By: MuscleSports.net
“After many years in the sport of bodybuilding, we have concluded that the mind is responsible for all of your rate of progress in the sport!”
DL
After many years in the sport, we have concluded that the mind is responsible for your rate of progress. Eight-time Mr. Olympia winner Lee Haney has always emphasized that successful bodybuilding begins in the mind. So has Arnold Schwarzenegger. I remember one Haney’s favorite saying’s “The mind and the muscle must be linked together one without the other is useless. He has eight Olympia titles, we think he knows from which he preaches.
Concentration is a key to the achievement of stunning bodybuilding progress and is one of the most important factors in the actual physical performance of a workout. It seems that no matter how diligently you apply yourself to the successful completion of the exercise you are doing, your mind will begin to wander to other things, such as academic, financial, and family problems; personality conflicts; and workout scheduling conflicts (due to lack of training time). Relentlessly, other intrusions from the mind interrupt your concentration capacity.
This is natural, but as you continue to push forward in your bid to succeed in bodybuilding, you will eventually reach a point where you will be able to shut out most of these intrusions.
The following seven steps will help you greatly in achieving super shutout concentration.
- Always think about your training in a positive manner.
- Block out all negative thoughts.
- Plan your workouts so that you won’t be interrupted.
- Don’t make an excuse to miss a workout.
- Don’t let your thoughts wander to other things; make every exercise movement mental as well as physical.
- Always be pleasant to others, but make it clear that you are training and nothing must interfere with your workout.
- The visual imagery technique: This is a type of focusing on the concentration link between the mind and the muscle.
It is a training secret that all of the top bodybuilding champions use to shock their muscles into new dimensions of growth.
EXPLORING THE VISUAL IMAGERY TECHNIQUE:
- • The idea behind this technique is to form clear and vivid pictures in your mind of the perfect set of repetitions you plan on doing prior to actually performing the set.
- • Using the bench press, it goes something like this: sit on the edge of your exercise bench and close your eyes. Mentally (remembering to let clear and vivid pictures form in your mind) visualize yourself lying back on the bench, making sure that your shoulders and buttocks are in full contact with the bench. The small of the back is arched (helps shorten the distance that the barbell must travel and also kicks the lats in as a support muscle), and the feet are planted firmly on the floor.>
- • Taking a hand spacing that will activate the most pressing muscle response for your body type, smoothly lift the barbell out off the upright supports (using a spotter will help you conserve valuable lifting energy).
- • Your arms are locked; now see yourself unlocking your powerful arms and begin lowering the barbell at a medium speed to the chest. Lowering the barbell too slowly will cause you to lose valuable energy, which is necessary later for pushing past the “sticking point.” Inhale as you lower the bar to your chest.
- • Just as the barbell touches the chest (this should be at a point that will bring he tips of your elbows to a position as close as possible to parallel to the floor), visualize yourself channeling all the strength of every muscle fiber involved in the movement. See those horseshoe-like triceps, armor-plated pecs, and coconut deltoids literally blast or explode the weight off the chest in an even and controlled manner.
- • After the initial blast off the chest, there often is a slight arm lag. To overcome this problem, focus your vision on the very center of the bar. Continue to feel yourself becoming more and more powerful as you steadily apply more effort to pressing the barbell to the lockout position.
- • This completes the visualization of one perfect rep. Continue to rehearse this for each additional repetition you plan on performing in the particular set.
- • You will see no failure, only success with each repetition completed in a strong, positive way. You should now be mentally and physically ready to begin the actual physical set of repetitions.
- • You should use visual imagery in all areas of your muscle-building program, from warming up to cooling down. You won’t find one successful bodybuilder today who doesn’t utilize this principle to its fullest.
Tags: bodybuilding life
Train Smart & Train Hard!
DL
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