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Mind-Body Communication*
From Mind & Muscle by Blair Whitmarsh
Ultimately, it is the quality of the mind-body relationship and the degree to which you maintain harmony and cooperation between them that will set you apart from others. Bodybuilders who learn to listen to their bodies tap into their full potential for body development and shaping. Unfortunately, bodybuilders tend not to be good listeners. Statements such as "I am just going to learn to ignore my thoughts completely," or even "I am not going to allow myself to feel pain," indicate a problematic future, if not imminent training plateaus. The reality is, neither of these strategies is effective. If you ignore your thoughts, they will find a way of intruding, distorting, or distracting you from the task at hand. On the other hand, shutting out all physical signals can lead to serious physical injury and mental relapse.
Every bodybuilder is familiar with mental excuses for not working out: "I am tired, so I will just go home," "I worked hard last time, so I will just go easy today," "I will never get any bigger, so what’s the use," and so on. These thoughts, expressed in gyms across the world, are nothing but a cancer to goal accomplishment. The correct approach is to develop a balance between mind and body in such a way that both have equal influence toward success.
Establishing that connection first involves improving the communication between body and mind. While this certainly includes using the mind to help direct and motivate the body, it is crucial that the needs of the body be considered and responded to. In their book Sporting Body Sporting Mind, John Syer and Christopher Connolly write, "effective communication is a two-way process: if you are to communicate properly with your body, you must understand what your body is saying to you. . . . To educate your body, you must know how it functions and learn its language." They go on to explain that educating your body involves four key processes: learning, training, maintenance, and change.
Learning
From the day that you are born, you continually improve your physical performance. Walking evolves into running, which eventually evolves into specific running skills in sport. Likewise, other skills, such as throwing a ball, reading, and brushing your teeth, continue to improve throughout childhood and adolescence. These skills involve a learning process. Physical skills require learning to use your body and manipulate your environment, and mental skills require learning to use your mind.
It has been said that bodybuilding is for those lacking the mental fortitude to engage in any other sport. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To develop the desired look, bodybuilders must learn how to use their bodies and minds effectively. Bodybuilding is a complex activity that encompasses many different techniques and skills. How do you pick out a novice at the gym? Not just by the black socks in white runners. Beginners stick out by their obvious lack of direction and incorrect lifting techniques. They simply look out of place. They have not yet learned the unique culture of the gym and how lifting exercises are to be performed.
Training
An incredibly sophisticated, yet remarkably simple relationship exists between the nervous and muscular system and the rest of the body. Each physical move sends thousands of signals per second to the brain, which in turn unifies them into a cohesive whole. The brain then makes the appropriate decisions and sends specific messages back through the nervous system to individual muscle fibers, glands, and organs. The brain and the individual muscle fibers continue this pattern of reciprocal communication for the duration of the contraction. For repeated muscle contractions, this series of communications is repeated for seconds, minutes, or hours, depending on the duration of the exercise. Some contractions are weak and finely controlled (such as handwriting), while others are generally controlled and forceful (such as lifting weights).
During the training process, a number of neuromuscular adaptations must occur to accommodate increases in strength, power, and muscle mass. While new information about the relationship between the nervous system and the muscular system is always being discovered, it is clear that different training protocols have different effects on that relationship. Current research seems to indicate that long time athletes engaged in high-intensity, low-volume powerlifting programs may already have reached a high percentage of adaptational capacity in their muscle fibers. This means that the low exercise volume is not enough to stimulate further enlargement of the muscles. So, even though strength is developed in high-intensity, low- volume programs, they are simply not appropriate to stimulate muscle hypertrophy (increased muscle size). Conversely, high-volume, moderate-intensity training programs, like bodybuilding, develop muscle mass, which enhances the body’s natural anabolic hormonal responses to training. Muscle hypertrophy, rather than strength, is emphasized, and neural factors play a smaller role in the adaptation.
Maintenance and Change
Human beings are creatures of habit. Look around the gym, and it becomes evident that most people follow the same program week after week - always warming up on the same exercise bike and using the same piece of equipment each session. Why? People prefer familiar surroundings. Indeed, even the thought of making a change creates stress in many people. The same is true of bodybuilders, and not just beginners. Nevertheless, to improve your physique, you must be able to discriminate between the part of your lifting technique that is helpful and the part that is not.
Keeping the habits that work and changing those that do not work is called "maintenance." At the outset, it would seem that there is nothing wrong with that. For the bodybuilder, however, there is really no such thing as maintenance. In an adult, muscles are either increasing in size and strength or doing just the opposite. That is, muscles are either in a state of hypertrophy or in a state of atrophy. They cannot do both.
Because bodybuilding is largely about change, nothing produces failure like success. Success can cause bodybuilders to blindly stick with their exercise routines, even if those routines are no longer beneficial. Just because the cable curl helped to shape your biceps in the past, there is no guarantee that progress will continue forever. Your body will go through many different changes as it adapts to your training program. It will grow and develop, but it will also reach plateaus. Exercises that worked in the past may not be as effective now.
