Insane Man's Blog About Insane Exercising INSANELY TO THE EXTREME: Blog #4
Mentality:
My coach told me this back in high school, and it pretty much is a truth that is very understandable: Sports is 10% physical and 90% mental. You can be the most gifted athlete in the world, but if your head is not in the game then you lose. The only thing preventing you from giving it 100% effort is yourself. This holds true for a lot of things in anyone's life, and it pretty much holds true if you want to work out, live healthier, lose weight, and look better.
When you first start developing your exercise regiment you have to have a mindset for the goal you are trying to accomplish for yourself. You cannot just go to the gym, go outside, say your going to do some generic exercise for so-and-so minutes, finish, and go home. That is a horrible mindset because your regiment lacks definition, which then affects your discipline lacking definition. Once it's starts getting difficult you end up calling quits early, and it gradually leads you back to square one of having no exercise regiment.
What you want to do is define your goals down to a very science. You have to tell yourself "I want to work on getting this muscle(s) toned or work fat off so-and-so part of my body. Therefore, I'm going to do this exercise with this number of repetitions, and I'm going to run this distance and try to beat my time or burn this many calories in an allotted time. When that gets too easy I'm gonna increase the weights this much, increase the number of repetitions, or increase the amount of time I spend doing so-and-so exercise." You have to constantly keep on defining what you want to do and what it takes to improve in order to achieve your goals. The biggest problem a lot of people have in this department is finding the MOTIVATION. Motivation is the primary key to determine whether or not you will have a successful exercise regiment.
Everyone has a different mindset when it comes to motivation in working out, but, in the end, what everyone strives for in an exercise regiment is "GETTING INTO THE ZONE." The term may have several different names, but what it essentially means is being able to focus on accomplishing the task at hand. Reaching this state of mind is having the key motivating factor - whatever it is - drives you to do these exercises. From what I have seen and heard from other people at the gym I came to the conclusion that there are two general paths one can take in order to have a successfully motivated exercise:
A) Someone is there to motivate you. I see a lot of people go to these classes for aerobics, bicycle, yoga, etc. They have one to a few teachers telling you the movements you need to do constantly so that you do them. It's pretty much old school teaching methods of "do as I say" and you follow what the teacher says. It gets people motivated because they generally don't have to think about anything and just do what they're told. I even see some people hire personal instructors at the gym to give them direction on what to do. I don't exactly know what these one-on-one instructors teach, but I personally feel like they can be full of shit sometimes. At 24 Hr. fitness right now it costs $129 for 3 50-minute sessions. The number of people that I have seen take those one-on-one sessions I don't see them workout beyond that, which I thought was the purpose of them. I personally would not recommend them unless you have a lot of money.
B) You become self motivated. Your goals are set. You know what you plan to do, and you know what it takes to improve on your exercise regiment. You don't let other things distract you or stop you in the midst of your tracks. This is the more difficult path of the two that I presume because there are so many things that can distract you from completing your exercise regiment. You also have to be knowledgeable in how your body is supposed to full during a workout, as well as knowing what the body's limit is supposed to feel like. Concentration also becomes a factor when there are so many people doing different things, televisions are on, people ask you when you're going to be done with the machine, etc. This is the path I have taken in my workout mentality.
Someone Motivates You:
This is quite possibly the easiest thing you can do. Someone tells you to do something, and you do it. Obviously, they would have to be knowledgeable in how the exercise affects your body, but they already know that and they are telling you to do it. All you have to do is blindly follow those instructions while keeping your mind blank. Keeping a blank mind is something difficult to do at first, but it becomes necessary to block out the thoughts you might begin to develop in your head during exercising. The reason why you need to do this is because feelings of pain are the number one reason someone would just up and stop a workout. Unless you've twisted, sprained, broke, or got hit by something any pain you feel during a workout you are supposed to be feeling. That is why a blank mind is good so that you don't stop the workout.
Classes are great because the instructors know what they are doing. They can attest to whatever they are teaching is what got them their body. They tailor the atmosphere of the studio to make sure everyone follows along, and they motivate you even more by controlling the pace with music as well.
