WarpMyMind

It's exciting to work with clients who want muscle so STRONGLY that they're self-motivated to say "No" to a lifestyle of taking it easy.

It's exciting to learn from Milton Erickson (the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis) that it's unnecessary to "set behavior" for a client who already knows what needs to be done.

It's exciting to understand the scientific basis for asking a client to visualize themselves saying "No" to an unwanted behavior.

* But it ain't right for everyone. The folks who prefer taking it easy and staying comfortable? Their level of effort will tend to show in their strength and muscularity.

* The ones willing to sweat and grunt... the ones willing to feel their muscles burn? Their desire for muscle and strength must be pretty damned strong, eh? Strong enough that they gladly put themselves through the discomfort over and over.

I was returning from high school one day and a runaway horse with a bridle sped past a group of us into a farmer’s yard, looking for a drink of water. The farmer didn’t recognize it so I jumped up to the horse’s back, took hold of the reins and said “Giddy-up” and headed for the highway. I knew the horse would take me to the right direction. I didn’t know what the right direction was. And the horse trotted and galloped along. Now and then he would forget he was on an highway and would start off into a field. So I would pull on him a bit and call his attention to the fact that the highway was where he was supposed to be. And finally about four miles from where I had boarded him he turned into a farmyard and the farmer said, “So that’s how the critter came back. Where did you find him?” I said, “about four miles from here.” “How did you know he should come here?”
I said, “I didn’t know. But the horse knew. All I did was keep his attention on the road.”

A study looking at brain patterns in weightlifters found that the patterns activated when a weightlifter lifted hundreds of pounds were similarly activated when they only imagined lifting. In some cases, research has revealed that mental practices are almost effective as true physical practice, and that doing both is more effective than either alone.