How to Develop the Mindset of a Bodybuilder

In spite of all the years you may have spent working out hour after hour in the gym, trying all the routines in the book, without training your mind first, you will amount to nothing and that great dream physique or bodybuilding title shall remain what it is, a pipe dream.

Mental training is all about developing the mind-muscle link, getting the mind to become as tough as the rest of your body. This enables them to get the most out of themselves during workouts. Mentally trained bodybuilders are the ones that are able to push themselves to heroic extremes so that every molecule of their body is worked out to the extreme.

1. Mental priming

This is the stimulation of the nervous system with the levels of energy that you want to generate in the following training session. Start by picturing, in 3-dimensional form, yourself, one set of reps for each muscle you will be training. Now feel yourself generating the extra energy that makes you feel as though every fiber in your body is going to explode.

2. Laser concentration

This involves mobilizing your consciousness into a singular focus point is then driven into and held within a specific task of your work out. It’s so powerful that one is not aware of it themselves other than am extreme energy force focused directly into the muscle you are training.

3. Developing the pain barrier power breakthrough

Think of a moment when you were in the most extreme zone of training intensity. When you have isolated this memory, imaginatively step into it with your whole body. Feel the exact same sensation as you did then and at that moment, utter one word that you feel represents that moment. Mentally shout it 5 times to yourself with passion and intensity.

Anytime you are at the pain barrier, mentally exclaim that word, silently repeating it, until it ‘explodes’ to fill you with its power. That’s the pain barrier power breakthrough.

4. Mind over muscle self talk

With time, you should be able to control every muscle in your body. It’s as if you have a relationship with every single group of muscles in your body. Then lie down comfortably on your back, with eyes closed and start focusing on a particular muscle. When a mental connection has been established, talk ti the muscle. Share with it what you plan for the next session. Talk to one muscle after the other and you will be surprised how they will begin to respond.

5. Identify and connect with your optimal emotion

Emotions fuel work outs much like gas fuels a car. Think of the last time when you attained peak performance during work out and identify the emotion at that point. You will realize that that emotion brings out the best in you during workout sessions. You have to replicate the moment in totality for the effect to be there. Think of what you did then and do it, feel what you felt, say to yourself what you said to yourself.