Does Visualisation Work

Take a moment quickly and close your eyes. Imagine that you're standing on a stage in an auditorium where the entire audience is standing up and giving you a thunderous applause for a well delivered speech. Just imagine that for 10 seconds. How do you feel? Did you feel your facial muscles relax? If you were frowning before the exercise did you feel your face relax and a slight smile begin to push it's way through. That's the power of visualisation.

Experts in this field say that the mind does not know the difference between a real experience and a very vividly imagined experience. They say that the same neurological components are ignited with a vividly imagine scenario and a real experience. My knowledge in this field is limited so I cannot comment too much on that but what I can share is my experience with visualisation.

Remember that our bodies are connected to our minds and everything happens in the mind before it happens in the body. What does that mean for physical training though? It's really quite practical actually. If we rehearse, visualise, our workouts before we get to the gym, then what we're doing is preparing our bodies for when we get there. The mind is already engaged and starts to prime the hormone producing glands for the upcoming workout.

I rehearse every workout long before I ever set foot in the gym. What that does for me is it gives me a focus. Like a race horse making ready to dash down the straight, a single focus is very powerful and believe me when I say this one action will bring remarkable growth and success to your training time. Combine that with your programme that has been set out and you have a winning combination.

If you  train in the mornings then first thing in the morning spend some time rehearsing your programme. Go through each exercise as you would do it in the gym. Feel your muscles lifting the weight. If you do this exercise every time you go and train you will be well on your way to developing that all important connection between mind and muscle.

Visualise, rehearse and then show those weights what you're made of. See it and then do it.