Rather than maintain the same workout schedule and become discouraged by training plateaus, learn to make appropriate changes - use different exercises, try different numbers of sets and reps, train less or more often, combine intense workouts with easier workouts, and use a variety of workout programs such as Olympic lifting, circuit training, and plyometrics. This is what periodization is all about: changing your training program so that your body continues to develop and grow.
Establishing Mind-Body Communication
Bodybuilding is unique in the sports world. Bodybuilders are probably more knowledgeable about their bodies, nutrition, and physiology, and they are more likely to be committed to good lifestyle patterns than are other athletes. They learn the most effective ways to train their bodies to ensure maximum growth and symmetry. Cultivating good lifting habits is only part of the program, however. Bodybuilders must invest in the process of self-discovery by creating innovative lifting techniques and sets.
Successful bodybuilders understand the powerful mind-body communication that occurs during a typical workout, set, or repetition. They realize that bodybuilding is great not only for physical fitness but also for recharging mentally and emotionally. Adding a mind-body component to a workout can provide greater intensity, relaxation, and stress management for a bodybuilder. It can also offer the opportunity for positive visualization, which can significantly improve goal attainment in health, fitness, and body image. The following tips will help you turn a routine workout into an invigorating, enlightening experience.
Begin by noticing your breathing. Feel your rib cage expand and contract with each breath. Take a few deep breaths, and then begin to focus on exhaling and inhaling deeply with each contraction.
Feel your muscles contract and relax with each rep. Notice the size expansion as blood begins to flow to each working muscle. Stay with the rhythm of the set, and imagine yourself pumping with confidence through life.
Bring your awareness to other parts of your body - legs, waist, hips, and face. Feel how they adjust to the exercise and how they stabilize your movement. Know that your entire body is working together to make you stronger and more alive. Imagine that you are moving through your life with complete body synchronicity.
Focus on the center of your body, imagining that all your strength originates there. Visualize the muscle-building energy flowing from your center to your working muscles. Imagine that puppet strings are attached to your limbs as you visualize a puppeteer helping you to lift the weight.
As you finish your set, expand your awareness to include everything around you. Notice every piece of equipment, person, smell, and fluctuation in temperature. See yourself in the gym as the center of attraction.
Empower yourself with positive affirmations. Feel your power, strength, and muscles. You are in peak condition. Affirm your body with silent statements, such as "I love my strong, ripped physique," or "I feel and look awesome." See yourself as the bodybuilder you want to be, and believe that you will get there.
From Mind & Muscle by Blair Whitmarsh
Ultimately, it is the quality of the mind-body relationship and the degree to which you maintain harmony and cooperation between them that will set you apart from others. Bodybuilders who learn to listen to their bodies tap into their full potential for body development and shaping. Unfortunately, bodybuilders tend not to be good listeners. Statements such as "I am just going to learn to ignore my thoughts completely," or even "I am not going to allow myself to feel pain," indicate a problematic future, if not imminent training plateaus. The reality is, neither of these strategies is effective. If you ignore your thoughts, they will find a way of intruding, distorting, or distracting you from the task at hand. On the other hand, shutting out all physical signals can lead to serious physical injury and mental relapse.
Every bodybuilder is familiar with mental excuses for not working out: "I am tired, so I will just go home," "I worked hard last time, so I will just go easy today," "I will never get any bigger, so what’s the use," and so on. These thoughts, expressed in gyms across the world, are nothing but a cancer to goal accomplishment. The correct approach is to develop a balance between mind and body in such a way that both have equal influence toward success.
Establishing that connection first involves improving the communication between body and mind. While this certainly includes using the mind to help direct and motivate the body, it is crucial that the needs of the body be considered and responded to. In their book Sporting Body Sporting Mind, John Syer and Christopher Connolly write, "effective communication is a two-way process: if you are to communicate properly with your body, you must understand what your body is saying to you. . . . To educate your body, you must know how it functions and learn its language." They go on to explain that educating your body involves four key processes: learning, training, maintenance, and change.
Learning
From the day that you are born, you continually improve your physical performance. Walking evolves into running, which eventually evolves into specific running skills in sport. Likewise, other skills, such as throwing a ball, reading, and brushing your teeth, continue to improve throughout childhood and adolescence. These skills involve a learning process. Physical skills require learning to use your body and manipulate your environment, and mental skills require learning to use your mind.
It has been said that bodybuilding is for those lacking the mental fortitude to engage in any other sport. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To develop the desired look, bodybuilders must learn how to use their bodies and minds effectively. Bodybuilding is a complex activity that encompasses many different techniques and skills. How do you pick out a novice at the gym? Not just by the black socks in white runners. Beginners stick out by their obvious lack of direction and incorrect lifting techniques. They simply look out of place. They have not yet learned the unique culture of the gym and how lifting exercises are to be performed.
