Mental Preparation and Visualization in Weight Lifting - A Revelation

Arnold again, more in his prime.

This is not a subject I am an expert in at all but rather someone who is learning the importance of this. A little while ago, I wrote a book review on Huge and Freaky and one of the things that stuck with me from reading that book was the actual need and instruction on how to MENTALLY prepare for a lifting session. In response to this I have been conducting a experiment and I wanted to share the results with you.

Over the last month, I have had workouts where I took the time to mentally to prepare and visualize the workout and then others where I skipped it. The difference in results has been both profound and instructional.

When I mentally prepared for at least 15 minutes (sometimes a half hour) where I meditated to calm my mind, visualized the workout from start to finish and then during in the workout visualized each set before I did it, the workouts were both more intense and I had more staying power.

The intensity difference was far more than just nailing every set. It meant I lifted more weight with ease. I often maxed out on every set, but when I didn't do this, with no exceptions, I struggled on last exercises and sets and often had to scrub the last few exercises because I simple did not have to mental focus to keep going.

That leads to staying power. When I mentally prepared, there was not a single workout that I did not complete. When I didn't prepare, I often did not finish a workout and if I did, it was a struggle.

It doesn't take much to mentally prepare: five minutes of meditation to calm the mind and set aside distractions and then ten minutes of going over every exercise, set, rep in my head. Review the goals for that workout then start. Once in it, then the focus shifts to going through each set mentally before actually performing it. You have time between each set or exercise, think about and visualize it.

I'm sold, and that means this is now part of the routine. This one has passed my test of practical experience and I recommend it to everyone who want to get more out of lifting or fitness.