The New
Visualization Breakthrough
Mental Training
Tactics For Health And Fitness Success
Author and bodybuilder, Tom Venuto,
explains the role of the mind and using visualization techniques in behavior and motivation ...
Understanding the
mind's role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical
elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits
and behaviors or if you can’t get motivated, then even the best
training and nutrition program is not much help.
A fascinating fact
about your subconscious mind is that it's completely deductive in
nature. In other words, it’s fully capable of working backwards from
the end to the means. You don't need to know how to reach a goal at
the time you set the goal. If you "program" only the desired outcome
successfully into your "mental computer," then your subconscious
will take over and help you find the information and means and carry
out the actions necessary to reach it.
Click Here
To Get Tom Venuto's Teleseminar
Many people are
familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give
instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate
mental training” technique is visualization. In one respect,
affirmation and visualization are the same, because when you speak
or think an affirmation first, that triggers a mental image, being
as the human brain "thinks" in pictures.
You can use
visualization to plant goals into your subconscious mind. You simply
close your eyes, use your imagination and mentally create pictures
and run movies of your desired results. For example, in your mind's
eye, you can see
the "body of your dreams". If repeated consistently with
emotion, mental images are accepted by your subconscious as commands
and this helps with changing habits, behavior and performance.
Although there are
some new and creative ways to use visualization, (which you are
about to learn), this is not a new technique. Visualization has been
used formally in the fields of sports psychology and personal
development for decades and philosophers have discussed it for
centuries:
“If you want to
reach your goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before
you actually arrive at your goal.”
- Zig Ziglar
“The use of mental
imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for
making something happen for you.”
- Dr. Wayne Dyer
“Creative
visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create
what you want in your life.”
- Shakti Gawain
“Perhaps the most
effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical action
is through the process of making mental pictures - using the
imagination.”
- Claude Bristol
"There is a law in
psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would
like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough,
you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking."
- William James,
1842-1910, Psychologist and Author
Despite these glowing
endorsements and a long track record, some people can’t get past
feeling that this is just a "hokey" self-help technique. Rest
assured, however, that visualization is an effective and time-tested
method for increasing personal success that has been used by some of
the highest achievers the world.
The Soviets started
to popularize visualization in sports psychology back in the 1970's,
as detailed in Charles Garfield's landmark book, "Peak Performance."
They dominated in many sports during that period, which validated
visualization anecdotally.
In the last 10-15
years, there has been some groundbreaking new brain research which
has validated visualization scientifically. Here's something that
was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, a neuroscientist and
author of 12 books about the human brain:
"The process of imagining yourself
going through the motions of a complex musical or athletic
performance activates brain areas that improve your performance.
Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firm neurological
basis. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans reveal that the
mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefontal areas of the
brain responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor
programs. In practical terms, this means you can benefit from the
use of mental imagery."
So much for
visualization being a "cheesy" self-help technique.
Although
visualization is widely used today, even people who are familiar
with it often don't realize its many applications. Arguably the most
common use of visualization is by athletes, musicians and other
performers as a form of “mental rehearsal.” Research shows that
"practicing in your mind" is almost as effective as practicing
physically, and that doing both is more effective than either one
alone.
A common use of
visualization in the fitness context is “goal visualization.” In
your mind’s eye, you can see yourself having already achieved your
physique goal or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize a
specific performance goal such as completing a difficult workout or
a heavy lift like a squat or bench press.
One creative way you
can use mental imagery is called “process visualization.” Once
you've set your goals, it's easy to come up with a list of the daily
habits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach your goal. So
write down the action steps and visualize them - the entire process,
not just the end result. See yourself food shopping and grabbing
fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods from
restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and drinking water instead, and
going to the gym consistently and having killer workouts. Some
people visualize their entire “perfect day” as they would want it to
unfold. When you do this as vividly, emotionally and in as much
detail as you can, you will be neurologically priming your brain to
carry out those behaviors.
The least known of
all mental imagery techniques is called “physiology visualization.”
An example would be picturing the fat burning process in your body
or seeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger. Using this
technique, could it be possible that you might be giving
subconscious instructions to your body's cells, organs and tissues?
Well, consider the
work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a physician and cancer researcher who
taught his patients (as one part of a comprehensive program), how to
visualize powerful immune cells devouring the cancer cells. I’m not
suggesting that you can cure cancer or materialize a lean and
muscular body just by visualizing, (there's a step in between
thought and manifestation - it's called action - a step that many
self help ‘experts’ forget to mention). However, thoughts and mental
images are the precursors to action and the fact that a mind-body
connection definitely exists makes this an exciting prospect.
Scientists have
established the mind-body link in many contexts, and not just by the
existence of a placebo effect. There’s also direct evidence as in
the way emotional stress can contribute to physical disease. The
mind does influence the body! The mere fact that a branch of science
has been devoted to this area is proof that it deserves critical
investigation and is not just the domain of infomercial self help
gurus. The science is called psychoneuroimmunology.
Using “physiology
visualization,” you could, even in the middle of a workout, imagine
the fat burning process taking place, and visualize fat being
released from adipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or
elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids entering your
bloodstream, being carried to the working muscles and being burned
for energy in the muscle cells. You could also visualize the
physiology of muscle growth.
To make your imagery
as accurate and detailed as possible, my best suggestion is to refer
to an anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures of fat
cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units, sarcomeres, and cell
organelles like the mitochondria, so you know what the structures
look like. You could also get more details about the processes by
looking up lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.
Even if you had no
idea what the internal structure and workings of the body were like,
you could still use this method. Your body responds to mental
imagery even if it isn't anatomically correct. We know from the
field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind responds well to
metaphor – maybe even better than literal suggestions. Facts and
logic are the domain of the conscious mind, while emotion and
metaphor can slip right past the conscious and into the
subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his young patients who
created (metaphorical) mental images of immune system cells as
"knights in shining armor", slaying "the dragon" of cancer cells.
One of your greatest
mental powers is imagination. You can visualize anything you want
and you can embellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as you
want. For example, you could imagine the free fatty acids being
burned for energy in the "cellular powerhouse" - the mitochondria -
and you could imagine the mitochondria as a fiery furnace...
"incinerating" the fat! I think it’s a pretty cool idea to "see"
your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body as a "fat burning
furnace.”
Should you not
believe that there's anything to the physiology visualization
technique, that's ok, because we know that the subconscious is
deductive. Just give it a goal, tell it what you want and it will
get you there automatically by altering your attention and behavior.
Therefore, we can be confident that physiology visualization will be
effective even if only as a subconscious directive about your
desired goal. If science someday provides us with conclusive
evidence that visualization actually does cause cellular -
physiological changes in the body, well, that's just all the better.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder,
certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a
certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the
Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without
drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders
and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and
increase your metabolism by visiting:
www.burnthefat.com
