steps toward
goal achievement. What got you into bodybuilding? Was it seeing a
bodybuilding show? Was it the incredibly huge and muscular kid next door?
Your older brother or sister who bodybuilds? Whatever it was, it no doubt
fostered in you a deep, abiding sense of passion for
bodybuilding.
That's the way all champions begin. With abiding passion
for what they do. With such passion, motivation almost always comes
naturally.
Passion is a hard
word to define. What "turns your crank" may be different from anyone else.
It's easier to describe what passion is NOT:
Passion is NOT need
to achieve. Instead, it's a burning desire to exceed ALL bounds! It's NOT
commitment to excellence, but utter disdain for anything less! And, it's
NOT endless hours of practice. It's PERFECT practice! It's NOT ability to
cope. Rather, it's total domination of ALL situations! And it's NOT
setting unrealistic or vague goals, because doing so too often prescribes
performance limits! Passion is NOT doing what it takes to win. Instead,
it's doing what it takes to EXCEED! It most certainly is NOT force of
skill or muscle. Rather, it's the explosive, calamitous force of
WILL!
If you believe in
and practice these things, then for you, winning is neither everything nor
the only thing. It's a FOREGONE CONCLUSION! But if, along the way, you
somehow stumble, PROFIT from the experience! Then, vow, by the power of
Almighty God, it'll NEVER happen again!
So, you see,
PASSION is all-consuming. That is what it takes to become a champion, and
that is what it'll take for you to achieve your ultimate bodybuilding
goals. If you haven't acquired passion, seek it first. Find it. Do not
begin without it, for you will be severely limited in your quest for
greatness.
INCENTIVE: THE MOTHER OF MOTIVATION
Motivation -- and
passion -- begins and ends with incentive. You have to know what you want
and why you want it, and achieving it may be reward in and of itself. This
is called "intrinsic" reward. "Extrinsic" rewards are such things as
money, trophies or prizes. In both cases, the rewards serve as incentive
to continue.
In
bodybuilding, this may mean that achieving a specific improvement provides
the incentive for going after it. More strength, stamina, cuts or sheer
muscle mass are various incentives.
But they may also be a part of
larger incentives such as being liked and admired, being a winner or
achiever, enjoying success, shaping a personal identity, gaining peer
acceptance, and so on.
Recognize incentive as a powerful motivating
force, not as something potentially destructive, evil, trivial or
shameful.
Steps to Goal
Attainment:
1. Set realistic short-term
goals.
2. Short-term goals should lead you to a long-term goal. Allow
for occasional setbacks along the way, but regard them as learning
experiences, thereby turning those setbacks into something positive.
3.
Set a training schedule and stick to it. (Again, the best place to find
such a training program is from among the integrated training programs
described right here in this book.)
4. Make pain and fatigue work for
you, as signs that your all-out effort is helping you attain your
goals.
5. Constantly challenge yourself in your training.
7. Devise
your own, personal definition of success. It's what you say it is, not
what someone else says.
8. Believe in yourself and foster positive
aggression in your training.
9. Build a strong ego, but a restrained
one.
YOUR EMOTIONAL
STATE
Your mind and your emotions are tightly tied
together. It's up to you to find a balance between them and exert absolute
control over them. Your
emotional state plays a large role in your overall training. The way
you're feeling inside has repercussions for your behavior and performance
on the outside. There are many different factors which go into the makeup
of a solid emotional base. Some of these factors are:
Your own self-esteem contributes greatly to the level of your
sports performance. Self-esteem can vary greatly within the time confines
of a single training session, and it can mean the difference between
winning and losing in a competition setting. One minute you may hate
yourself over an error you've committed on the posing platform or in the
gym, and a few moments later you could reverse that feeling completely by
performing exceptionally.
This sort of event
can -- and often does -- lead to superlative performance throughout the
remainder of your training session in the gym, or in your onstage
performance. In either case, your mental appraisal of yourself -- your
self esteem -- counts for a great deal in your performance.
However common this
sort of scenario may be, it is not the sort of thing to be sought after.
It would be far better if your self esteem going into the gym or
competition was such that ONLY superlative performance throughout was
possible. Day after day, month after month, building ONLY the possibility
of success into your training by careful, integrated application of
science will tend to maintain peak mental attitude and feelings of self
esteem.
