Taking Your Body And Mind To The Next Level

[bigbadwolf77]

Ok First Off The Purpose Of This Theard Is To Help Me Gather Some Opinions And Comments From Fellow Serious Minded Athletes.
I Am Currently A 21 Yr Old College Student On Long Island, My Major Is Sports Marketing , My Minor Is Nutrition, My Goal Is To Become A Sports Nutritionist.
Now For My Thesis I Am Trying To Prove That If You Can Take Your Mind Out Of The Equation The Possibilities To Become Something More Than "human" Is Possible.
How Many Of Us Get To A Certain Part Of A Workout Where We Just Cant Do Anymore Sets Or Reps. Is That Your Body Is Spent, Or Is It Your Mind Telling You No More ?
So My Study Here Is To Figure Out How We Can Trick Our Mind Into Letting Us Do More Then It Wants Us To. Gear Can Only Take You So Far, If You Can Conquer Your Mind Then Your Invincible.
My Questions Are :
How Do You Guys Try To Win The Battle Over Your Mind , What Methods Do You Use.

Also Has Anyone Tried Meditation Or Types Of Yoga To Put Yourself In Another State Of Mind Before A Workout.

Any Info You Guys Have On How You You Deal With Training Your Brain Is Much Appreciated.

The Experiment Im Working On Now We A Fellow Classmate Is
Training The Mind To Deal With Pain.
The Experiment :
Holding A Open Palm Facing Down Over A Lit Candle, A Few Inches Over The Flame
The First Few Attempts Did Hurt, As You Continue You Will Notice You Can Hold Your Hand Longer , And Longer. You Are Making Your Mind Deal With Pain, Therefor You Can Take That Experiment And Apply It To Your Workout,

Let Me Know What You Guys Think.

[Wildcatbadass]

Bro, its the opposite... the mind is more powerful than the body

[Chookster]

you should move this post to the lounge...or is there a steroid related question in there?

[Wildcatbadass]

IF you keep putting a flame to your skin it can damage nerve endings and make it feel "numb". Also if this process goes on and ur body gets 'hyped' up it will release endorphens or however you spell it. It will also produce other things. This is all because of brain control or at least i myself would argue that. I look at it as if your mind says no u cant lift that weight then ur not gonna do it. And the othe way holds true. You shuold look into power lifters b/c they say you have to release ur mind at some point. I know there is both sides to it but i still think its mind more powerful than the body.
Wild
hope i helped a little bit.

[bigbadwolf77]

1-your body can do 10x more then your mind will let it

2- im stating that GEAR will only get you so far. if you want to get to the next level you have to conquer your mentality

3- im asking you guys , how you take yourself to the next level when you start to level off on gear,

[bigbadwolf77]

thankyou for the opinion wildcat even though it goes agaisnt my arguement.
im not saying buring ur hand is the key, im saying stressing your mind can make it adapt.
once you have broken the barrior that ur mind says no more

has anyone ever heard of "the wall" its what happens to a runner after running a certain distance, the body practically breaks down, and once you hit the wall its like a shot of edrenalyn,

[Wildcatbadass]

ok i understand what your saying now, and i'm actually both sided it seems haha. i was a runner and i would get "runners high" where i could run forever. For me it was more of a mental focus and focusing on something else. i've heard alot of other runners talk about hitting walls though. I can see ur argument by saying if u like shut down nerves and such u could keep going.

I'm interested in where this is going to go. I'll be checking on it BBW77
Wild

[Pooks]

Well...
MEDITATION OF SOMESORT I SUPPOSE..


we all kinda meditate in the gym anyways.. we all breathe in, and we breathe out, and we listen to our body... if something feels funny, we try to zone into it, and figure out what it is..
so once we get into the gym, and if u get yourself into that zone, u know u'll have a great day in the gym...

its all about the FLOW LOL
anywas man
was watching some TV show.. and they were showing people, that stab themselves with swords, and putthemselves on fire, like clown freaks in india anyways.. those guys also use meditation technique to not feel any pain and just do what they need to do..
and than some scienticsts hooked these guys up to some machines to watch their brain patterns or whatever.. anywas, a guy that sticks a knife thru one of his face cheeks, and the other... thru meditation also somehow the would heals itself faster too, like 10min later there were no signs of there ever being a cut or something..

blah blah blah
i know meditation is good, i've done it myself actually at one time.. i just don't have the time to dedicate to it.. don't have that one hour.. so i personally do the best i can to just put myself into a state of flow at the gym.