Training
An incredibly sophisticated, yet remarkably simple relationship exists between the nervous and muscular system and the rest of the body. Each physical move sends thousands of signals per second to the brain, which in turn unifies them into a cohesive whole. The brain then makes the appropriate decisions and sends specific messages back through the nervous system to individual muscle fibers, glands, and organs. The brain and the individual muscle fibers continue this pattern of reciprocal communication for the duration of the contraction. For repeated muscle contractions, this series of communications is repeated for seconds, minutes, or hours, depending on the duration of the exercise. Some contractions are weak and finely controlled (such as handwriting), while others are generally controlled and forceful (such as lifting weights).
During the training process, a number of neuromuscular adaptations must occur to accommodate increases in strength, power, and muscle mass. While new information about the relationship between the nervous system and the muscular system is always being discovered, it is clear that different training protocols have different effects on that relationship. Current research seems to indicate that long time athletes engaged in high-intensity, low-volume powerlifting programs may already have reached a high percentage of adaptational capacity in their muscle fibers. This means that the low exercise volume is not enough to stimulate further enlargement of the muscles. So, even though strength is developed in high-intensity, low- volume programs, they are simply not appropriate to stimulate muscle hypertrophy (increased muscle size). Conversely, high-volume, moderate-intensity training programs, like bodybuilding, develop muscle mass, which enhances the body’s natural anabolic hormonal responses to training. Muscle hypertrophy, rather than strength, is emphasized, and neural factors play a smaller role in the adaptation.
Maintenance and Change
Human beings are creatures of habit. Look around the gym, and it becomes evident that most people follow the same program week after week - always warming up on the same exercise bike and using the same piece of equipment each session. Why? People prefer familiar surroundings. Indeed, even the thought of making a change creates stress in many people. The same is true of bodybuilders, and not just beginners. Nevertheless, to improve your physique, you must be able to discriminate between the part of your lifting technique that is helpful and the part that is not.
Keeping the habits that work and changing those that do not work is called "maintenance." At the outset, it would seem that there is nothing wrong with that. For the bodybuilder, however, there is really no such thing as maintenance. In an adult, muscles are either increasing in size and strength or doing just the opposite. That is, muscles are either in a state of hypertrophy or in a state of atrophy. They cannot do both.
Because bodybuilding is largely about change, nothing produces failure like success. Success can cause bodybuilders to blindly stick with their exercise routines, even if those routines are no longer beneficial. Just because the cable curl helped to shape your biceps in the past, there is no guarantee that progress will continue forever. Your body will go through many different changes as it adapts to your training program. It will grow and develop, but it will also reach plateaus. Exercises that worked in the past may not be as effective now.
Rather than maintain the same workout schedule and become discouraged by training plateaus, learn to make appropriate changes - use different exercises, try different numbers of sets and reps, train less or more often, combine intense workouts with easier workouts, and use a variety of workout programs such as Olympic lifting, circuit training, and plyometrics. This is what periodization is all about: changing your training program so that your body continues to develop and grow.
Establishing Mind-Body Communication
Bodybuilding is unique in the sports world. Bodybuilders are probably more knowledgeable about their bodies, nutrition, and physiology, and they are more likely to be committed to good lifestyle patterns than are other athletes. They learn the most effective ways to train their bodies to ensure maximum growth and symmetry. Cultivating good lifting habits is only part of the program, however. Bodybuilders must invest in the process of self-discovery by creating innovative lifting techniques and sets.
Successful bodybuilders understand the powerful mind-body communication that occurs during a typical workout, set, or repetition. They realize that bodybuilding is great not only for physical fitness but also for recharging mentally and emotionally. Adding a mind-body component to a workout can provide greater intensity, relaxation, and stress management for a bodybuilder. It can also offer the opportunity for positive visualization, which can significantly improve goal attainment in health, fitness, and body image. The following tips will help you turn a routine workout into an invigorating, enlightening experience.
Begin by noticing your breathing. Feel your rib cage expand and contract with each breath. Take a few deep breaths, and then begin to focus on exhaling and inhaling deeply with each contraction.
Feel your muscles contract and relax with each rep. Notice the size expansion as blood begins to flow to each working muscle. Stay with the rhythm of the set, and imagine yourself pumping with confidence through life.
Bring your awareness to other parts of your body - legs, waist, hips, and face. Feel how they adjust to the exercise and how they stabilize your movement. Know that your entire body is working together to make you stronger and more alive. Imagine that you are moving through your life with complete body synchronicity.
Focus on the center of your body, imagining that all your strength originates there. Visualize the muscle-building energy flowing from your center to your working muscles. Imagine that puppet strings are attached to your limbs as you visualize a puppeteer helping you to lift the weight.
As you finish your set, expand your awareness to include everything around you. Notice every piece of equipment, person, smell, and fluctuation in temperature. See yourself in the gym as the center of attraction.
Empower yourself with positive affirmations. Feel your power, strength, and muscles. You are in peak condition. Affirm your body with silent statements, such as "I love my strong, ripped physique," or "I feel and look awesome." See yourself as the bodybuilder you want to be, and believe that you will get there.
