Get the Picture: Mental Imaging

What the mind of man can conceive and believe,

he can achieve.

Napoleon Hill,

Think and Grow Rich

Mind over matter. A phrase that we have all heard throughout our lives. We have heard countless times used in innumerable ways. Some sites claim it first appeared in 1863 in a work called the Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man. It was used in reference to an evolutionary growth of animals’ minds in relation to humans. Personally I have used it, tongue in cheek, as “If you don’t mind, then it doesn’t matter!” The trouble I got into that way.

Napoleon Hill knew about this concept when, in 1937, he wrote his book Think and Grow Rich. He instructs readers to write down positive affirmations and solid goals. You read this list several times during the day, but most importantly just before going to sleep and right after waking up. These two times are paramount.

Right before sleep and just after waking up, Hill knew, that the line between our conscious and subconscious minds was the thinnest. This is when the messages of success are going to pass into the subconscious mind. That is of primary importance. It is the lynch pin on which everything else will hang in this piece.

Why? Because our subconscious mind does not know the difference between what is reality and what is not.

MEDITATION

When we meditate and focus on thoughts and images of strength and success and get those images into our subconscious, they become a reality for our mind. What becomes a reality in our minds becomes a reality in our actions. It is a natural cycle. What we believe, we do, say, and perform. These outward actions bring success. This success reinforces our thoughts and beliefs. So the cycle continues.

I want to introduce you, in a manner of speaking, to Mark Divine. He is a former Navy SEAL Commander, an entrepreneur, an author, and a very successful man in very many ways. In his book The Way of the SEAL he teaches what he calls the “envision The Future Me” exercise.

Getting ready to do this mental imaging is the same for meditating and very similar to what I have experienced in some forms of yoga and what is done in tai chi and in many sports and arts.

First, find a comfortable seat or place to recline. The intention is not to fall asleep, but if you do, oh well. So long as you get the images into your mind.

Second, breathe deeply. Most of us only breathe into the upper part of our lungs. This restricts the amount of oxygen we take in. Think of the air coming into your lungs and filling them from the bottom up while you breathe in and push your belly out at the same time. As you are breathing, lightly press the tip of your tongue to the top of your mouth just behind your front teeth.

While breathing in, picture bright light coming in through your nose and into your body to illuminate all the dark recesses. As you exhale see and feel the darkness and dust leaving with your breath.

After several breaths of the light, just breathe and feel your body relax. Feel every muscle hanging under the effect of gravity.

Visualize what you want. Focus on it with laser like intensity. Go through your routine. Do your warm up. Feel all the stretches. Experience it in as much detail as possible. Use all of your senses. You already know how your workout area looks. Call up how it feels, smells, sounds. There is a unique taste to it as well, find it in your mind.

Go through your workout or the event you’re training for. Go through each play, each step, every single minute detail of what you will do. Experience it as a champion. Experience the victory. The deeper and richer the detail of sensations, the more real it becomes to your conscious and subconscious minds.

Back to Mark Divine. He writes about the Future Me exercise. Mark says in his book, The Way of the SEAL, on page 28 that

“Even though you may not feel or look the part now, you must envision yourself in your ideal state, activating your personal power and living in alignment with your stand and purpose. I learned in the SEALs that there’s no such thing as perfection, only perfect effort. Through practicing a “perfect” version of ourselves mentally, we’ll slowly become that person in real life.”

            Scientists are beginning to understand more about the mind/body connection. They are finding evidence to support this. One such study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine just this past September. In this study participants were divided in two groups. Both groups had one of their wrists and forearms put into a cast for four weeks. One group would perform guided mental imaging and the other group would do nothing for the duration.

            During the guided imaging the study group was led to envision themselves doing gripping, flexing, and extending exercises.

            The key points from the study are:

·         Coupling mental imagery with physical training is the best suited intervention for improving strength performance.

·         An examination of potential moderator variables revealed that the effectiveness of mental imagery on strength performance may vary depending on the appropriate matching of muscular groups, the characteristics of mental imagery interventions, training duration, and type of skills.

·         Self-efficacy, motivation, and imagery ability were the mediator variables in the mental imagery-strength performance relationship.

·         Greater effects of internal imagery perspective on strength performance than those of external imagery could be explained in terms of neural adaptations, stronger brain activation, higher muscles excitation, greater somatic and sensorimotor activation, and higher physiological responses such as blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate.

·         Mental imagery prevention interventions may provide a valuable tool to improve the functional recovery after short-term muscle immobilization and anterior cruciate ligament in patients.

