Believe and you will achieve. This saying can be applied to many aspects of life, including health and fitness. Emotional training is just as important as physical training when it comes to total body strength. “Athletes that participate in mental preparation, rehearsal, and skills training tend to achieve a higher level of the elite status,” Mark Hogue, PsyD, clinical psychologist and sports psychologist at Northshore Psychological Associates in Erie, Pa.. This can be applied to anyone that wants to get in better shape, regardless of your goal.
Many people at the gym are reading, watching TV, or chatting with the person next to them while ‘working out.’ Just simply going to the gym and tuning out of your workout is not going to get you the results you want. It takes practice and really mentally focusing to block out distractions to tune in to the workout, focus on what your body is doing, and to push yourself to levels above and beyond your comfort zone for maximum results. Mental strength really kicks in when the workout gets hard and you break through that barrier by telling yourself that you can get through it. The reward of completing and not quitting when it gets tough is an amazing feeling of self-fulfillment and achievement.
Some tips to workout and strength your ‘mental muscle’ are setting goals and establishing rewards. Goal setting is key, whether you are Michelle Kwan or just want to play some golf over the weekend, says Jenny Susser, PhD, a sports psychologist in the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “The No. 1 thing is to have a good, realistic goal. You want it to be S-M-A-R-T.” That stands for specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic (but challenging) and time-sensitive. Process goals are the ideal way to get outcomes. A process goal is focusing on what you need to do to get to the end goal/result. Process goals turn you into a winner every day. They build a daily sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, and should occupy most of our attention,” writes Dave Beam ActionCOACH Business Coach. For example, instead of thinking about weighing 20 pounds less than where you are currently, think about what you would need to do to weigh 20 pounds less.
Establishing rewards is an excellent and fun way to enjoy your fitness accomplishments. Make working out a priority, and when you complete your workout goals for the day/week/weekend, treat yourself to something that will positively reinforce you to keep working towards your goal. If you emotionally condition yourself along with physically conditioning, nothing will come between you and where you want to be.
Resources:
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/how-weekend-athletes-get-olympic-edge
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Beam