Look into my “I’s” – The Champion.
Look into my “I’s” – The Champion.By Andrew Oye
MINDSET FUELS GYM SETS
As expected, iron training is a challenge. Those just starting a regimen, as well as regular gym-goers, occasionally require an encouraging nudge to get to the gym and endure workouts. Often, we push ourselves with the help of mental visualization. The “Look Into My I’s” Series illustrates how iron, intelligence and inspiration intertwine and, in turn, nurture a creative mentality of fitness achievement.
Both novice and veteran iron lifters use motivational techniques to make it through sessions in the gym. Sometimes motivation comes from outside I’s — instructors, invitations or implications — external sources in the form of a personal coach/trainer, a friend’s request for a tagalong, or another person’s comment (whether positive or not so positive) about our appearance. But, when we look into our own I’s, we use intelligence to pull from internal sources of inspiration and grasp the power of our imagination to enhance our physical performance.
The main philosophy: Mindset Fuels Gym Sets. Basically, when looking at the challenge of iron training in the real world, you can envision a figurative world where you become a character or switch between characters that command you to complete your goal. Who are these characters? Further analysis identifies the dominant, primary Motivational Archetypes: The Warrior. The Champion. The Machine. The Fighter. The Hero. Which one(s) are you, and when do you call upon your iron alter ego(s)?
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MOTIVATIONAL ARCHETYPE PROFILE
YOUR INSPIRATION:
The Champion.
YOUR ITINERARY:
The Championship.
YOUR IMAGERY:
The Champion jogs into the gym prepared to play in the “big game” or finish the “big race.”Depending on which type you identify with, the gym transforms into the site where you will compete in the playoff finals. To the team-captain Champion, it appears as the stadium’s sprawling field or the arena’s expansive court. The solo-sport Champion might imagine a combat ring, a competition course, or a performance stage. The endurance-minded Champion sees his/her lane on a racetrack. After surveying the scene, you hear the starter gun, whistle or bell and spiritedly tackle, dunk, punch, kick, swing at or run toward your opponent — weights, dumbbells, barbells, machines — and the championship game or race begins.
YOUR INSIGHT:
Generally, you call upon the Champion mindset when you have identified a specific goal you want to reach. Perhaps you are, in actuality, a currently competitive athlete and you are training for an upcoming game, contest, match, meet or race. Or maybe you only compete against yourself, and you have a target fitness goal on a particular day: “Today, I must complete X sets of Y exercises for my weakest body part,” or “I must complete X distance or Y time on the treadmill.” When you need an extra shot of focus to land the proverbial dart precisely on the bull’s eye, you become the Champion to ensure that you win on Game Day or to simply succeed at your goal-of-the-day. In the Champion’s mind, every quarter/inning you play, game move you execute, or mile that you run — i.e., every rep, set, distance and exercise – represents a point on your personal scoreboard.
For the Champion, the iron has a dual role. The iron is the opponent you compete against, and it also becomes the sports equipment you use to win your championship. At the same time that you contend with the opposition of the weights or the distance on the cardio-training machines, you use these “tools of the game” to build the physique of a stronger, faster, better, prizewinning “athlete” (whether you are competitive in an official athletic endeavor or just in the gym).
YOUR IMPACT:
Fitness can be a “team sport” or “individual sport,” in the sense that the Champion may train with teammates (a training partner or exercise group) or play as a lone star. But a bona fide Champion relies only on the self as his or her biggest cheerleader, a single inner voice from a one-seat stadium chanting “You’ve got the spirit! Rah-rah-rah!” or “Stay in it to win it! Rah-rah-rah!” The concept of sports play is ingrained in the fitness society because athletes have long used gym time as part of their preparation for competitions. Hence, a mind-generated Champion in the everyday “Iron Game” can easily borrow notions of athletic guts-and-glory from sports culture.
The timer ticks toward the closing minutes. Having competed for the ultimate championship trophy — in this case, your personal improvement — the Champion jubilantly scores the game-winning point or crosses the finish line of the race. Hand raised in victory, you are carried out of the stadium by the imaginary marching band amid the cheers of the imaginary crowd. Solo, you reenter the real world in your one-player team uniform: the sweat-logged gym T-shirt that proves you earned the gold medal of self-satisfaction on that day you chose to play until the final buzzer.
Remember, the next time you face a mirror and look into your eyes for motivation, you can do it (push it, pull it, squat it, lift it), whatever it is, if you put your mind to it.
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This was part 2 of Andrew Oye’s motivational series. If you want to read the first part, you can read it here.
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Andrew Oye is an iron enthusiast, a media adviser, a preeminent professional, sports, bodybuilding, and fitness industry journalist. He is also a television, film, and entertainment creative director and writer.
Visit his website at: http://facebook.com/muscleink
