Building a better body through the mind-Excellence without Action?

[will1123]

I just finished reading Adrian's latest newsletter. It makes sense and I really believe that many could indeed bring about physical transformations with the Mind.  Like this part:

The fact is the Subconscious Mind is infinitely capable of bringing
about any change in the physical body whatsoever, including a
muscular, healthy physique, without ever visiting a gym or using
any physical equipment or other exercise or workout processes.

I go to the gym regulary, trying to change my physique.  I would love to not have to go to the gym, not because I hate it, but I can think(and oftentimes do) of many other more productive things I could be doing with my time.  Is there anyone in the forum who has managed to change their physique or has known of anyone who has done this?  I would love to hear about it!

[melody]

Hello Will1123,

The experiments about effectiveness of mentally imagenining the exercise sequences were done with athletes who were exercising physically as well during the day. Athletes train many hours per day, sometimes the whole day from morning to evening. The mental part was a small portion of their total training time. The key in achieving similar effects with the mental imagenining of exercising - the mind and the muscles have to know thoroughly the exercise routine, every movement one has to make. Going mentally through it with precision, while in the positive frame of mind, improves tremendously the athlete’s performance.

Doing the exercise routine only in your mind while in the positive frame of mind improves physical performance because of precise imagination and a positive frame of mind, which one cannot achieve while doing the physical training itself, while the mind is preoccupied with performing the actual physical activity.

This mental exercising takes as much time as the physical activity, so if you would like to save time to do something else, it just would not work. You still have to spend the same amount of time going mentally through your exercise routine.

Also, you would not achieve the same heart beat, and therefore the same aerobic effect, and the same amount of sweating, which cleans the body of toxins.

Instead of going to the gym, one can go for a bike ride in the country, or jogging in a park. In this way one can also admire the scenery, and think elevated, positive thoughts.

Mind you, gym could be a social place for some people.

I personally do not believe that a physically untrained body can improve drastically its physique if a person simply sits the whole day in front of a computer and then imagines running or lifting weights for 15 min. If muscles do not know what it is like to perform those tasks, if both muscles and thoughts don’t have those required reflexes, there might not be a lot of positive effect.

I invite you to do an experiment. Don’t go to the gym for a month, but simply sit at home during the same time you train and go through you usual routine just in your mind. Then go back to the gym in 30 days, and see whether you have improved with your routine, stayed at the same level, or bacame weaker then before. Then let us know of the effects you achieve. I’d be really very curious to see the results of such an experiment.

It is true that many athletes, especially those who have to train extremely for instance for  triathlon or marathon, seem to look older than their age. But some raw vegan athletes like Brendan Brazier, a triathlon champion, look young because they get into their body the best possible nutrients in a raw form. So their training is not detrimental to their body, and does not age it prematurely.

Many people who became raw vegan notice that their physique improves. Some of it is due to the fact that once the flab disappears, the muscles are delineated better, but some of it is also because the muscle tone improves with the better nutrients quality.

In any event, it is important to have moderation in training, and also proper nutrition.

[will1123]

I figured it was something like that. My mistake.

I have noticed when I visualize the exercise before I do it, not only can I lift more weight, but also lift it with better form.  This also works with aerobic exercise.  I tend to feel less fatigued when I, for example, visualize myself running in midair.  It sounds silly but it works for me.  Thanks for your suggestions!

[melody]

Hello Will1122,

No need to apologize.

Actually, what Adrian wrote about in his newsletter is something else than what I have expressed in my post. Maybe he or somebody else can clarify and elaborate on Adrian's point of view in this matter.

Please let us know more about the type of visualizations you use during your training, and how it helps you. It might give some of us ideas how to visualize even when doing other types of activities that require physical effort, and not only while doing sports.

[will1123]

It's pretty simple. I go through the entire exercise in my head, and take the time to feel which muscules are going to be used.  I envision the muscule group i'm targeting working perfectly to execute the movement.  Then I go through the exercise again, this time focusing on breathing.  Then I go through the exercise a third time, paying attention to the support muscules and posture.

It sounds like a lot, but when you go over it in your mind it doesn't take as long.  And based on the difficulty of the exercise, I focus more on different things. For example, I find the barbell bench press difficult, so with the more difficult exercises I'm going to focus more on correct posture, breathing, and balance.  Even with really heavy weight, if I mainly focus on doing those three things, the weight will keep inching up, almost automatically.  For exercises like the lying hamstring curls or back rows, I tend to focus mainly on breathing and muscule contraction, since it's difficult to see those muscules. As a matter of fact, it's important for me to visualize those muscules contracting when I'm actually doing the exercises becasuse of the lack of a visual point of reference.

As for aerobic exercises, I usually put a little emphasis on posture, but the big part for me to remember is to KEEP BREATHING.  I gotta focus on that.  Notice a pattern here?  I believe breathing is the most essential part of any exercise.  Kinda like meditation. It seems to be easier for the mind to do what you want it to when you initially focus on the breath.

