It’s 5:30am, the alarm goes off and you drag yourself out of bed. You change into your workout clothes and drive to the gym. Once at the gym, you stretch briefly before beginning your workout routine.
Less than 20 minutes into the workout you’re already thinking about what lies ahead of you for the day. You think about the tasks that need to be done, the meetings to attend, the calls and e-mails to return, that special project. The flood gates of thoughts open up. Your mind is consumed by every little detail and stress begins to build for the day ahead.
You figure that you can come back to the gym later and you quickly finish a workout so you can get started with your day.
Sound familiar?
You’re committed (or at least you say you are) to your physical fitness/sports, but find that on many occasions you’re only going through the motions. More often than not, you’re physically performing your workout, but mentally you’re miles away.
You’re not alone. Taking into account personal, professional and family responsibilities and the stressed lifestyles we live, along with trying to keep up with all the social media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. It’s enough to keep anyone from the gym….or is it?
So, how can we change this frenzy situation so that your training becomes more enjoyable and productive?
In the fields of sports psychology and NLP in sports, we have been attempting to characterize elite athletes or compare the “less successful” to the “more successful” athletes from a mindset perspective. Elite athletes are distinguished by engaging in high-quality, focused training on a daily basis. They use a variety of mental strength skills and strategies to enhance the intensity of their training.
Put another way, they take conscious and purposeful measures to ensure and maximize their physical and mental effort in training. This is an attribute that relates to a more successful and productive performance, not just in sports, but in life as well.
Whether you are a weekend warrior, competitive athlete or fitness enthusiast, you can benefit physically, mentally and emotionally by taking steps to bring quality and purpose to your training.
Two strategies that can assist you in mentally engaging in your physical and sporting endeavors are “identify a reason/purpose” and “be the athlete.”
Identify A Reason
On a daily basis, you should have a reason to not just work out, but to work out with physical and mental intensity. In other words, have a workout goal. I discussed the importance of and how to set goals in a previous article “Goal Setting - It’s the 'Action' That’s Tough.”
The process for setting your daily workout goal might not be as detailed as your goal(s) for you career, but it is extremely important nevertheless. One thing to keep in mind, especially with a workout goal, is to keep a workout journal.
In addition to keeping track of weights, reps, sets, etc, keep track of what you ate the day before, what you’re mood was before you started working out, and your energy level. By keeping track of all these factors, you’ll start to see patterns. Once you can identify the patterns that lead to a great workout, do them over and over. But of course this comes from having a burning reason and desire TO workout.
Having a powerful reason can be the flame behind the workout. It can raise your intensity from a simmer to a boil. A simple strategy that can bring this sense of purpose and intensity to training is to ask yourself one question before you get started: “How am I going to make myself better today?”
By asking yourself this question before you workout, you are actually giving your unconscious a “problem” to solve… You asked “how.” When you ask the question “how” the unconscious will seek and deliver an answer to you.
The question presumes you WILL make yourself better today. So, by contemplating this question, the answer you receive will identify one goal or objective, or one thing to focus on that could be related to technique, duration, wraps, effort, or attitude.
Then, after the session, hold yourself accountable by answering the question “What did I do today to make myself better?”
The presumption here is that you DID do so smoothing to improve yourself, and by answering the question, you are acknowledging your success.
Again, make sure you write both of these questions AND answers in your training journal.
Be The Athlete
You have numerous functions during the course of the day, i.e. spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, coworker, friend, boss, athlete and student. When working out, however, you have only one task or one function, which is to be an athlete. You must remind yourself of this before every workout. This again is where your goals come in handy. By remembering what your goals are, you’ll remember the “why” you are working out…the “why” you are an athlete.
A great technique in “remembering” to be an athlete before your workout out is to create an “anchor.” This has to be done before your workout. When you’re performing your sport-specific drills, or after a fantastic workout, make a hand gesture, fist pump, finger symbol, or something that will “anchor” that positive state you’re feeling. This anchor is an external gesture that is tied to an internal state. Then when you “fire” the anchor (make the gesture again), you’ll be back in that state again.
I’ll be going into more detail about anchoring in a future article, but for now this simple process will work in keeping you focused on being the athlete.
Mental baggage from the day needs to be left in the locker to be picked up later. This isn’t always easy to do. To help make this transition to being an athlete, you can use a strategy called performance imagery. This simply means that you tap into a behavior that represents for you that you are now an athlete and ready to get on with the workout…kind of like the “red pill” in the matrix. Now, don’t take any red pills…or any pills before you workout…unless they’ve been approved by your coach. But I think you get the picture, right?
For example, the act of putting on your lifting gloves or tying the laces on your running shoe could be used to symbolize that you are now an athlete and focused on the task at hand.
When it comes down to it, when training, all that matters and all you can control is what you’re doing right now. So, invest your energy wisely.
Be an athlete with a purpose…and by all means have fun.
Gregg Swanson
