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You’re ready to start pumping iron and get cardiovascularly
fit, and you’re excited about reaching your physique
goals. You’re highly motivated to work out, even driven.
You’re anxious to get started. You want to do it all,
and you aren’t afraid to give it all you’ve got.
You’re committed to getting that body you’ve dreamed
about - no matter what!
Stop and take a moment to analyze all this. Do you see what’s
going on here? These are all thoughts and emotions. Whatever
you end up doing with your body is clearly preceded by certain
thoughts and emotions. In other words, your mind is moving
your body into action. Look at it this way: Your mind is the
control center for your body, and whatever you think will
have an effect on your body.
On the surface, all your feelings about succeeding in the
gym seem to be positive and desirable. And you’re right,
to an extent, but too much motivation can backfire, You can
be so enthusiastic that you’ll end up shooting yourself
in the foot, and that’s when those bulging pecs or that
sleek thigh sweep will remain just what they are now a dream.
I know what you must be thinking: “C’mon being
motivated can’t be bad. Did you drop some weight on
your head?” just hear me out.
Bodybuilding is a new and exciting activity for you, and you
can attain your specific fitness goals in a multitude of ways.
But here’s the problem: Though your mind seems to harbor
limitless positive feelings for this new activity, your body
is limited in what it can withstand. From a physiological
perspective, you must look at training as a form of stress
you place on your body. Your body will adapt favorably to
this stress by getting bigger, stronger and more flexible,
but only if you apply the right amount of stress and allow
yourself to recuperate sufficiently between workouts. If you
don’t, you won’t make gains and may even injure
yourself.
Here’s where all these positive emotions can become
a problem. Because you’re so motivated and excited,
you end up working out at higher levels of intensity than
your body can deal with. Before too long, you’ll reach
a plateau where you don’t get any stronger or bigger
or lose any more body fat. But because of your high degree
of commitment and drive, you might figure that you aren’t
working hard enough or aren’t as motivated as you should
be. So you end up doing precisely the wrong thing you train
even harder. That’s when one of three things will happen:
1) You still won’t make gains, 2) you end up injuring
yourself, or 3) you quit because you aren’t getting
anywhere.
Reality Check
You can stop this vicious cycle by recognizing that your enthusiasm
may take your body beyond its capabilities. Just like you
need to curb your workout in an effort to avoid over-training,
you need to approach your training sensibly and with a close
of reality. Let your intuition guide you and see what kind
of answers you come up with to the following questions:
• How motivated do I need to be to reach my goal?
• If I’m more motivated than that, will I reach
my goal more quickly?
• Am I able to force my body into responding more quickly
than biologically possible?
• Is more better?
• Is rest necessary for progress?
• If I take a few days off, will I lose all of what
I gained?
The questions could go on and on, but the answer to each seems
rather lucid. So approach both the mental and physical parts
of your newfound activity with moderation, guided by reality.
Goal Setting
If you look to sport psychology for research on goal-setting,
you’ll find that many components need to be addressed.
Not attending to each decreases the likelihood that you’ll
reach your goal, but I wouldn’t necessarily advise a
beginner to attend to all of them. Here are my top picks:
Though you should have a long-term goal, don’t get bogged
down with it. For the most part, it’s quite a ways off.
Focus on short-term goals, such as learning proper technique.
Take it one step at a time and enjoy the process of becoming
more proficient in some of the more complex exercises. As
you get better at them, you’ll notice how much stronger
you actually are.
Confidence
Focus on maintaining confidence in your ability to reach your
physique goals; developing a plan of attack for your workouts
can help. When practicing your technique, elicit a mental
picture as well. See yourself perform the new exercises with
perfect form and use positive self-talk to ground the mental
exercise. Finally, seek to understand the reasons why you
should do certain things.
Commitment
You’re highly committed to your training now, and the
secret is to maintain this commitment and use it in the right
quantity so it doesn’t end up hurting you in the long
run. Besides being unnecessary, continually thinking about
working out can interfere with other aspects of your life
and certainly won’t help you attain your fitness goals
any more quickly. To avoid burning out, restrict your commitment
to and thoughts about training to only those times when it’s
necessary - about an hour before and during your workout.
You could also engage in some relaxation training to help
clear your mind, or simply find other activities to immerse
yourself in when you aren’t exercising. Don’t
force the issue; be realistic about your approach. Your life
should never revolve around only one activity, even if it
is bodybuilding.
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