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I'm so amped about a revelation I had in the gym the other day I need to write about it. I had read that visualization can help get through plateaus, but I never gave it a shot. Then, the other day at the gym I decided to try it out. I have been doing the same weight on incline dumbells for like 2 months, and Friday my reps actually went DOWN from the week before. That was discouraging as hell, so on my next exercise (flat bench dbell) I decided to try out something new. I laid down, closed my eyes, and went through a whole set in my mind. I imagined holding a weight that the week before I had gotten for 7 reps, but pictured myself doing a strong 10 in my mind. Well holy shit, it worked! I did the same for the next two sets, and for my third set I did the most weight I have ever done for flat dbells! The same technique worked for bis, legs, and today I'm trying it on shoulders and tris.
I think sometimes we get so used to doing certain weights that in our mind that is all we BELIEVE we are capable of doing. We see someone benching or squatting the weight we WISH we could do, but in the back of our mind we don't think WE can do the same. Talk about self-defeating...if you can't even IMAGINE yourself picking up a certain weight you will NEVER be able to do it. I think one reason we plateau is we reach our goal or what we pre-determined our strength maximum to be, and don't BELIEVE we can go further. Visualization before a set or a workout can help break that plateau.
For it to work you need to place yourself 100% in the set you are about to do. You need to see yourself holding the weight you want to do, you need to feel it and imagine how it would feel to push out the reps that you want with that weight. Forget if you never thought you could...the mind is a powerful thing, and simply imagining and believing you can succeed in your head will breed success in your body. Good luck!
I think sometimes we get so used to doing certain weights that in our mind that is all we BELIEVE we are capable of doing. We see someone benching or squatting the weight we WISH we could do, but in the back of our mind we don't think WE can do the same. Talk about self-defeating...if you can't even IMAGINE yourself picking up a certain weight you will NEVER be able to do it. I think one reason we plateau is we reach our goal or what we pre-determined our strength maximum to be, and don't BELIEVE we can go further. Visualization before a set or a workout can help break that plateau.
For it to work you need to place yourself 100% in the set you are about to do. You need to see yourself holding the weight you want to do, you need to feel it and imagine how it would feel to push out the reps that you want with that weight. Forget if you never thought you could...the mind is a powerful thing, and simply imagining and believing you can succeed in your head will breed success in your body. Good luck!