Success
begets success.
FEAR AND
SELF-ESTEEM
Fear of Failure:
Fear, depression, anxiety or over-arousal can
all lead to sub-par training or competition performance. For every winner,
there are many losers, and often the distinguishing feature between the
two is attitude, positive thinking and the absence of inhibiting
fear.
Fear of the competition, for instance, can put you in a defeatist
frame of mind even before the competition begins. If you're so "psyched
out" that you consider your opponent unbeatable, then you have defeated
yourself.
Instead, your goal
is to foster belief in yourself, train hard to achieve the means to
victory, then realize you have made your belief work for you.
All your
success comes first out of belief in yourself. In fact, belief and success
go hand in hand. Once you rid yourself of fear, you begin to see yourself
as potentially better than your opponent, and that's the key to
winning!
In a state of
fear, you will never see yourself as potentially better than your
opponent.
So, it's obvious then, that your state of mind determines, to
a large extent, whether or not you ever "see"
victory.
Fear of
Injury:
Fear of injury is another inhibiting factor.
Doubtless you've heard of the "oft-injured" athlete who is forever on the
disabled list. Sometimes, when this athlete returns to active play, he/she
tends to be slightly gun-shy, afraid of injury, and might even alter
his/her style of play to protect from injury. Ironically, playing to
protect yourself against injury often leads to it, because you're pulling
up, not following through with movements and contracting your muscles
irregularly.
The same sort of protective training occurs in
bodybuilding. The effects of a torn rotator cuff, a pulled hamstring or
whatever injury you may have suffered, all tend to linger long after the
injury is healed sufficiently to be trained again. Being careful is
prudent. But being unreasonably careful will serve naught but keeping you
from your goal.
Fear of
Success:
Picture this scenario. Your best buddy is your
training partner. He means a lot to you, and you don't want to embarrass
him by showing him up with your superior physique, strength or pain
tolerance. Whatever.
Were does this
lead? Believe me, this sort of "fear" is not all that uncommon!
Being
pals is one thing. But a real pal will recognize (although perhaps not
acknowledge or accept at permanent) your superior abilities. Turn your
friendship with your training partner into a healthy, constructive,
friendly competitive situation!
If you feel that
your training partner is holding you back, don't train with him anymore!
If you're an aspiring elite bodybuilder, your training program isn't going
to match his anyway. Being buddy-buddy to the extent of following the
identical training programs rep-per-rep, exercise-per-exercise, day after
day is downright stupid.
Other situations involving unreasonable fear of succeeding are:
- Not wishing to attain your ultimate goal for
fear of no longer having anything to strive for;
- Not wishing to be forced to accept the
socio-psychological responsibilities associated with being the champion,
and
- Not wanting to totally commit to doing
everything necessary in order to become the champion.
The
first step in eliminating these sorts of fears is to realize that they
exist. Then, it's a simple matter of intellectually reasoning as to why
such fears exist and how utterly silly such fears really are.
A skilled
sports hypnotherapist or sports psychologist may be able to assist you in
eliminating these potentially debilitating roadblocks to
success.
CONCENTRATION
Success in sports performance
can be likened to the practice of Zen masters. The concentration is so
complete, there is no consciousness of concentration. The player must be
one with his sport in order to execute it to his/her optimal
ability.
You have no doubt been in a situation where your entire
attention was so rapt and absorbed in one thought that you completely
blocked out all others. This was probably due to your high concentration
level on some thought of great importance to
you.
This kind of
focus can be a confidence builder.
The more you focus
on what you're working to achieve, the less distractions enter your
awareness. This lifts you out of the state of mind that can't "see"
success. Once you begin to "see" success, you consider yourself
potentially better than the competition.
Little by
little, you concentrate more and more, until you're unaware of anything in
your way. You see your way clearly to victory and success.
This is
total concentration.
This kind of total
concentration comes to those who develop total self-confidence. You must
have high self-esteem, high motivation, and be consistent in your training
program. You must develop your mind to the point that total concentration
is merely a learned response, one you never consciously think about
anymore.
Then, apply this sort of laser focus rep-per-rep and
set-per-set in your workouts. Apply it in following your daily integrated
training program. Just as success begets success, imperfect practice makes
your performance imperfect.
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