Achieving Goals By Thinking Positive

Achieving Goals by Thinking Positive

Build Confidence and success with strength training!

One of the most successful achievements of my life is not to do with just sport but strength training had a lot to do with my survival and recovery. But it was in fact back when I was serving as a young paratrooper in the British army back in the days of the year 2000. I was placed into hospital with a serious injury and I was in hospital for a period of 8 months. During this time period the doctors and surgeons would say to me you have not a chance of gaining full health and return to service. Keeping in mind part of my duties was jumping out of a C-130 aeroplane while flying above Brecon beacons at 800 ft. That shook me so what I decided to do was not give up, think positive and see if I can do the reverse and get jumping out of planes and join the parachute regiment again. So my recovery started I had to put on muscle and had to gain strength and get back to better than I was before……..18 months later I was back serving and running BFT (Basic fitness Tests) faster than I ever had. What made me achieve that? Yes there was great treatment I received and yes my family supported me but if I never had the urge to think positive I would have never have achieved my goal and do what I enjoy doing today….Thinking positive.

Why do many people not have these thoughts of succeeding in strength? I believe that when we was in our younger days at school, we had to play games we did not quite understand so therefore we ended up not enjoying them e.g. playing a game as a goalkeeper in hockey and not realising what hockey was about, especially playing in goal. At the end of the game he/she had let in six goals and lost confidence in themselves as well as team-mates saying their frustrations. Why after that will that young player enjoy sports especially strength training!

Everybody is a champion

Every male and female should be in some way participate in strength training. When a child is young they all participate in a physical activity but as they get into their adolescent years they play sports they do not enjoy. Strength training should be a lifelong passion, not a ‘what might have been?’

This article is to show you that everyone can be a winner through the use of strength training. Some males/females outstanding athletes but most are not. But looking at a broader sense every child/adult can believe in themselves to become a success, what ever the goal is. Every person can learn a lot by making great efforts. Enjoy that moment of success (e.g reduction in body-fat) or try again if you fail. I will try to take you on that journey of making you think that way.

Dreams

Dreams are a great motivator they can give you inspiration and excitement. People improve when they get the idea that things could be better and they attempt to do brave things such as stepping out their comfort zone and taking action. The power of ideas can help create new learning’s and different actions to take but the vision can-not be seen unless it is properly communicated

Stories of success in the gym

Us as athletes or non-athletes respond to stories because they motivate and show that the goals that we want to achieve can be succeeded

Watching visual pictures of success

Your eyesight is a very important communication tool, just watching other members in your gym can bring inspiration and motivation. Ask them how they stayed positive during the hard times in achieving their success.

Try-again, Try-again, Try- again!

If at first you do not succeed, try again. Easier said than done, but that verse is the most important one of the three. Remember people do not achieve great things with only one attempt. I know people that have tried so many different variations of strength training methods to attain goals, but the one thing that got them to there success is just trying again and again.

Self motivation

Reading the paragraphs above is simple for me to write down. But I do agree it can be hard when we are not succeeding our given goals. What could we do to increase our motivation? And do it over and over again until we have such a belief to make us think……Impossible is nothing (adidas brand motto).

Strong Mind

How do successful people succeed, because they want to win so much they do things that unsuccessful people do not do. Yes it is true. Being strong minded in yourself is all about wanting to do something so much that you will not give up because it is to difficult. It means facing small set backs for the pleasure of achieving something you want to. When us individuals are strength training it provides us with situations we can’t get out of. Or in a different way we think that this is not doing what someone else told me it would do. Now here is a time where we can develop a strong mind. If this exercise has stopped working ask a qualified strength coach and try new more challenging programs. This way it will keep us interested in achieving our goals.. Remember it is important that you can make a mind set of not the fear of failure but the enthusiasm to try and experiment new things which will enable us to develop a stronger mind-set.

