But after this solid foundation has been built, the opportunities for growth and progress are mental, not physical. Sure, you’ll always benefit from getting refreshers on a proper form, nutrition, and programming. But the real source of making gains, changing your body, and evolving your fitness lies in your ability to prioritize, motivate, execute, and repeat. And repeat. And repeat! Those functions are psychological in nature. Mental Skills 101 Psychological or mental skills are intentional thinking strategies that enhance performance, increase enjoyment, and promote persistence in pursuit of goals. Athletes commonly use mental skills for sport performance, and fitness professionals and enthusiasts can use them just as easily and effectively. There are a variety of mental skills, but three of the most widely used and studied are: Imagery/visualization Arousal/activation regulation Self-talk Let’s go over each one with a suggestion or two on how to implement them into your current training habits: 1 – Imagery/Visualization Also known as “mental rehearsal,” imagery is a skill that researchers have studied extensively in sport psych settings, and which has repeatedly been shown to enhance performance and make sports and exercise more enjoyable (Weinberg, 1981 and 2008). When you mentally rehearse, you create or recreate an experience in your mind. This could be an optimal performance from a real memory, or an ideal performance you’ve created with your imagination. Using sounds, sights, sensations, and even smells, you draw on your senses to experience success and to practice execution of a skill in your mind. You can use imagery before a workout or just before a specific lift or movement. If you compete, you can mentally rehearse on rest days, during warm-ups on practice days, and pre-performance during competition days. How to Do It Working on one of “the big 3” lifts? Or your pull-up? Visualize yourself executing it perfectly just before you practice. Let’s take the deadlift as an example. See yourself approaching the bar… planting your feet… getting your air… getting your hands on the bar and pulling the slack out… driving your heels down… pushing off the floor… finishing with the hips… Bam! Visualizing your lift can build confidence, prime your thoughts and expectations for success, and increase the practice (or “reps”) you get with the exercise. 2 – Activation-Regulation All of us have an optimal level of energy that helps us perform our best. Think of a scale of 0-10. If zero is almost asleep, super relaxed, and chill, and 10 is about-to-explode, crazy amped and way-too-anxious, what number represents the ideal level of energy for strength training? Is this different than the ideal energy level for cardio? How about while you’re at work or reading and learning? The point is that there’s a specific point along this 0-10 scale at which you’d perform your best, and you can engage in anxiety-reduction and arousal-inducing techniques to slow yourself down (or pump yourself up) in order to do your best. When the pressure is too high and you’re overly activated (nervous, jittery, anxious, panicky) the risk for error is higher and enjoyment is lower. When there’s not enough pressure, you may feel flat, fatigued, or unmotivated, which can lead to underwhelming effort and performance. How to Do It The next time you’re competing, or even performing an exercise that you want to improve on, assess your energy/arousal level on a scale of 0-10. Then, ask yourself what the optimal energy level would be. If the number needs to be higher than it currently is, you can increase activation by increasing your rate of breathing, listening to music that’s energizing, or giving yourself a pep talk. If the number needs to go down, you can try progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), wearing a heart rate monitor and attempting, with your focus and breath, to slow your heart rate 5-10 beats per minute, or creating a relaxation response (Benson Thinking only in extremes (all-or-nothing) thinking. Arbitrary Inference:Generalizing one negative comment or experience to be representative of everything in your life. Mental Reading:Presuming you know what others are thinking. Catastrophizing:Thinking that the absolute worst thing that can happen, will happen. Emotional Reasoning:Presuming that feelings are facts. “Shoulds”:Focusing on how things “should” have gone down, as opposed to how they actually are. Any of these thought patterns sound familiar? Also known as cognitive distortions (Beck, 1963), these styles of thinking often lead to discouragement, frustration, anger, sadness, and a slew of other negative emotions. When you’re discouraged and thinking negatively, you’re less likely to take a risk, push yourself hard, or persist with a challenging goal. Recognizing your own tendencies to think negatively is the first step. Once you’ve identified some problematic thinking, consider the impact those thoughts
Origin: 3 Psych Skills for Strength Training