The Inner Game Of Bodybuilding

The Inner Game Of Bodybuilding

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from wieders book
The Inner Game of Bodybuilding Chapt.30:

Bodybuilders striving for ultimate development cannot afford anything but 100% effort, physical or mental. This means they cannot allow discouragement, a bad mood, superstitions, or anything else to keep them from making the most of their training. To be certain of success, this involves being sure you can train yourself mentally, just as you do physically.

Positive Thinking-

Since much of what we think and feel comes from habit, it can be dealt with using standar behavioral-modification techniques. Most temperament problems that keep bodybuilders from achieving their full potential are the result of negative thinking, cases of the mind getting in its own way. We all make mental mistakes that could our thinking, but I believe the following 10 mistakes are among the most significant obstacles for competitive bodybuilders seeking top titles.

The Either/Or Mistake-

This is the error of expecting perfection. If you don't win the Mr. Universe title, you are a total failure. If everything isn't exactly right, its all wrong. The truth of the matter is that everything is a matter of degree, and all measurements simply indicate how one thing relates to another, not to any absolute. Solution- Learn to see things as matters of degree.

The Overgeneralization Mistake-

This occurs when you jump to the conclusion that because something didn't work out one time that's the way things will be. Somebody insults you, so you decide nobody likes you. You don't win a competition, so you conclude you're a second-rate bodybuilder and that you'll never win. The truth is that not everything is part of a pattern. And even when things do indicate a general pattern, patterns can be altered and changed. The future is not inevitable.
Solution- Practice seeing the positive as well as the negative in life situations.

The Negative Interpretation Mistake-

We all see both good and bad around us practically all the time. When we're depressed, we tend to ignore the good and focus on the bad. If you do this for a while, you have to come to the conclusion that everything in your life is negative, and that simply is not true. Solution- Learn to accept and enjoy the positive aspects of life.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy-

Because you believe something is going to happen, you actually help to bring it about. Suppose you're standing onstage in a contest and find you're not called out for comparison often enough to suit you. So you assume that the judges don't think much of you, you get depressed, your energy sinks, and you don't present yourself to your best advantage. By doing this, you make sure that you won't score high. But actually, you did not know for certain what the judges thought of you, and it shouldn't have mattered. Yyou were supposed to be up there doing your best, no matter what they thought. Besides, the first time Lee Haney won a Mr. Olympia competition, he was called out for only a couple of comparisons, because he was so obviously a winner.
Solution- Stick with conclusions that you can square with the facts, and don't go out of your way to create problems for yourself.

The Distortion mistake-

This involves making too much of your mistakes and not enough of your good points. If you insist on doing this, you're always going to make youself feel inferior, no matter how well you really are doing. If you foul things up from time to time, you're no different than anyone else. But mistakes aren't the end of the world.
Solution- Learn to see your strengths and weaknesses in their true perspective; don't exaggerate or minimize.


The Feeling/Thinking Mistake-

This is the error that happens when you assume that your feelings relect reality. When you project your negative emotions onto the world around you, that world begins to seem negative, too. But in fact, what you do or don't like, do or don't want, prefer or disdain, frequently tell you nothing about reality. If you get into the "I feel overwhelmed, things are hopeless" habit of thinking every time the going gets tough, you will talk yourself into giving up.
Solution- Learn to distinguish between how things are and how you feel about them.

The Should Mistake-

If you set your expectations too high, and convince youself that there is some standard you have to live up to, some out-of-reach goal you have to attain, you are always going to see yourself as a failure. Perfection is simply not attainable.........by anyone!
Solution- Learn to develop reasonable and attainable expectations.

The Worst Possible Interpretation Mistake-

This is a form of overgeneralization and exaggeration in which you always end up assuming the worst. If you feel afraid, you assume that you're a coward; if you can't lift a certain weight, you assume that you're weak. In reality, we are all afraid sometimes, even the bravest of us, and weakness and strength are relative terms. You're stronger than some people weaker than others. You're even stronger or weaker than yourself one day to the next.
Solution- Learn to recognize that you are not your mistakes. Don't label youself automatically.

The Taking Blame Mistake-

Blame is the mother of guilt. If something goes wrong, it's not necessarily anyone's fault. If your workout partner doesn't do well in a contest, you shouldn't automatically assume that you didn't push him hard enough in the gym. Just rememeber, you may have a lot of influence on events around you,l but you don't necessarily have to take the responsibility for them. After all, who put you in charge anyway? Let people take responsibility for themselves, and get on with your own life.
Solution- Don't assume responsibility where you don't have any control.


Putting all of these examples together, it should become pretty clear why some people make themselves suffer and become depressed when there's no real justification for it. It should also shed some light on the behavior of certain bodybuilders. When you read about Frank Zane meditating every day or working to develop nothing but a positive outlook on his career, you can see why. Zane was competing on a level where only a fraction of a percentage point may have separated him from a challenger. He needed to actualize every bit of potential in his mind and body possessed. That's the reason he stressed the mental aspect to such a degree, and that's what made him a three-time Mr. Olympia while competiting against athletes who routinely outweighed him by up to 50lbs!

Watching the film "Pumping Iron" on video, you can see how Arnold Schwarzenegger worked to create doubts in the mind of a young Lou Ferrigno prior to the Mr. Olympia competition in 1975. And you can see how Ken Waller tried to confuse Mike Katz prior to the Mr. Universe competition held with that Olympia. The film distorted these events to some degree, but the statement it made is true; the body cannot triumph if the mind is defeated.

Defeat more often comes from within rather than from ouside ourselves. Some people learn to be very successful at failing. And those people do not become champions.

You don't develop a positive outlook just by willing it, however. You have to work at it, learn new habits by practicing them every day. But all this shouldn't convince us that negativism is all in our heads. It isn't. Sometimes negative information indicates what is really going on, tells us it shouldn't be ignored.

Pain is of this kind of information and it can be used positively. So is failure. When Arnold came to this country in 1968 to compete in the IFBB Mr. Universe competition, his defeat by Zane served to spur him to even greater efforts, and he was never defeated again. Taking responsibility for the failure, admitting he wasn't perfect, was the first step Arnold took toward making even greater progress.

Negative and positive feelings are a vital part of using the Weider Instincitve Training Principle in your workouts. By learning to pay attention to your feelings, and looking to see what realities they might represent, you can fine-tune your intuition so that it becomes a valuable asset in your progress.

Sometimes you may feel bad about something becauseyou are doing the wrong thing. Maybe you're using the wrong kind of training routine, or you have allowed your dedication to training to unbalance the priorities by which you're leading your life.

The trick is not to overreact. Be aware of the positive and negative influences in your life, but don't let them sway you unduly. Life has ups and downs, but they have to be kept within limits. Otherwise, we just lose track of where we're going.

When you overreact, misinterpret, distort or jump to conclusions emotionally, you can't really listen to what your body and mind are telling you. The Instinctive Principle depends on your ability and willingness to pay careful attention, and not to make assumptions or create self-fulfilling prophecies.

Reality is a potent force. By working to regulate the swings of your individual temperment, you can get reality on your side so that it works for you, rather than against you.
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