There's another key I've applied to my workout routine.  I keep repeating to myself, "too easy!"  I got the idea from a U.S. Army documentary. There were about four or five men and women and it tracked their progress through basic training. At one point, their drill sergeant listed a bunch of tortuous physical activity. But then he would punctuate it with "too easy, hooah?" At which all the recruits would yell "too easy, drill sergeant!"

I remember thinking, "what wonderful motivation!" With two small words, this drill sergeant was setting up a positive mindset for the recruits.  He expected them to believe these extremely challenging situations could be done, and with ease. All throughout the documentary, I saw these recruits put through the ringer.  And every time they looked beaten, their response would be "too easy."

I try to apply that to many aspects of my life.  If I label a difficult task as one that's "too easy", then I am more likely to approach it as a challenge and see it through until completion.  It sounds like mere positive thinking, but it goes deeper than that for me.  The phrase "too easy" is my reminder that we are more than our physical manifestation.  Just as a weightlifter will "recruit" other muscule groups the chest to complete a challenging bench press set, so we too should try to remember to "recruit" our mental faculties in order to complete tasks that are seemingly impossible in our physical realm.

[melody]

Hello Will1122,

I really like the concept of "too easy", and will definitely use it! 

Thank you for describing your visualization technique.

We all should learn to visualize positively like that in our lives, and maybe even in all the tasks we do! 

[melody]

Hello Will1122,

I heard of Tai-Chi masters who had superhuman strength. They could stop opponents at a short distance from themselves and throw them off without touching them. I especially remember one story (cannot guaranty it is true) of a master coming down a hill with a pupil. A carriage got disconnected from horses, and started to come down the hill on its own. The master was able to stop it in the middle of the hill a couple of yards away from him. Such feats are done only with such masters’ energy field, not muscle strength.

To acquire such a capability requires long years of self-cultivation. They would train with a master from a young age and would spent many hours per day to do Tai-Chi – a circular type of series of slow physical movements, which look like dance movements. Tai-Chi has a sort of meditative component to it, since one has to concentrate on those movements and on the breath. The exercises are designed to balance the chakras and energy meridians thus liberating energy flow throw the body and beyond.

Maybe just by meditation itself some people can achieve this type of liberation of energy. But this would require many years of cultivation of getting at that level. In our modern society, not everybody is capable to do something like that. A lot of people go through the day all tensed up, and 20 – 30 min. of meditation often is not enough to get a total muscle relaxation, let alone of getting to some other energy dimensions.

Physical exercise can achieve the muscle relaxation quite effectively, thus getting rid of the unwanted tensions and stresses. Physical exercise only assures developing muscle strength although it does strengthen to some extend the body’s total energy field.

We are in the physical body which is a vehicle of our god-like expression that resides within that body. The body has to be taken a proper care of in this physical plane. The muscles have to go through physical stretching and pulling to keep our physical envelope in a great shape. If we don’t use our muscles, they start to atrophy. What you don’t use, you loose.

It feels good to sense the physical strength and vitality in our body! To feel our body to move with precision and ease!

[Werp Weg Alles]

Very true Melody and Will1123,

Thank you for all your points and views.  I found them particularly interesting.  I know from personal experience that when I go in to work out and lift weights that if I "see" myself from the first person doing the exercise before I do it, with only simple visualizations, I can do it almost effortlessly.  Its truly an amazing thing and I find it particularly helpful when you find yourself on a plateau where your stuck at a certain amount of weight.  When this used to happen to me, I wouldn't always be aware of it, but I'd be thinking about it.  Oh, I can only lift this.  Ill be lifting this much again today.  Hmm I guess this is all my body is capable of.  And then one day I thought about myself lifting more, and I saw myself lifting more, and then I did. Ever since then this has been a part of my work out and exercise routines and its truly a great tool.

Melody, in response to the Tai Chi masters, I also have heard many stories about masters of various energy practices and such being able to do such things.  And I do believe a great many of them.  Not becuase I want to believe in such things that most people would call, "a hoax" or "made up" but becuase A true master of such things would be very in harmony with unconditional love and oneness and would stop the cart by stopping oneself, or probably subconsciously through something like that one Hawaiian forgiveness technique. 

There is a passage in the bible about our body being a temple of God who the spirit resides in.  If you don't take care of the body, your not taking care of the spirit.  Its in all in one type deal 

Werp

[melody]

A Greek man told me once that he read in some spiritual texts about a saint who stayed in his monk's cell for many years sitting and meditating. He did not walk at all. Later on he did get out of his cell, and "walked" but everybody noticed that they could not see his feet moving under his robe. Then they realized he was floating. While he sat, not used his legs, they got atrophied. So he actually levitated to imitate a walk. He developed an energy by mediation  that enabled him to levitate.

It is remarkable to achieve the ability to levitate. But I am not sure it is good to have your legs atrophy. It would have been the best to be able to keep both abilities.

Also, who can guaranty that those stories are true? They come to us through a spoken tradition, when one person passes it on to another, before it might be written down. And each person might have a different interpretation of things and put it into a different perspective.

[Werp Weg Alles]

Also very true Melody,

I hope that I have the opportunity someday to witness such an event for myself.  Or better yet have that level of energy development.  Sure its highly unlikely, but anythings possible, right? 

Werp