Willpower workouts - How to Cross Plateaus & Keep Focused
( Advanced Exercise and Bodybuilding Science & Health Studies ) ..
In a perfect world this is how your training goes: You begin with a crystal dear objective. Then you add a perfect gym, unlimited top-quality nutrition and plenty of time to train and recover. Because you also have the perfect genetics to reach your goal, your progress is swift and
certain especially as you attack each and every workout like a starving Bengal tiger on its lunch break.
In the real world this what actually happens. One day you want to win the Mr. Olympia, the next its an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting, and on the third day you decide picking up both is the way to go. As your goals vacillate, so does your training plan, going from a straight
line to a path that wobbles from the left to the right. Things are also complicated by the fact that your gym's most sophisticated piece of bodybuilding equipment is one poor excuse for a curling bench and you can't really do snatches or clean and jerks because there's no platform
and the owner frowns on people using chalk anyway. In addition, budget limitations confine your supplement program to only the most basic items-when you're lucky. Furthermore, between school and a job, it's hard enough to find time to train let alone to recover.
Of course, those bird bones and high muscle insertions you inherited aren't doing you any good either. Is it any wonder that your workouts and your progress are lackluster? When you're in the real world, it's somewhat comforting to think that you are the exception and that most people
deal with a much more perfect situation. In truth, however, most of us have to deal with our mortal limitations day in and day out, so we need to figure out how to make the most of things and get on with the task of reaching our goals.
To help us with this, let's introduce the concept of "willpower". Willpower isn't something you hear a great deal about anymore, and, as a concept, it might be a little too slippery or fuzzy to satisfy hard-line research psychologists, but let's kick it around for a minute and see
if we can get some useful ideas for boosting the octane rating of your workouts and putting you on track to bigger gains.
The basic notion of willpower is that our motivation springs from inside ourselves and this gives us control over our lives. Most people probably assume that they would never develop a substance abuse problem, for example, because they have enough willpower to keep things in check.
On the flip side, there's always been a tendency to view alcoholism and other drug dependence as the problem of weak-willed people.
Without going to the extreme of dividing the world into those with strong wills vs. those with weak wills, what is it that separates the two different types and how can we add a little might and muscle to our own supplies of willpower? Strong-willed is how most of us would like to
view ourselves. Strong-willed people, for instance, can establish a goal and make a plan suitable for reaching it.
Even more important, once this plan is established, strong willed people stick to it-they fight off distractions, are resourceful about dealing with obstacles in their path and somehow always find a way to get where they want toga weak-willed people are the opposite, and it begins
with the all-important task of goal-setting. One day they want to do this, and the next day it's that; they hop all over the map until they finally admit, for example, that they "want everything: size, shape, symmetry cuts, explosive power, slow strength, aerobic ability.
The problem isn't just that what they want is impossible to obtain but also that some of their stated goals are mutually exclusive, so they often end up training at cross purposes. It's as if they're always trying to bulk up and cut up at the same time. When they manage to sort
things out so they are only going in one direction at a time, their commitment tends to be so weak that they run at the first sign of trouble; for example, as soon as their bench press stalls out, they're off their power lifting kick and onto something else. So what are the
weak-willed to do? Is there a bulk and power routine for willpower? Here are some suggestions to help you bolster yours.
1) Set a Goal. You have to know where you're going if you want to increase your chances of getting there. If the idea of committing to a goal is too frightening, remember that you're not signing up for life. Try, for example, sticking with a specific program for a six week cycle.
2) Put on blinders once you've chosen your goal; otherwise, you might be led astray by allsorts of distractions you meet along the way. Let's face it, if you ask 10 different people how to approach your training, you'll probably get 10 different answers. Cut down on the distractions
once you've charted a course of action.
3) Believe in yourself and your ability to reach your goals. No matter what cycle you train on, which mental rehearsal program you choose or how tiny you make your progressions, you will never improve continuously for long periods of Time. In the times of slow gains, no gains or
outright reversals, it's easy to throw in the towel, but if you believe in yourself, you'Ll stick with it until you start gaining again.
4) Deal with problems directly, and remember that partial victory is always far better than a complete surrender, If, for example, you're having an off day and can't make your planned weights, cut the intensity and boost the volume. You can always salvage some victory from what might
have been a dud workout, and that's what you need to do. Don't just head home.
5) Make haste slowly because, except for special conditions, the matters of gain in size and strength take hard work over a long period of time. When you get impatient, you only increase your opportunities
to get frustrated and frustration will chip away at your willpower until there's nothing left.
6) Remind yourself of what is going right, because plenty will be. Guard against the tendency to chew yourself out when thing go south. Did you o ever see someone make four weeks of steady progress before missing a lift and then rip himself to shreds? Seek opportunities to reinforce
yourself for the things that are still staying on track.
7) Enjoy getting there or rethink what you're doing because you're probably going to spend a lot more time in the process of arriving than you will as the finished product. Get to like what you're doing instead of thinking about some light at the end of the tunnel.
These seven little tips about how to think and act will set you on the road to bigger gains in all of your training-think of them as a workout for building your willpower.
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