Normally bodybuilding articles talk about how to build muscle up, diet, training workouts, muscle building nutrition, bonuses of using supplements, and so on, however, whilst these are all really important there is one thing slightly different I would like to introduce to you and your muscle building armory. It is known as the reticular activating system (RAV).
The RAV works alongside the visual parts of our brain and directs our attention to certain things that our subconscious has programmed into it, to be important to achieve our goals. This sub-conscious thought pattern that we have is literally what makes us notice, hear and take action on the things that we do on a daily basis.
Neuroscientists have now proven this and as such it proves the validity of positive thinking and the law of attraction. If you have never heard of the law of attraction before it is basically the assumption that ‘what you think about, you bring about’ or ‘thoughts become things. Now in the past, this was thought of as being a bit too new age for the majority of people however there is an increasing acceptance of this mental approach worldwide.
Now it doesn’t matter if you take the neuro-scientist approach about it or the metaphysical approach to it because it will work either way. Therefore by reprogramming our subconscious mind it is possible to activate our RAV which in turn will ensure that we take the correct steps to achieve our goals as we will simply be recognizing the most effective way to get there more easily. Some people will come across strange co-incidences that will help their progress which is not uncommon and often gives this ‘law of attraction’ an unearthly feel whereas the truth is those things were probably there waiting to be found all along!
What can a bodybuilder do to benefit from this? Well, think now about your present ongoing thought patterns. Exactly what thoughts do you have running through your mind on a day-to-day basis? Are they thoughts such as ‘losing weight is impossible for me’ or ‘My muscles won’t grow’ for if they are then that is precisely what your RAV system is selecting for you to notice and take action upon on a day-to-day basis? It is therefore your everyday subconscious thought process that you need to alter to positive muscle-building thought processes such as: ‘muscle mass come quickly and easily’ or ‘I am getting huge fast’ and so on.
How can you go about changing these thought patterns? Here are a couple of things to try:
1) Visualisation: first you need to set aside 5 minutes or so each day to do this. Simply close your eyes and picture your body in as much detail as you can exactly what you want it to look like. Large biceps, lean 6 pack and such like, make sure you are as clear as possible about this vision and hold it with a sense of belief.’
2) Speak out aloud clearly and confidently simple statements like I am extremely fit and healthy, I am huge and muscular, I am growing more and more each day, and so on.
Practice these daily. It will take a minimum of 30 days to start overriding your old thought patterns and to imprint the new ones but it will happen. Following that, keep doing them in order to continually reaffirm your new beliefs and thought programming.
If you doubt that this is effective then I suggest that you take a look at a few sportsmen autobiographies or sports studies books, I guarantee that you will find these processes talked about in-depth, especially visualization which is an awesomely effective technique that deserves daily.