[primetime1]

im real curious as to how this discussion goes too, not much to input as of now though. i do know one thing and im sure all the other bros can agree on how big a part the mental state is when lifing heavy weights, ie: i get pumped up to go in to blow up some weights and stuff, but i know if i wasnt so amped and metally ready for my arms to lower a bunch of steel to my chest i would never be able to blast it back up..
i know its not much just wanted to comment on it and see if anyone else agrees.
good luck with the paper to man

[The Shredder]

Pretty cool discussion here,
I think it comes down to the individuals ability to push past their comfort zone, or more simply stated toughness. Mental toughness I believe is developed over a period of time starting at a very young age there are a lot of factors that play into it like family, events, sports, military.
Peoples natural tendency is to stop activity that causes them to be uncomfortable. You have to experience being out of your comfort zone for extended periods of time before you realize, "Hey I can do this, I'm not going to die." and you begin to build up your mental toughness. I see this all the time in football. Just my 2 cents

[ascendant]

one problem i think you'd run into with figuiring out a way to push your body even harder is that your mind stops your body to prevent injury. overtraining is a symptom of this, and so is torn ligaments, tendons, muscles, etc. even on gear, you can still manage to overtrain by pushing it too hard. the subconscious is what convinces our consciousness we can't push the weight any further. you can't overcome your subconscious, but through conscious direction you can push your body past the limits your subconscious imposes. like i said though, it's not always a good thing, and you're asking for injury when pushing past those limitations. if you really want to see the results of pushing the mind past it's limitations on the physical body, take a shot of adren****e before lifting some weight and watch how fast you shred your muscles to garbageland. just saying be careful, and seriously please don't mess with the adren****e.

[ascendant]

oh, and as far as the limiting pain factor involved on the conscious level (if you can't push past that to the level of total muscular failure), pain is all a matter of perspective. you CAN train the body to observe pain differently. it doesn't need to be blocked out, but merely recognized as just a physical sensation that can be acknowledged and pushed aside. there is no real limit to "pain tolerance". however, to correct my previous statement, if you can't push your muscles to complete failure, then you are still consciously limiting yourself, not subconsciously, and there is more potential.

[Ih8urdsm]

Im also from LI, hello! hehe...um i think you prob will get some more info on this elsewhere, but i guess some people here will give you their advice. I think the Shaolin Monks would be a good place to start. Some info on Zen...Im not going to say bodybuilders or powerlifters minds dont push them past some limits, but i think there are a lot more extreme examples of 'mind over matter' than just weightlifting.

[DEVLDOG]

whats your question about AAS

[bigbadwolf77]

My question about AAS is even though gear makes you able to lift more, train harder etc... you still have your mind to battle, so im trying to prove here that while gear is the fuel to "mutate" yourself sord of speak, the mind is what levels you from gettin to the next level.
in short terms gear only can take you so far.

if anyone wouldnt mind ( and im not asking you to hurt urselfs for the sake of the paper im writting) if you can try the next time your at ur gym or wokring out, drop down to a reasonable weight ur comfortable with, once you get to a point in the set/rep where you just cant do anymore. try to put yourself in a state of mind "outside"meditation of where you are and then proceed to try to continue your reps and let me know your results.
if you can focus on muscles groups to grow, you can focus your mind on how to deal with pain
sorry if some of you fellas think im cracked out over here.

[Pooks]

Meditation is a scary thing.

There are prolly different forms of meditation..
they one i practiced for about a month a couple of years ago.. was focusing on Feelings and disconnecting from the brain..

basically the concept was too go on gut feelings almost on everything, because supposedly the gut can proccess information ALOT faster than the Brain.

This was practiced thru breating, and strengtening signals you receive from within the torso and the gut.... while paying less attention to thoughts in the head.

WELL... LEts just say i definetly was a much different person during that time period, almost superhuman, kinda scary..

unfortunately, my body decided to rebel or something.. and i picked up a nasty flu.. and i became bed stricken for a week with an extreme fever.. and i was never able to regain what i achieved back than. My mind just doesnt let me meditate anymore i think LOL.. it likes its power and doesnt like relinquishing it lol

i don't know,, thats my story, the thread is semi related to it.. and i suppose secretely i'd like to start up that meditation again, but i am still scared too lol

[DEVLDOG]

its called "psych"
some times you cruise thrue a workout and sometimes you crawl out of the gym knowing you have left it all there.theres alot of things that could dictate the workout you have and the amount of intensity you have to put into it....work,wife,gf,kids,money.....and the list goes on...not every workout will be that most intense one you ever had,as much as you may try its just part of life.

[bigbadwolf77]

thankyou for everyones input here, if anyone has found any scientifc research its much appreciated.

[bigbadwolf77]

my next theard will be on the nutrtional aspect of the body and mind, be sure to check it out and give me your opinions , i will be posting it tonight , in the another area of this forum.

thanks again guys

Wolf