Personal trainers are different. The reason I don't trust them is because they personally cater to you. The regiment they develop for you is supposed to make you want to, and need to come back. It becomes a scenario where you pay them and they give you a regiment that is slow and gradual, and that you cannot be motivated to workout unless you are with them. If they made you self motivated then how would they make money - law of supply and demand.
You Motivate Yourself:
I can attest to what it takes to motivate oneself because I do it every time I go to the gym. The primary things that you need to do to be self motivated include some of the following:
- Know your goals of what you want to work on, and set your regiment to go through those exercises. This requires knowing which exercises workout which muscles.
- Perfect your exercise form.
- Recognize when your body is actually working out your muscle.
- Recognize the difference between pain from muscle working (aka "feel the burn") and when you are actually injured. Being injured does not necessarily mean you'll feel pain. Sometimes your body part will go numb. The easiest way to recognize an injury is if you apply pressure to it when you're not flexing does it hurt. Muscle working pain is normal for beginners and fades after a couple of days. That is the good "pain" you need to learn to recognize.
- Keep yourself from getting distracted. The best way I know how to do this is to listen to loud music playing on my IPhone. It gets me in the zone, prevents other noises from distracting me, and I can sometimes work to the FLOW (wink, wink) of the music. I want to elaborate on music later on, but it is one of the best motivational factors you can have.
- The Vegeta Complex. If you have ever watched Dragonball Z the character that I feel had the most character development is Vegeta. Goku suffered from main character complex, which meant he was infallible. Vegeta suffered from the second-best syndrome. I elaborate more why this is a good, but also dangerous, mindset to have. BTW I have this kind of mindset.
A)Setting You regiment for the day:
This is self-explanatory. If you have no no clue on what you want to do at the gym for that day then your regiment becomes messy. No specific muscle is of the focus, and you end up not getting as much work done as you could have with a set list of exercises. Also, without the set list you become disorganized, which is how you will end up treating your time for working out.
B)Perfecting your form/ Knowing when muscles are being worked:
These two go hand in hand with one another. Knowing how to do an exercise properly is much more beneficial than lifting heavier weights are doing more repetitions with that exercise. Improperly performing exercises will not only waste your time and energy, but may cause injury. What happens is that instead of working the correct muscle you start compensating the weight by improperly using other muscles not meant for that specific exercise. That's when people start pulling muscles, dislocating joint, etc.
That is why you also need to recognize when your muscle is being worked. I sometimes see a couple of people at the gym simply going through the notion of an exercise, and I know they are not properly performing the exercise. People that would swing through the motion, drop their arms down like a sling, would struggle to find balance, are moving their body when it should be just one body part - all are doing it improperly and are not getting the proper benefits of the workout. When properly worked your muscles should feel like they are either tightening or expanding. The burn of muscle pain should only be felt upon movement and flexing of the muscles. That pain is due to the muscle micro-tears cause by exercising. Those tears are filled with protein as directed by your body.
C)Recognize the Difference Between Muscle Pain and an Actual Injury:
Like I said before, pain in the muscle is something you should never worry about. Yes, it might be a hassle to get used to, but it is necessary if you want to improve your health. Muscles can be formed in two different ways. They can be length strengthened, or they can be expanded via width. That's how you get the difference between a runners body and a muscle head.
Actual injuries are very much distinguishable from muscle soreness. I can only list some of the recognizable effects of real injuries, but there are definitely more:
- Pain from applying pressure to a certain point on your body.
- Pain preventing you from moving your joints naturally
- Numbness felt in the hands, fingers, feet, and toes.
- Viewable bruises.
- Feeling constant pain in a certain area even at a rested state.*
What would constitute any of these as an injury is that the pain or numbness does not recede after about 2-3 days. If it stays with you for the week then you have a problem.
