Let visualisation get you the body you deserve.Just about everyone who strives to beat their previous best sports or training performance will eventually reach a stage when their progress stagnates or declines even if they have put 100% effort into reaching their goal. To progress further sometimes all that is necessary is to give it a little time and as the weeks pass into months we eventually reach the targets we have set. This tactic is fine for most of us most of the time but what happens when time is of the essence and waiting patiently is not an option as might be the case for somebody who needs to reach a certain level of fitness to enter the military. When ever I have faced such a dilemma in the past weather it was in my years in the armed forces, boxing or martial arts I have always relayed on my secret weapon of visualisation to take my training to the next level and I can say that so far it has never failed me. Take my word for it, if you spend the time necessary to picture your goal in you mind until it feels like you have already achieved it you will be rewarded with some of the most productive training that you will ever do.
How this great gift works is unclear but some experts believe that your subconscious mind is tricked into thinking this is your new reality or in other words once you visualise something several times you can then do it simply because you think you can. Other people believe visualisation programmes the muscles into working at their most efficient level and still others think that the placebo effect makes us try harder as we assume success is guaranteed. For me why it works is not important, the only question that matters is does it work and the answer is yes it does and to such a degree that I guarantee if you use this training tool yourself your ability will reach dramatic new heights and not just in sport or exercise but in all aspects of your life. If you still need more convincing let me say that I also managed the Lalanne press up on one finger and thumb after only a couple of visualisation sessions and without ever practising it before. Also in all my years as a boxer I never knew of any fighter who hadn’t imagined the coming fight and the actions he would take against his opponent many times before they actually met in the ring.
A physical response to visualisation is also why the acting coach will ask his students to picture one of the saddest times of their lives when he wants them to cry on command and why Olympic gymnasts can be seen repeating their routines many times in their mind before going out onto the mat to perform it for real. So if you are stuck and have reached a plateau with your sport or training give visualisation a go. After all if it works for others it will work for you. Try this simple experiment for your self to see the power it has. With your legs together and straight reach forward without undue strain and try to touch your toes. Note how far you get and then stand up and close your eyes and in your minds eye picture yourself bending forward with ease and effortlessly stretching 6 inches further than you did before. Once you have run this in your mind several times and can really visualise it try it for real and I bet you get to exactly where you had imagined.
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Facts on strength building
To build pure strength all bodyweight exercises have to be kept within the 1-6 repetition range.
Once you can do the required number of repetitions in an exercise change to a more demanding one
You can build strength and stay the same weight if that is your goal.
Strength training requires short workouts of no more than 30-45 minutes to be most effective.
Facts on muscle building
To build a combination of muscle and strength all exercises have to be kept within the 6-12 repetition range.
The best muscle building diet requires two grams of protein for every kilo of your bodyweight.
The quickest way to build muscle requires an increase in bodyweight.
Each muscle should be trained no more than once or a maximum of twice per week for best results.
Facts on abs building
Diet accounts for 80% of the success in building great abs.
You cannot spot reduce fat from any one area of your body or in other words you cannot pick and choose were to lose fat. It has to be done gradually throughout the whole body.
To lose weight eat 4 or 5 small meals a day with each meal containing protein. This keeps your metabolism high and stops your body going into starvation mode which is when it will store fat.
Do not lose more than 1 or 2 pound of weight per week.
The best three abs exercises are the dragon flag, full abs rollout and full hanging leg raise.
Sit ups and crunches are terrible fat burning exercises. You would have to do 1000 sit-ups every night for over 2 weeks to burn 1 pound of fat.
In one study on rats, one group was given all their food in one meal per day as opposed to the other group which had the same amount of food but in small meals throughout the day. The results showed that ones who ate all there food in one meal put on weight whilst the others did not.
Doing lots of cardio without muscle building will result in large muscle loss because your body will adapt to make the cardio easy by losing the heavy muscle. The result could be someone who has very little muscle but still carries some fat.
Exercises that are weight bearing like running and walking are better for burning calories than non weight bearing ones such as cross trainers and cycling.
Facts on flexibility
All workouts should begin with dynamic stretchinginvolving two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of each movement used.
All workouts should end with a cool down of static passive stretching.
The quickest flexibility results are gained with isometric stretching.
Isometric stretching should be done towards the end of a workout and never more than 3-4 times per week.