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.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
What About Cardio
This is one of the biggest mindsets to change when teaching people about weight training. We have been so programmed by treadmills and cross fit trainers that when we are told that we need to leave those machines alone, we almost experience withdrawal symptoms. A better understanding of our bodies will help us make our minds up about this subject.
Cardio in itself is a great tool to get fit and to keep the heart strong. As far as being the most effective method for weight loss goes, it falls short to weight training for a number of reasons:
- Cardio utilises a different metabolic system than weight training. You will very often hear the word cardio interchanged with aerobic exercise. The reason it's called aerobic exercise is because it forces the body to take in more oxygen to assist in fat burning. This kind of exercise also utilises relatively small amounts of body fat for fuel. Just check your calories burned next time you've been on the treadmill for 20 minutes. It's very minimal compared to the work you've done to burn it.
- Weight lifting uses a different metabolic system and is often referred to as anaerobic, which basically means that oxygen is not the main factor used in this training to burn fat. The stress of the exercise is of such a high intensity that the body utilises fat reserves to fuel the sessions. This is what we want. To burn the fat.
If we are using our time properly in the gym and training with intensity then we should be burning more fat in our training sessions and the results should be obvious very quickly. This is dependant on your level of commitment of course. If you're going to give a half effort or cheat on form then you will get mediocre results.
This training programme is designed to take you from beginner level all the way through to advanced and even beyond if that is your intention. If you have been doing cardio all this time and still do not have the body you desire then perhaps it deserves a second look.
Please bear in mind that I am not saying that you need to give up your favorite sport now just because it has quite a bit of running or dancing in it. What I am saying is that the purpose of these posts is to help you build that all important muscle that is going to make doing all the activities that you love that much more enjoyable.
Cardio in itself is a great tool to get fit and to keep the heart strong. As far as being the most effective method for weight loss goes, it falls short to weight training for a number of reasons:
- Cardio utilises a different metabolic system than weight training. You will very often hear the word cardio interchanged with aerobic exercise. The reason it's called aerobic exercise is because it forces the body to take in more oxygen to assist in fat burning. This kind of exercise also utilises relatively small amounts of body fat for fuel. Just check your calories burned next time you've been on the treadmill for 20 minutes. It's very minimal compared to the work you've done to burn it.
- Weight lifting uses a different metabolic system and is often referred to as anaerobic, which basically means that oxygen is not the main factor used in this training to burn fat. The stress of the exercise is of such a high intensity that the body utilises fat reserves to fuel the sessions. This is what we want. To burn the fat.
If we are using our time properly in the gym and training with intensity then we should be burning more fat in our training sessions and the results should be obvious very quickly. This is dependant on your level of commitment of course. If you're going to give a half effort or cheat on form then you will get mediocre results.
This training programme is designed to take you from beginner level all the way through to advanced and even beyond if that is your intention. If you have been doing cardio all this time and still do not have the body you desire then perhaps it deserves a second look.
Please bear in mind that I am not saying that you need to give up your favorite sport now just because it has quite a bit of running or dancing in it. What I am saying is that the purpose of these posts is to help you build that all important muscle that is going to make doing all the activities that you love that much more enjoyable.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Finding The Stick-To-It-Ness
We all struggle with this one at some point in our lives. It's called procrastination. A very huge percentage of human beings actually suffer with this condition although it is actually a learned habit. If it is a learned habit then that means that we can "unlearn" it and replace it with a more productive habit.
At some stage of anything we do, we find ourselves feeling very nonchalant about something that we once were really excited about. A girlfriend, a new car, a new hang out spot and yes even a new workout routine. So how do we get past this feeling and get the excitement back. Well the first thing we need to recognise is that it will happen. That's just human nature.
On a more practical level though and especially with regards to sticking to a training routine, in my personal life I found one thing was more potent at keeping me training than anything else. Feeling a difference in the gym every time I went to train. Listen, there will be days when you will want to half-ass it at the gym because you're just going to gym because it's your day to train.
If you catch yourself feeling like that rather give the gym a skip. Trust me, one of two things will happen. You will either find yourself extremely motivated to go after turning around and changing your mind or else you really needed to rest. It's simple. But how do we ensure that every session has enough to keep us wanting to come back and wanting more? It's how we use the time in our sessions as I mentioned in my last post.
And if you think that there is a secret formula to stay motivated, I agree with you, it's the very thing that keeps me going back and busting my behind every time I go to the gym. It's called having a plan and expecting something from your sessions every time. If you train to failure you are going to ignite something in your muscles that will have them craving the experience over and over again.
Don't treat your training sessions as just another nice to have or a must do. Remember, you want to be able to still be running at 50, tossing a rugby ball to your grand kids at 60, and for the ladies, you want to be able to say goodbye and wave your arm without worrying about the skin shaking up a storm. This is the only body we get this side of the great divide. Take care of it.
Remember, if you get excited about your training sessions on the days that you're not even training, you are going to love the gym when you do eventually get there.
Stick to it!
At some stage of anything we do, we find ourselves feeling very nonchalant about something that we once were really excited about. A girlfriend, a new car, a new hang out spot and yes even a new workout routine. So how do we get past this feeling and get the excitement back. Well the first thing we need to recognise is that it will happen. That's just human nature.
On a more practical level though and especially with regards to sticking to a training routine, in my personal life I found one thing was more potent at keeping me training than anything else. Feeling a difference in the gym every time I went to train. Listen, there will be days when you will want to half-ass it at the gym because you're just going to gym because it's your day to train.
If you catch yourself feeling like that rather give the gym a skip. Trust me, one of two things will happen. You will either find yourself extremely motivated to go after turning around and changing your mind or else you really needed to rest. It's simple. But how do we ensure that every session has enough to keep us wanting to come back and wanting more? It's how we use the time in our sessions as I mentioned in my last post.
And if you think that there is a secret formula to stay motivated, I agree with you, it's the very thing that keeps me going back and busting my behind every time I go to the gym. It's called having a plan and expecting something from your sessions every time. If you train to failure you are going to ignite something in your muscles that will have them craving the experience over and over again.
Don't treat your training sessions as just another nice to have or a must do. Remember, you want to be able to still be running at 50, tossing a rugby ball to your grand kids at 60, and for the ladies, you want to be able to say goodbye and wave your arm without worrying about the skin shaking up a storm. This is the only body we get this side of the great divide. Take care of it.
Remember, if you get excited about your training sessions on the days that you're not even training, you are going to love the gym when you do eventually get there.
Stick to it!
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