The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training Tactics For Health And Fitness Success

Understanding the mind's role in motivation andpress.
behavior is one of the most critical elements inOne creative way you can use mental imagery is
fitness success. If you struggle with changing habitscalled "process visualization." Once you've set your
and behaviors or if you can't get motivated, thengoals, it's easy to come up with a list of the daily
even the best training and nutrition program is nothabits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach
much help.your goal. So write down the action steps and
A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind isvisualize them - the entire process, not just the end
that it's completely deductive in nature. In otherresult. See yourself food shopping and grabbing fruits,
words, it's fully capable of working backwards fromvegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods
the end to the means. If you "program" only thefrom restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and
desired outcome successfully into your "mentaldrinking water instead, and going to the gym
computer," then your subconscious will take over andconsistently and having killer workouts. Some people
help you find the information and means and carryvisualize their entire "perfect day" as they would
out the actions necessary to reach it.want it to unfold. When you do this as vividly,
Many people are familiar with affirmations andemotionally and in as much detail as you can, you will
goal-setting as ways to give instructions to yourbe neurologically priming your brain to carry out those
subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mentalbehaviors.
training" technique is visualization. In one respect,The least known of all mental imagery techniques is
affirmation and visualization are the same, becausecalled "physiology visualization." An example would be
when you speak or think an affirmation first, thatpicturing the fat burning process in your body or
triggers a mental image, being as the human brainseeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger.
"thinks" in pictures.Using this technique, could it be possible that you
You can use visualization to plant goals into yourmight be giving subconscious instructions to your
subconscious mind. You simply close your eyes, usebody's cells, organs and tissues?
your imagination and mentally create pictures and runWell, consider the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a
movies of your desired results. If repeatedphysician and cancer researcher who taught his
consistently with emotion, mental images arepatients (as one part of a comprehensive program),
accepted by your subconscious as commands andhow to visualize powerful immune cells devouring the
this helps with changing habits, behavior andcancer cells. I'm not suggesting that you can cure
performance.cancer or materialize a lean and muscular body just
Although there are some new and creative ways toby visualizing, (there's a step in between thought and
use visualization, (which you are about to learn), thismanifestation - it's called action - a step that many
is not a new technique. Visualization has been usedself help �experts' forget to mention).
formally in the fields of sports psychology andHowever, thoughts and mental images are the
personal development for decades and philosophersprecursors to action and the fact that a mind-body
have discussed it for centuries:connection definitely exists makes this an exciting
"If you want to reach your goal, you must 'see theprospect.
reaching' in your own mind before you actually arriveScientists have established the mind-body link in many
at your goal."contexts, and not just by the existence of a placebo
- Zig Ziglareffect. There's also direct evidence as in the way
"The use of mental imagery is one of the strongestemotional stress can contribute to physical disease.
and most effective strategies for making somethingThe mind does influence the body! The mere fact
happen for you."that a branch of science has been devoted to this
- Dr. Wayne Dyerarea is proof that it deserves critical investigation and
"Perhaps the most effective method of bringing theis not just the domain of infomercial self help gurus.
subconscious into practical action is through theThe science is called psychoneuroimmunology.
process of making mental pictures - using theUsing "physiology visualization," you could, even in the
imagination."middle of a workout, imagine the fat burning process
- Claude Bristoltaking place, and visualize fat being released from
"There is a law in psychology that if you form aadipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or
picture in your mind of what you would like to be,elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids
and you keep and hold that picture there longentering your bloodstream, being carried to the
enough, you will soon become exactly as you haveworking muscles and being burned for energy in the
been thinking."muscle cells. You could also visualize the physiology of
- William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Authormuscle growth.
Despite these glowing endorsements and a long trackTo make your imagery as accurate and detailed as
record, some people can't get past feeling that this ispossible, my best suggestion is to refer to an
just a "hokey" self-help technique. Rest assured,anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures
however, that visualization is an effective andof fat cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units,
time-tested method for increasing personal successsarcomeres, and cell organelles like the mitochondria,
that has been used by some of the highestso you know what the structures look like. You could
achievers the world.also get more details about the processes by looking
The Soviets started to popularize visualization inup lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.
sports psychology back in the 1970's, as detailed inEven if you had no idea what the internal structure
Charles Garfield's landmark book, "Peak Performance."and workings of the body were like, you could still
They dominated in many sports during that period,use this method. Your body responds to mental
which validated visualization anecdotally.imagery even if it isn't anatomically correct. We know
In the last 10-15 years, there has been somefrom the field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind
groundbreaking new brain research which hasresponds well to metaphor � maybe even
validated visualization scientifically. Here's somethingbetter than literal suggestions. Facts and logic are the
that was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, adomain of the conscious mind, while emotion and
neuroscientist and author of 12 books about themetaphor can slip right past the conscious and into
human brain:the subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his
"The process of imagining yourself going through theyoung patients who created (metaphorical) mental
motions of a complex musical or athletic performanceimages of immune system cells as "knights in shining
activates brain areas that improve your performance.armor", slaying "the dragon" of cancer cells.
Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firmOne of your greatest mental powers is imagination.
neurological basis. Positron emission tomographyYou can visualize anything you want and you can
(PET) scans reveal that the mental rehearsal of anembellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as
action activates the prefontal areas of the brainyou want. For example, you could imagine the free
responsible for the formulation of the appropriatefatty acids being burned for energy in the "cellular
motor programs. In practical terms, this means youpowerhouse" - the mitochondria - and you could
can benefit from the use of mental imagery."imagine the mitochondrion as a fiery furnace...
So much for being a "cheesy" self-help technique."incinerating" the fat! I think it's a pretty cool idea to
Although visualization is widely used today, even"see" your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body
people who are familiar with it often don't realize itsas a "fat burning furnace."
many applications. Arguably the most common use ofShould you not believe that there's anything to the
visualization is by athletes, musicians and otherphysiology visualization technique, that's ok, because
performers as a form of "mental rehearsal." Researchwe know that the subconscious is deductive. Just
shows that "practicing in your mind" is almost asgive it a goal, tell it what you want and it will get you
effective as practicing physically, and that doing boththere automatically by altering your attention and
is more effective than either one alone.behavior. Therefore, we can be confident that
A common use of visualization in the fitness contextphysiology visualization will be effective even if only
is "goal visualization." In your mind's eye, you can seeas a subconscious directive about your desired goal.
yourself having already achieved your physique goalIf science someday provides us with conclusive
or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize aevidence that visualization actually does cause cellular
specific performance goal such as completing a- physiological changes in the body, well, that's just all
difficult workout or a heavy lift like a squat or benchthe better.