Mental Warm-up: Preparing the Mind for your Workout

That you need to warm up your muscles before training them goes without saying if you've been reading this articles directory for any length of time. Even the most casual weekend warriors at least make a show of jogging in place a hit or trying to touch their toes before heading out to right field with their glove in one hand and a brew in the other. If they don't, they're probably going to pull a hamstring the first time someone shoots one up the gap, just as something very, very bad will inevitably happen to bodybuilders who apply resistance to their muscles and joints without having warmed them up beforehand.

Less known than the importance of warming up your body is the importance of warming up your mint!. Simply put, the must must he developed anti prepared to interact with the body t.o reach peak muscular development. Most personal trainers and bodybuilders will tell you that mental factors play at least as crucial a role in achieving success as physical factors do And the more advanced you become as a bodybuilder. the more significant the role played by menial skills becomes. By the time you get to elite bodybuilding competitions, those who have been mentally strong during the off-season and contest prep will be the most successful on game clay One could argue that while mental readiness fur an event is simultaneously the must difficult characteristic to gauge, it's also the most significant predictor of success or failure.

That applies to your workouts as surely as it does to someone else's soccer game or boxing match. Too often, weightlifters arrive at the gym first thing in the morning or after a hard day's work having given little thought to what they hope to achieve in their workout. Muscular development is the last thing on their mind; as a result, they're unprepared for a useful workout, done an optimal one. I'd argue that the reason so many bodybuilders spend endless hours in the gym is that they've failed to mentally prepare for the intensity of the workout that lies ahead.

Don't think of your physical and mental warm-ups as separate entities