Try This In The Gym (video)

One of my clients recently asked me the following question:

If i’m trying to complete 12 reps during an exercise, but after 9, notice that I am struggling, is it better to completely stop or take a 5 second breather and do the remaining reps?”  

Here was my answer:

“Good question Carol. If you get to 9 reps (and your goal was 12) and the form gets ‘really ugly,’ simply stop. Put the weight down. Close your eyes for a couple of seconds and visualise completing the remaining 3 reps with ease. 

Now that may sound a bit weird to some, but it actually works (for all you visual folks, check out the video below).

NLP Master Practitioner, Nina Bivona informs us that:

“Visualization is used to help performance: we engage the mind in order to help the body do something. 

To visualize or imagine some situation is very commonly done by all of us many times a day.  But to actually use visualization as a strategy we need to consciously stop and imagine a particular situation, involving all senses: hear sounds, feel feeling, tell yourself you are doing XYZ, see in your mind’s eye yourself doing it. This is like a rehearsal for your mind, so when you come to do the action physically, the brain has already the experience and knows what you want to do, so it does it easily. 

When performing an exercise, you would only need to complete in your mind a couple more reps beyond your physical capacity. This prepares you for the next exercise, because your brain learns how it feels to do 12 reps instead of 10. As long as you involve all sense it is an easy and very effective strategy.”

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