Whatever your current goals, you will not be able to harden your body until you first harden your mind. Your thoughts are in complete control of what you do, and a strong will of the mind is what drives us to eat healthy, train hard, and stick to plans for the long term. Even the best routines for nutrition, training and supplementation will end ingloriously, if you do not have the will to bring them to the end. So why don’t more people accept this critical concept? Why do so many people who train and even successful athletes gain strength only after months or even years of effort?
We don't know exactly, but we have a theory that there is a force that drives you to achieve short-term goals! It is easiest to blame your noose, weakness and lack of muscles that are not under your control. But if you accept responsibility for your own success and failure, you will realize that your progress, or lack thereof, will start in your head. Fortunately, you can also choose to be better. Even a backup plan will work wonders if you follow it persistently, and most of your results will strengthen your willpower. With that in mind, we give you these 5 tips to improve your mental strength.
1. Test yourself
You cannot progress in what you do not measure. It is true that for bodybuilding as well as for business you will not develop mental strength if you do not test it constantly. Your mind is like a muscle, and it will arthrophy if you do not pose various challenges in front of it. There are many ways to test your mind, but since your ultimate goal is good physical appearance, there is no better place than a gym to achieve this goal. One of the best ways to test your mental strength is to expose yourself to hard training, in a way you would not normally do, and repeat it every day. This way of exercising must be insanely difficult!
One of the better will tests is also the oldest one, which is - 20 squats with normal breathing. Then repeat the weight lifting as many times as you would need to do 10 to 12 reps, continue to breathe deeply and continue lifting until you achieve 20 reps. This is brutal and exhausting, but it will give you an idea of whether you have enough will to continue. You can do variations with other exercises and other machines, but remember that squats are the king of exercises.
Cardio-centric mental tests are also recommended. It is clear that you are bodybuilders and have no need to run. This way of thinking is exactly why sprinting and circuit exercises are great strength tests for weightlifters. You are not used to this way of training, and it adds new challenges before your workout. Don't make excuses that you don't want to be catabolic, but even one lap of running or circuit training won't break your strength.
2. Be your own role model
Of course it's great to look back at people who have succeeded in what you still want to achieve. But don't try to look for role models. The fact is that people are not perfect and you will always be disappointed if you follow someone else’s life or career for a long time. You will not achieve anything good if you idolize a bodybuilder, weightlifter or other successful person, so that these people end up falling in your eyes when it comes to morale, motivation and mental endurance. The most important thing is that when you focus on a role model, it distracts you from achieving your goals. Decide what you want to achieve with your body or life and go about it with pleasure. Instead of looking for role models in others, look for tips on where you can find yourself. Maybe you can ask your friend who is a weightlifter for advice on squats for example, but you won’t ask him about the diet he leads because he doesn’t care how to become a fitness role model.In the end, you will be fully motivated and more confident if you follow your own path to success
3. Have a clear vision
All this visualization story that some athletes are telling may seem like nonsense, but it really helps. While constantly thinking about goals will not magically make them come true, focus on a vision that will help you stick to the plan and do what you need to do. If you don’t believe consider the following examples. Let’s say you need to eat five different meals every day. You can go to bed every night with a thought about what each dish will look like, what it will taste like, what you need to prepare it. Or you can forget about eating plans until breakfast time comes. Which of these two cases do you think will help you stick to a pre-determined plan? Visualization helps equally in training. Take leg exercises, for example.
If you are like most trainers, then you are certainly not warmed up for leg exercises, especially if it includes strong squats and a lot of repetitions. If you have never thought about training your legs until you see a date on the calendar for these exercises (or hear about them from your trainer), you will surely skip them when the time comes for them. It’s hard to put such a heavy burden on yourself in such a short amount of time. On the other hand, you can start thinking about training sessions one, two and even three days in advance. Instead of focusing on the negatives such as tightening, discomfort, feeling heaviness on your shoulders, think about the positive things, how your legs will develop, how you will finally develop the loop for these exercises, and how great you will feel when it's all over. If you let these positive thoughts come, then you will not only go to the gym, but you will have an amazing workout.
4. Stick to your responsibilities
Training partners are great, and you may want to have a friend who is responsible for your diet. In the end, you have to rely on your motivation again. Other people will inevitably give up and surrender, and you alone have the best interest in your heart all the time. This is not a blow to your friends and relatives, but pure truth. Ask anyone who has been successful in or out of the gym, and you will see that they are completely independent and self-critical. What does responsibility mean when it comes to training and dieting? For starters, you need to stop relying on training partners. More strength for you if you find good partners, but you have to be the ones who never miss out, who are always there on time, and who give 100 percent effort. In the worst case, you avoid being bothered by others with your excuses.
At best, you and your friend will motivate each other to train as much as you can. When it comes to dieting, you need to develop the courage to resist the temptation to eat. It is easy to get into the routine of preparing and eating meals, but it is a completely different story when people offer you their food. Remember, you are the ones who care about your goals, and you need to develop long-term goals in relation to current pleasures. The same goes for you skinny people who want to get big. You should not worry about overeating and gaining fat, but you will be tempted to skip meals and leave food on the plate. Remember that your body does not want to rely on muscles, but your mind wants to. The existence of discomfort is inevitable when you want to achieve great physical changes, and you will need the strength of will to endure to the end.
5. Remember your reasons
When it gets tough, remember why you train so hard, eat healthy, and reorganize your plans. If your goal is to lose fat, consider how much better you will feel and look when you get rid of that burden.If you are striving to become bigger, visualize the physical build you are striving for Do you want to become stronger and better in sports and weightlifting? Imagine how great it will be when you can lift weights that you never even thought you could. This may sound a little immodest, especially if you are just starting out with your routine. Wait a few weeks, think about it, and start implementing a heavy lifting regime, a healthy diet and regular sleep. Of course, this will make you feel great, but that feeling will always fade. Commitment to achieving goals, those goals that are always on your mind, is what will get you on the right track, even if you like to cheat in adhering to the regime.
