Making the best of your workouts

Hello. I just wanted to share some things that may help you with your workouts, training, etc. Check out the list below:

- Set goals to help you determine what you are striving for and how you want to feel when you get there

- Perform a proper warm up with a light cardiovascular exercise as well as dynamic movements

- Be in the moment. Focus on what you are doing

- Feel the muscles you are using on the exercise you are performing

- Focus on what you want, not what you don't want

- Focus and feel every rep and movement

- Leave your workout knowing you did the best you could for that day

- Do your best, don't sell yourself short

- Have fun - gotta remember that

The Value of Visualization in Sport and Life

Athletes routinely use visualization or mental practice to enhance their performance. Using the imagination to achieve physical results has been found to have comparable results to the actual physical practice. This is possible because the nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined.

Research Quarterly reported an experiment on the effects of mental practice (using visualization) on improving the skill of shooting basketball free throws. One group of students practiced shooting the free throws physically for 20 minutes a day, and were scored on the first and last days. A second group engaged in no pracicte and was scored on the first and last days. A third group was scored on the first day, then spent 20 minutes a day, imagining they were shooting free throws. When they missed they would imagine that they corrected their aim accordingly.

The first group (practiced shooting 20 minutes a day)improved their scoring by 24
percent.

The second group (had no practice) had no improvement.

The third group (practiced using their imagination) improved their scoring by 23 percent.

Just imagine if their was a fourth group who did physical practice as well as imagination...... Wonder what the results would have been with that group?

Use your imagination and create the mental picture of how you want your performance to go. Visualize how it would look and feel. It can go beyond an athletic peformance. Perhaps it can be used for speaking in front of a group of people or preparing for a job interview or use your imagination......

We are powerful beings. Use your imagination to create your performance, whether it is in sport or life. Visualize what you want and "run the movie" of how it would look. The key is to run the movie, visualize daily. Have fun!!!!

source of information comes from: THE NEW PSYCHO-CYBERGENITICS by Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

Mental Training for Optimal Performance and Training

Have you experienced a time during practice or competition where you could not focus? Are there times when the chatter in your head is negative? Have you ever heard about athletes doing mental training for their sport and you are not sure how to implement it yourself?

Mental training is a huge component of training and competing. It is a tool that regardless of your sport, when used consistently, can help you stay focused, stop negative self-talk, improve your technique/skills, increase your confidence, prepare you for certain situations in your sport (like winter training), and much more. For example, Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers, would run his own color movie in his head before hitting a shot, even in practice. His movie was very sharp and in-focus like he had actually performed it. This helped him to become a champion golfer of his time.

Success in 2010

By setting goals in 2010, there may be an obstacle or two that come up along the way. It is all part of the journey. Perhaps it may be a test of what the desire level is to accomplish the goal or goals. With that in mind, how can people set themselves up for success to combat the “speed bumps” (that is what I like to call them)? Below are suggestions on how to stay on the road to success:

• Write down goals and revisit them frequently

• Put up pictures, words, symbols, etc. to have daily reminders of the direction going

• Evaluate goals and change them if needed

• Keep self-talk positive

• Daiy visualize or “run the movie” of having success toward the goal(s)

• Ask for support from others

• Speak the goals into existence

• Stay relaxed and calm

• If there is comfort, then moving forward not happening

• Have fun!!!!

• Remember Beyond Goals: How will it feel when you accomplish the goal?

• Set up an award system that is appropriate for the goal(s)

• Have a goal for each day, workout, etc. and go for it!!!

These are just some examples of how to help create success in 2010 towards goals. Happy trails.