Train your Mind for more Excellent Results in Overall Fitness.

Is there a key, or a secret to getting more out of your training? Absolutely. Elsewhere on this website I talked about contractions, and how lifting heavy weights doesn't make you stronger, but the contractions your muscles are forced to endure as a result of lifting those weights are what make your muscles stronger. By understanding that contractions are the key to developing strength, you can transfer that to mind control, and use your mind to initiate and maintain strong contractions throughout your body.

One of the benefits of Yoga is that it can truly make you stronger, and make your body much more pliable, but to get the most out of it, you must engage your mind and contract your entire body. If you don't, you are just assuming postures without deriving any real benefit. When you lift heavy things, it forces you to work hard. Likewise, you must engage your mind to make every workout, even "simple" Yoga poses, a real workout, so that you may derive from it real and lasting benefits.

If you have ever read the works of Wallace D. Wattles (his 'Science of' trilogy is available for free downloading online, though in three different places. Just search around the internet for them), then you know that he teaches that a key component to success is to understand and imagine the ideal (health, wealth, success, whatever you are trying to improve) in vivid detail, then connect that ideal to yourself. For example, picture a martial artist such as one of the Gracies from Brazil (if you don't know who I am talking about, do a google search on the Gracie family and study them. Their story is amazing.). Imagine what his diet and training routine must be like. Picture every detail as he eats healthy, nutritious food and does tons of bodyweight exercises, then grapples with other highly skilled wrestlers for hours. His highly conditioned body can take (and give!) a LOT of punishment. Now, picture yourself eating and training right alongside him, following him as he coaches you in everything that you do. This technique alone should make you able to train longer and harder.

Now, when you are actually doing your bodyweight exercises, use your mind to focus on a few other things:

1) Your breathing. One of the Gracies has said that the key to good conditioning is to focus on your breathing. Now, when you exercise, be sure to breathe deeply in and breathe deeply out. You can use a technique that I use sometimes, where I will breathe deeply in and out, for 15 or 20 seconds, then switch to shallow, rapid breathing, then switch back. Even while using this technique, your breathing should "feel" normal. Practice until you can get a good breathing rhythm going during hard workouts.

2) Your muscles. Specifically, relax the muscles that you don't need as much as possible, and engage the muscles that are being used, so that they are doing as intense a workload as possible. When doing standard pushups, for example, you can mindlessly plop yourself down onto and up off of the floor, or you can go slowly, contracting your pectorals (your chest) as hard as possible, while breathing deeply. There is a big difference between the two methods of exercise.

3) Your form. By always striving to perfect your form in each exercise, you will be aware of your entire body. This will cause your movements to be more graceful and controlled. Plus, you're less likely to injure yourself if you're always aware of the positioning of your body.

Training hard in physical endurance necessitates the training of mental endurance as well. This means that you will be able to endure longer, tougher trials without breaking under pressure. It works the other way around, too. By training your mind and emotions, you will increase the effectiveness of your physical training. Though this is a natural physical fitness website, do not overlook the mental aspect of developing the real, natural you. Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the hugely popular Psycho-Cybernetics, says that there is no such thing as a “bad” personality, only an inhibited personality. Learning to relax and release your inhibitions is an excellent way to allow the “real” you, the core of you, to come out, and this fits perfectly with the Organic Fitness philosophy of living and being as natural as possible.

There are several aspects of mental training. One of the most important is confidence. Everything that scares you can be mastered, if you face that fear over and over again. If you have a fear of speaking in front of a crowd (one of the most common fears) for example, you would do well to join a Toastmasters club. Such a club allows you to practice speaking in front of large groups on whatever topic you choose. Once you overcome this fear, your confidence soars, and this confidence will transfer over to every other area of your life.

When you have two people who are of equal talent and ambition, yet one possesses great confidence and the other lacks it, the confident man will be able to accomplish much more. An excellent ebook on developing confidence can be obtained here.

Another mental aspect worth training is your memory. Who you are today is a result of every choice you have ever made, every thing you have ever said and done, and what you have learned as a result. If you have a lazy habit of forgetting things, your personal growth is greatly impeded. Train your memory, and more of what you learn today will be applicable to your life tomorrow. My two favorite memory ebooks are Develop your Memory and Assimilative Memory.

Other things that should be trained are mental perseverance and thinking skills. I offer you these resources to give you a mental edge in your physical training and all other areas of your life. This is primarily a physical health website, which is why I do not delve into this topic deeply here. The resources I have located are excellent and available for your use, should you choose to take advantage of this knowledge.

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