I’ve talked on our wellness blog – The Mind – Body Connection in the past about how important it is to be focused on your body and your breathing while you are working out. Why? The reason is simple. Focusing internally will give you better results. I wanted to revisit this topic, specifically on the power of visualization and how it can be used to enhance your workout results.
Visualization and internal focus go hand in hand. There have been studies done that document how visualization can greatly increase your chances of success and reaching your goals. Visualization is seeing yourself succeeding in your mind before you take the actual physical action. Many professional athletes use visualization to achieve their high level of success.
Record setting Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps said that his success stems from first visualizing himself winning each race before he even steps foot in the pool. So how can this concept of inner focus and visualization help you achieve the body or fitness level you are looking for?
Seeing Yourself as You Desire to Be
We all have certain results we are looking to achieve in our workouts, and these need to be addressed before engaging in a specific workout regimen. Whatever it may be, from losing a specific amount of weight to increasing muscle mass or being able to lift a certain amount of weight etc., using creative visualization before and during your workout will get you to where you choose to be that much faster.
For example, if you want to lose that extra bit of belly fat and you just can’t seem to get there no matter how many sit ups or crunches you do, there can be several factors at play. Of course you need to take a look at your diet, but when it comes to your workout, you want to ‘be’ in your body so to speak. You want to see your stomach being sculpted as you push through your workout. With this, engage your breathing and visualize your stomach muscles getting stronger and ripped.
Get a mental picture of what you would like to look like and focus on this before your workout.
Mental Imagery & Affirmations
Reinforcing the mental imagery that you visualize with affirmations of how you are attaining your desired goal each time you work out is key as well. You need to ‘psych’ yourself up before your work out, and carry this with you, knowing that you are getting closer to your goal. Combining these two – your thoughts and pictured mental imagery – is very powerful, and will help speed up your results big time.
There are a lot of things that can help you progress, rock your work out regimen and keep you on track and focused. Music can play a big factor, as long as you don’t let it distract you from focusing on your body and breathing. I love listening to music as I work out and it helps me enhance my mental sharpness in my work out.
I mentioned how important your diet can be, but equally important are the supplements you take. I highly recommend our new Warrior Rx Focus supplement to help keep you focused through your work out. We have a special introductory offer going on right now, click here to find out more!
I hope this information helps you achieve your fitness goals. At the end of the day, the difference between gaining the results you’d like to achieve or not is the difference between staying focused and getting distracted.