Enjoy yourself

Getting into the gym and lifting weights? Enjoy myself? That does not seem too much of a motivational tool. Now just look at the successful people around you, does not have to be fitness related they can be shareholders, lawyers, bankers but I believe that they all have the character to enjoy challenges and they take pleasure in the struggle. This is the character in them that has been developed and then shows why they are successful.
A lot of successful people enjoy what they are doing for a living.

Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear. If you are not afraid you are not demonstrating courage. Courage is doing something that you think is right or necessary in spite of being afraid. This I feel is an important part in your gain of physical strength; you may say this is not working? Or how do I do this? Shall I ask someone? But what if I look stupid! Eleanor Roosevelt once said “you gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this, I can take next thing that comes along”.(positive coaching, Jim Thompson). Remember being afraid is a natural bodily response but when you start to try out the basics and different methods of strength training it will develop from a routine to a natural habit benefiting you from the moment you start.

Goal Setting

If you sit down and think, especially now it is the New Year. What are you going to do different this year? Many people are now planning to achieve something this year and this is what we call goal setting. But usually this is not the case, most people do what ever there friends/family like to or kids at school do exactly what the school curriculum says. They turn on the telly or listen to the radio which encourages them to become lazy and forget to make decisions. Goal-setting is a influential trait of character. When sitting down and concentrating on fitness “ask yourself” how can I get better at doing this? And what do I want to accomplish? And come back to training next time with a clear goal on what to do.
With most of my clients I will give them an assessment to find out what body parts are lagging/weak and need development. They will strength train again and again so that they become efficient at using that weakened body part and so will develop confidence so that they can perform better in their chosen sport.
But the big answer is you must be committed into achieving your goals. For example this year my long term goal is to be able to deadlift 200 Kg by the summer, I am at the moment on 160Kg and now I am going to break this goal into shorter parts and achieve certain weight increases each month. There is slightly more to it but I am just putting across to you how you can write down a goal and if disciplined enough achieve it.

Your dreams, aspirations and future achievements are all down to the beliefs that say ‘you can do it’ if you want to lose weight and believe you can…..you will succeed. Positive thinking will give you a head start in achieving your strength goals.

‘In strength and performance’

Glenn Parker
GT Fitness

References

Positive Coaching, Jim Thompson

Lets finish this year off with positive comments on strength training

What has remarkably proven this year is the amazing effects strength training has had on me and my clients. Now lets take an example of two rugby players from different clubs (a) Billericay Rugby Club and (b) Southend Rugby Club who i have trained over the past 8 weeks. They both come into me and played the same positions (back row) they were (a) 85.2 Kg and (b)105.5 on the scales and (a) 16 % and (b) 14 % body-fat, there 1 RM on the BB Chest Press were (a)75 Kg and (b)141 Kg. (a) One of the players could not even pull his own body-weight up on a bar so i placed him on the scott curl to start to strengthen his first pull and his 1 RM was 33.4 Kg and (b) was able to pull up a 1 RM of 133 Kg. The players programs had to be different (a) had to have a functional hypertrophy program and a strength program (b) had a strength program and then a power program. The program had to be fit into there weekly training and match schedules. So they had a upper and lower day with a higher rep and lighter loading training day before there match day. After 8 weeks of training they were tested once again and there results were staggering, (a) then weighed in at 87.5 Kg and went to 14% body-fat (b) then weighed in at 108.4 Kg and went to 11.8 % body-fat. (a) in the BB Chest Press 1 RM went to a massive difference of 75 Kg to 97.5 Kg and (b) went 141 Kg to 161 Kg!! that was all in 8 weeks.

I have not re-tested their second test but after christmas i am positive that there will be exceptional results in both the pulling movements. All i wrote for these two rugby players was the basic big movements to follow in the programs, Squats, Deadlifts/Pull-ups and DB Chest presses.

All those guys and girls reading merry christmas and have a great new year

Look forward to writing for you next year

Glenn