visualization

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scientific muscle

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Has anyone here ever used visualization for lifting /bodybuilding? I know lots of olympic athletes use visualization in their training successfully, including olympic weight-lifters using it to help accomplish record-breaking feats of strength. I know arnold schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders have used visualization to help motivate them to sculpt their bodies...for example imagining your quads are swelling and gigantic when doing squats, or I have found even simply posing in the mirror after a workout can help build a sense of accomplishment and motivation, which can have a huge effect on training motivation and ultimately real results (after all, without motivation we would all quit working out and our muscles would shrivel, while it takes extraordinary motivation to build a champion bodybuilder's physique).
 
Good timing. I've recently added two more mirrors to my gym, totalling 3. Now I realize that you are talking fantasy visuals, but I'm jumping the gun with some psychoanalytic thoughts I've had about the real visuals.
Mirror #1 makes me look normal. It is flat.
Mirror #2 makes me look thick.
Mirror #3 makes me look tall and thin, as it leans against the wall in a curve.

At first I tended to look at all 3, thinking mirror #3 is what I was, Mirror #2 is what I'll be next week/month and Mirror #1 is what I look like today.

Since my psyche-up for workouts is heavy metal music (extremely loud) and my attitude is like a powerlifter, and my gym is at home where I can grunt, yell and roar all I want to without scaring the gym squirrels, I find that when I'm trying to get a good workout in, I only really look at mirror #2 now.
I don't wanna be a fitness model, so to look like an animal, I think like an animal, lift like an animal, and visualize myself as an animal. A big sweaty, rock hard animal.
It works. Now I gotta go kill something and EAT it.
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It's said that (as you mentioned), that a good pose after your workout is really good for you. For starters, the pump feeling is awesome. Secondly, tensing your pumped muscles after a workout is good for them. I read it a few times; it bennafits them to tense them for as long as possible after working them.

Also, closing your eyes when working out, rather than staring at yourself in the mirror, try closing your eyes and visualizing yourself with your desired look, or visualizing the muscle you're working looking how you want it.

Fantastic motivation. There's only one thing that motivates me more though, and that's watching an short inspiring clip of an admired BB'er before I hit the gym.
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(Programmers @ Aug. 01 2006,06:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Also, closing when working out, rather than staring at yourself in the mirror, try closing your eyes and visualizing yourself with your desired look, or visualizing the muscle you're working looking how you want it.  
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Neither my mirrors or my imagination are that wide!
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When I go for my 1Rm on bench press, I visualize the &quot;entire&quot; motion of the lift. I don't try to fool myself by visualizing it will be &quot;easy&quot;, that just sets me up for a let down. I visualize the lift with the effort &amp; speed I expect that it will take to make the lift. Years ago I was benching 415 lbs, the only way I could have gotten that weight up is to basically have seen it done already (visualized it before hand) to give me the confidence it could in fact be done. I for one am a firm believer in this approach.

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(quadancer @ Aug. 01 2006,04:55)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Good timing. I've recently added two more mirrors to my gym, totalling 3. Now I realize that you are talking fantasy visuals, but I'm jumping the gun with some psychoanalytic thoughts I've had about the real visuals.
Mirror #1 makes me look normal. It is flat.
Mirror #2 makes me look thick.
Mirror #3 makes me look tall and thin, as it leans against the wall in a curve.

At first I tended to look at all 3, thinking mirror #3 is what I was, Mirror #2 is what I'll be next week/month and Mirror #1 is what I look like today.

Since my psyche-up for workouts is heavy metal music (extremely loud) and my attitude is like a powerlifter, and my gym is at home where I can grunt, yell and roar all I want to without scaring the gym squirrels, I find that when I'm trying to get a good workout in, I only really look at mirror #2 now.
I don't wanna be a fitness model, so to look like an animal, I think like an animal, lift like an animal, and visualize myself as an animal. A big sweaty, rock hard animal.
It works. Now I gotta go kill something and EAT it.  
cool.gif
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LMAO! Funny stuff quadancer, I like your analogy of an animal. I sometimes visualize I am arnold schwarzenegger working out in some californian dungeon back in the 70's, he had the most amazing physique I have ever seen back then. Other times I just imagine that the weights are nothing, and it really does help me get them up!! I also listen to heavy metal when lifting, mostly older metallica stuff and it really gets me in the mood to heave weights around, sweat like a pig and feel my muscles pump up with blood!
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I really think the mirror helps also, I will bbe lifting with my shirt on and usually at soem point in the workout, after I am pumped up I take it off and do some poses, just to encourage myslef...I am looking at a normal mirror but in my mind I am like...man my arms are huge!! My pecs are insane I am an animal!!! Some people might think I am nuts, but I do it becaseu it works for me...whatever will keep me motivated and driven is what I need! We all know it takes drive to get your ass in the gym for an hour three/times week and put your entire muscular system through tension torture!
 
I definitely use visualization! If you can conceive it, you can believe it, you can achieve it. The power of the mind over the body is great. I notice if I lift and do NOT visualize, I feel weaker or just loose the oomph. But picturing my muscles rock solid and jacked up, imagining what I want them to look like, taps into something primal, and I definitely believe in it's effectiveness.
 
I use a few types of visualization.

When I am going really heavy, and I say to myself, &quot;Ok, I'm gonna try this weight&quot; (usually a new maximum), I find myself immediately corrected by none other than Yoda, who tells me &quot;There is DOo, or do not, there is no try&quot;. Motivates me.. Corny, I know.

Then I visualize doint the movement in slow motion, I get really into the movement, I see the muscle fibers contracting against the tendons slowly, I imagine the tremendouse forces being generated, then as I progress through that visualization, a growl begins growing in my throat, then an anger at the weight. Thats when I lift the bar....

Lastly, I like to watch myself workout. Yeah, I engage in a bit of Gymsterbation. And why not? I am not normally a vain guy, but one of the rewards of this hard work, is looking good, and when I get pumped, I look pretty darn good in a tanktop. Striations start to jump out.... THIS is what all this hard work is about.. The more I see these results, the more motivated I stay.
 
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(scientific muscle @ Jul. 31 2006,23:41)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Has anyone here ever used visualization for lifting /bodybuilding?  </div>
Surprised I missed this thread. Yes, I use visualization every morning before I start the day. It's actually self hypnosis, but visualization is a part of it. Since I got serious about bodybuilding, I began to include my appearance in my hypnosis sessions. Pretty short session every morning, about 5-6 minutes. Learned it from Dane Spotts years ago.
 
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