“Open your mind”
This line comes out of one of my favourite movies of all time. This weird baby foetus type thing pokes his head out of this freedom fighters stomach and helps the hero of the movie to “Open his mind” thus unlocking his potential. The hero in question is the big man himself Arnold and the film in case you haven’t already got it is “Total Recall”.
So many movies have dealt with similar concepts over the decades. The latest film I remember having touched on the subject was “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson.
Be rude not to include a pic of Scarlett!
All of the films share the same point. Unlock the mind and unlock your potential.
In my opinion the mind is one of the most powerful things in the universe. It can create machines that are capable of keeping us alive and at the same time it can create words that are powerful enough to encite the masses to kill.
It really is powerful and that’s with it not even running at full capacity. If our minds were vehicles, they would spend most of their lives in neutral. In neutral we are able to accomplish many great thing on a day to day basis. Imagine what we would be capable of if we could move our minds into 1st 2nd or 3rd gear!
I feel that many of the great artists throughout our history may have inadvertently managed to push their minds a little harder than the rest which in turn resulted in the creation of masterpieces that left an indelible mark on history. Whether it be a piece of music by Beethoven or a sculpture by Rodin, the minds behind the creativity were operating on a whole other level.
Rodin’s Thinker as a liquid metal Terminator!
Ok so many of you may be asking “ Hey Phill, that’s great and all but what the f*ck has this got to do with working out” so here goes…
I believe that by incorporating our minds into our training, we will be able to increase our overall performance immensely.
Many will get through each workout and some will see some great results. They will push themselves hard and have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish in that session. But if the mind is utilised and applied to the workout at hand, things get interesting.
In my opinion visualisation is the key. Using your mind to visualise the muscles that you will be engaging during the relevant exercise will ensure that body part works at its optimum capacity and in turn will provide a bigger strength increase then if you didn’t think that way.
A good example for this is the lat pull down. A lot of people shift a hell of a lot of weight on this machine. And at the end of the workout their biceps have an insane pump and their lats feel slightly warm.
By thinking about the muscle before engaging it you will feel a dramatic difference. By focusing on the lats and thinking about them as you pull the weight down it will automatically recognise that you want it to be instrumental in performing the task at hand and respond. Our bodies will do most things we ask of it. The human body is amazing and once a signal has been give it will find a way to carry out the task at hand. However we should tell our bodies which muscles we want to do the work. By doing so the muscle you want to hit will be the one doing the majority of the work which is what we want.
So in the same way that Beethoven utilised his mind to create something extraordinary, we too can do the same to make a masterpiece out of ourselves.
I believe in this whole heartedly, as I was one of those lat pull down bicep pullers. Once I started to use my mind and focussed on what I was doing more accurately I was able to progress a lot quicker in terms of strength and size across my back.
So using our minds in training will help us reach higher heights. Why stop there? Why not adopt similar principles in every day life. The lat analogy can be applied to our day to day existence.
The Lat Machine is life!
The ambition in life is to lift the weights. We work hard in an attempt to realise our ambitions (lift that weight) but then we realise that even though we are working hard at what we want to accomplish, we are limiting ourselves by being on autopilot and not giving full attention to our task and in turn not optimizing our efforts.
So we step back and analyse where we are going wrong and use our minds to focus more intently on our goals. In doing so we strengthen our resolve and succeed in that task. Once this is complete we find a new challenge to focus on (the metaphorical upping of the weights)
Thank you again for taking the time to read my ramblings. Keep on pushing people and I’ll leave you with the rather apt words in a great movie featuring a hero who’s called Eric. Ten points if you can guess the movie. Think about the words and if it describes you, take a step back, re-evaluate and move shit around until things are smoother!
Peace to you all
“Some mother f*ckers are always trying to Ice Skate uphill”
excellent stuff and brilliantly written.. love reading your stuff Phill, hope to see a lot more from you. Keep up the good work 😉