The way to recognize muscle soreness is that you can locate the actual muscle that feels sore. It would usually feel like a burning sensation as if someone spilled acid on that part of your body. That burning sensation can also feel like a tearing your insides apart, which it essentially is doing. If the "pain" were to persist it would last no more than 2-3 days. That "burning" feeling is usually a sign that your body is stretching those muscles for the first time in a long time. If you can stick it out, deal with the muscle soreness, and continue a steady regiment for 2-3 weeks then your body will easily get used to this natural sensation.
D) Staying Focused:
This can be one of the most difficult things to do when motivating yourself to exercise. Here you are telling yourself what you need to do, and a 100 other things are going on around you. At the gym there would be people talking, music playing over the loud speaker, televisions are on, people may interrupt you in the middle of your workout, you start feeling aches and pains from paying too much attention to the muscle you just worked on, etc. You need to find a way to stay focused. Even for me it can sometimes be difficult because we are all not perfect; there are some things at the gym the people do that annoy the hell out of me. That stuff can take me off my focus. Still, there are certain practices to keep the trail of focus going, and not be distracted by lights and sounds.
The primary factor that keeps me focused during my gym workouts is music. Believe it or not, music is a very influential factor in a couple of things we do. Classical music helps us study. Other music helps us sleep. Why can't other music help us move. Well it does, and the thing about that is you have to choose the right music. The music you choose would have to be the kind of music that motivates you to be and do the best. It's the music that makes you want to get up and dance and makes you want to keep on moving. Again, everyone is different when it comes to motivational factors, but this is just a sample of my set list whenever I workout out at the gym:
- FLOW: Remember, Signs, Days, World End, GO!!, Colors
- Asian Kung Fu Generation: No Boy No Cry
- Journey: Don't Stop Believing, Wheel in the Sky, Anyway You Want It
- Cee-Lo: Fuck You!!
- Lupe Fiasco: The Show Goes On
- LMFAO: Party Rock Anthem
- Eminem: I Need a Doctor, Lose Yourself, Not Afraid
- Jackson 5: ABC
- Michael Jackson: Thriller
- T.I. & Rihanna: Live Your Life
- Miscellaneous: Rocky Theme Song, Halo Theme Song, Scott Pilgrim Theme Song, Transformers 1984 Theme Song (by White Tiger), Etc.
Most of these songs are loud, and some of them even inspirational (listening to the lyrics). This is the kind of music that gets me going to want to push out that extra set and not to give in. It's become a mantra of sorts if you think about it.
Try to find music that gets you going to get things done. It shouldn't be hard because we all have music that inspires us to do great things.
E) The Vegeta Complex:
I wanted to call it this because he's my favorite character from Dragonball Z, but I'm pretty sure it goes along the lines of an inferiority complex. So for those that have watched the show and know the characters the main character, Goku, suffers from main characters syndrome. That means he almost always wins, ends up being the most powerful character, and is almost never wrong or hated by anyone else that isn't a villain. The second most powerful character is Vegeta who would probably be considered Goku's arch rival.
Vegeta started off as a villain, but later transitioned into the role of the anti-hero. He probably has the most character development of all characters in the show, which isn't saying much anyways. The point is once he takes the role of the anti-hero - right around when they defeat Frieza - his whole character revolves around getting better than Goku because he is the only one constantly better than him. So he is constantly training even under harsher conditions than Goku just so he would catch up to him in terms of power.
That is sort of the same mentality I take with me to the gym. Based on the workouts I do, as strong as I am, I always see someone lift more than me. I end up wanting to reach that level of fitness no matter what it takes.
I also mentioned that this can be a double edged sword. Well that's because you are constantly comparing yourself to others. You can end up putting your self esteem at risk. Even when you end up reaching your goal your mindset becomes so ingrained towards that kind of progress that you keep on going. Again, it's just one of those risks you have to take when venturing into this mindset.
Having control of where your mind is focused on will definitely aid you in your goals set in your workout regiment. Getting over those initial fears and thoughts of pain and having a focused mind will allow you to get through your workout without any problems. It is always up to you whether or not you want to do the regiment. Only you can control what you want to do, but to get to your goal you have to will yourself to do it.
To be continued.....(Starting Your First Workout Regiment, Progression,and Upkeep)