Motivation for Your Bodybuilding

"You just can't beat a person who never gives up."
- Babe Ruth

Motivation is a much used word in sport. It comes from the Latin word meaning 'to move.' The most important thing for you however, is to love your bodybuilding.

Most people can access unhappiness, guilt, even depression quite easily. By thinking of some failure in your life you open up an undesirable emotion. The opposite can be the same. You can feel confident, excited, happy. You don't have to have a reason!

If you have had a great cardio session, you can repeat it by accessing the same level of arousal that you experienced at that great session.

Here are some methods to increase motivation:

Change livens things up, you can vary your training routine, different exercises, new location.

Decreasing your rate of breathing will affect your nervous system. Slow, deep breathing through your nose creates relaxation in body and mind.

Someone could call nervous energy before a competition, anxiety. You could label it excitement. Rename nervousness, boredom, drudgery to something more inspiring. How does 'another type of excitement' sound, or 'adventurous.'

Release any tense, nervous energy by moving the muscles. Tense and relax each muscle group. You should do this during a warm up anyway. Waiting to go onto the stage, you could shift from foot to foot to sway into a relaxed, calm state of awareness.

Use key words that can excite, or inspire you. "Easy," "now," "power," "winner," even your name. Create words or phrases that are personal, but powerful for you.

Use upbeat music to arouse you.

Suppose you have an exercise you don't like. Picture something that motivates you, then trick yourself into changing it so it looks and feels exactly the same as one that gets you going. As you have learnt, altering the variables, brightness, colour, position, shape, sound, can change how you react.

These are the steps:

Remember something that pleased you, a triumph you would wish to experience again. Concentrate on that image while you ask yourself:

Is it a still picture or a movie?
Is it in colour or black and white?
Is it close to you or further away?
What size?
Are you inside it, like it's wrapped around you, or outside and your looking in?
If any movement, is it fast or slow?
If the image is in front of you, are you looking from above, or below it?

Look at the exercise you don't like. Ask yourself the same questions and notice what's different or the same about the two pictures?

Move the exercise picture into a space occupied by the triumphant picture. Change everything to make it look and feel the same as the triumphant picture.

Intensify it, make it vibrant. Give it more of what you have given it. Hear the band playing a theme tune. Even imagine gentle pressure on your back as if someone was pushing you into the picture. Make it real.

Do the change quickly, forcefully, five times. Break the state between each change, so your starting it new, each time.

By telling your brain to represent the exercise picture in this exciting, new way, the happy changes you make tell your brain "I don't want this...I want this." So, how do you feel about that exercise now? It should feel better, more achievable.

Remember, by changing words like 'why' into 'how' can be inspiring. Here's another word to change to get that motivation flowing. 'Should' gives people a feeling of guilt when they 'should do...' but don't. Turn it into 'want.' "I should work my calf muscles." How does that make you feel in your body? Let it become "I want to work my calf muscles." Is that 'want' feeling different from 'should'? Has it made you more determined? Does it give you a prideful desire to achieve? 'Want power' can be as good as 'will power.'

As I have mentioned, use language carefully. Words represent something, they are symbols. Your words can literary become your world. Here's some more you can play with. Turn 'but' into 'and,' 'if' into 'when', 'why' can also become 'because.' Here's some more. 'Hopefully' or 'might' can be "I'm going to" or "I am capable." These words can be more motivating.

Change your training routine every 4 - 6 weeks. Do different exercises for the same muscle, extend your range. Have cardio sessions, fat burning sessions, exercise to failure sometimes. All help to avoid boredom, avoid overtraining and create further challenges. Its always good to take a week of first as this gives time for micro tears to recover and I have always found I have increased enthusiasm when returning for the first training session after a weeks rest.

Paul M. Maher invites you to learn more about sports psychology and to maximise your sports potential by visiting http://www.mindtrainingarena.com. You will gain access to invaluable eBooks which are focused on bodybuilding, cricket, soccer and tennis psychology to achieve success in sport. This article comes from the authors ebook, Bodybuilding Mind.

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