Both groups lost grip strength. The control group registered a 46% loss overall while the study group registered 24%. That is a significant difference for a four-week period.

There is also a correlation in how hard you focus on the image and how detailed you make your images. Frequency is also a factor.

Bill Bradley, who served as a democratic senator from 1979 to 1992, used visualization throughout his basketball career. To him, that was a key part of practice and training.

For us, as athletes, whether we are training for fitness, flexibility, or one event or another, we can also benefit from this fact. When coupled with training, the effects of mental visualization are going to speed up recovery and improve our training. Our training will improve in our ability to focus while there, our muscles will benefit from a stronger mind-body connection.

So, when you go to bed tonight, fall asleep focusing your mind on the experience of The New You.

From the No-Budget, No-Whining, No-Excuses Basement Gym. Stay safe. Train hard.

Motivation Dedication

     Motivation, the reason, or reasons, one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. The dictionary labels motivation as a noun. I suppose it must be since it is a thing. If you ask people what motivates them to exercise you will receive varied and interesting responses. Almost everybody who is exercising because of somebody else. For some the body is the temple of God. For others, it is to be healthier and more active with family and friends. Being eye-candy and feeling sexier were also mentioned.
     The responses to this question seemed to involve being there for others. This is a great motivator particularly when those others are your immediate family. I come up with, find, and commit to working out for my family, eye-candy for my wife, general eye-candy, and ego as being excellent motivators. I am also competitive and want to be able to go at lest as far, as fast, and as hard core as people half my age. But, getting to this point took re-framing my initial view of working out.
     Motivation is great for the initial jump. It is the kick in the guts that really gets us moving on a run schedule. But, motivation, like fires, will burn out. What happens next? What do you do? You dig deeper and find dedication.

     Dedication is defined as being dedicated to a cause or an activity. Dedicated is being devoted, single-mindedly, to a goal or purpose; allocating time, energy, and all other needed resources to a particular goal, purpose, or service. Dedication to yourself is the key.
     Dedication is everywhere in our lives. We are dedicated to a project at work. We are dedicated to our children. We are dedicated to our friends and family and they are dedicated to us. In fitness, as in any other aspect of your life, you must take care of yourself. You must first love yourself. Then, you can take care of yourself.
     Dedication requires courage. The bottom line here is courage. Motivation and dedication vital to the formula, but without courage it will all fall apart.
     The kind of courage that I am talking about is from love, not just being afraid to do something and doing it anyway. The kind of courage that this takes is what the Greeks wrote about. What they held dear in their heroes and legends. The kind of stuff that writers of legend and lore like Homer from the age of lyric wrote about. The great endurance embodied in his heroes. A driving will to resist obstacles that were thrown into his path at every turn can inspire us today. Some days we feel like we need that. This will to continue, this kind of endurance, is not just for the outward enemies that Homer wrote about or that veterans of all wars have.

     This will, this inner strength, this courage, is aimed at inward passions and misfortune in general as well as the outside elements. These intangible enemies can be just as deadly and destructive as any met on beachheads and mountainsides. The courage, the heart to keep going forward at home, with family and, especially, inside oneself is the hardest courage to find on most days. But, it is the type that you already have and live every day whether you know it or not.

     Above, we mentioned your family and friends. You do almost everything for them and they for you. No questions asked. Well, there are the occasional, “Are you out of your mind?!” questions and looks. Still, by and large, there is a core group that falls into the You-Call-I-Haul category.

     Now, show yourself this kind of courage and dedication. Seriously. Many of us have a difficult time doing this. If someone you trust and love is willing to do that for you, aren't you worth doing it for yourself?

     This is ironness of heart, from the Oddyssey and the Illiad. This ironness is love. That is what drives us to greater achievements than any mindset alone ever could. It was no mindset by which Shakespeare wrote any sonnet. It was by no mindset that a squad member or platoon member ever ran back into a hail of gunfire and explosions to grab a wounded buddy. No, these were done from the heart, out of love. Courage, from love, is what gives the true warrior his heart. Love is what makes a mother such a formidable force.

     Bottom line? Love yourself enough to invest the blood, sweat, and tears into you that you would invest in your family or battle buddies without a second thought.

     Love your self enough to go that extra mile. To get to the gym even though you really don't feel like it. You show strength in the face of great pain or grief for your children. Now do it for you.

     It's 95+ degrees outside. I am going to the track to do my push ups, pull ups, sit ups, squats, and other aerobic training. I am going to do this because I want to be there for the people who need me. That list starts with Me and my Family.

What is your courage?