Positive pressure can be a great ally in your quest to making awesome bodybuilding gains. Positive pressure can be created by giving yourself a clear deadline by when to achieve your bodybuilding goals. For instance, setting yourself a goal to lose 20 pounds of fat while maintaining, or even increasing, your muscle mass in the next twelve weeks is a great way to create positive pressure.
Why Is Applying Positive Pressure So Effective For Enhancing Bodybuilding Gains?
Because by doing this, you create a limited timeline by which to achieve your goals. This increases your chances of achieving them since, provided that you wholeheartedly commit yourself to the set date, then every workout and every day that you stick to your diet counts; you can no longer procrastinate.
In addition, this forces you to use goal setting techniques and also to adopt the winning mindset of successful bodybuilders.
Goal Setting Techniques
1. In order to reach your goals, you need to first assess where you are currently at in order to set a realistic goal.
If your end goal is to be down to 6% body fat and you are currently at 13% weighing 200-lbs then you are currently carrying 26 lbs of fat (since 200 x .13 = 26). To get down to 6% you will need to lose 7% body fat which is (200 x .07 = 14 lbs). Because a good rate to lose is 1-2lbs per week, you can easily attain this goal in 10-12 weeks by losing 1.2-1.5 lbs each week. So this is a realistic goal.
If your goal is more ambitious, like losing 100 lbs of fat for example, then this goal is a long term goal and we need to split it in shorter term goals of 10-12 weeks each so that you can start moving towards achieving the long term goal. Instead of focusing on losing 100 lbs you will focus on losing 14-18 lbs of fat on the next 12 weeks. After the first 12 week period, then see how far you’ve come and set a new goal of another 14-18 lbs. In this manner, the goal of losing 100 lbs may take as much as 1 year and 4 months (though people with so much excess weight can lose more than 1.5 lbs per week so you will probably achieve it in a year or less) but because you are focused on just losing 14-18 every 12 weeks time will fly and you will not get frustrated.
2. Once you set realistic goals, write them down!
Writing down your goals is not only a form of making a commitment with yourself to follow through but also research indicates that doing so increases your chances of success dramatically. So write down your fitness goals in the following manner:
“In the next 12 weeks I will lose _____ lbs of fat and gain _____ of muscle”
3. Once you’ve written down your goals, write down your action plan to achieve them.
Your action plan may look like the following:
I will eat 6 balanced meals a day (1 every two to three hours)
I will wake up to exercise and do cardio first thing in the morning three times a week.
I will do 5 weight training sessions a week.
I will get 8 hours of sleep (7 minimum) every day.
I will drink 1 gallon of water a day.
4. Track progress to stay motivated.
Also, if you want to, take pictures of how you currently look (be sure to also document, current measurements, bodyweight, body fat, etc…). This is a great way to stay motivated as when you look at your pictures from now, and then you look at pictures of yourself a year later, you will see a huge difference!
5. After 12 weeks assess your progress.
If you follow your action plan religiously and you miss your goals by a bit, DON’T GET DISCOURAGED! You should have seen progress anyway (here is where pictures really pay off; get a digital camera) and this is what we are shooting for; constant progress as this is what will get us to the goals we want.
If you missed the mark due to the fact that you did not follow your action plan to the letter, don’t punish yourself for it. Just set your new goals and be more determined in following your action plan so that you get there this time.
Mindset Of Successful Bodybuilders
The mindset of a successful bodybuilder has the following three characteristics:
1. The successful bodybuilder analyzes his/her time commitments and creates a bodybuilding plan that suits his/her situation.
2. He/She prepares all meals in advance along with liquid meals in order to prevent missing meals.
3. If the plan is affected for whatever reason, instead of being depressed about it and leaving it, a modification is made in order to continue execution. So for instance if a training session is missed, then it is performed on the following day. If a meal is missed, then it is consumed as soon as possible. If an unscheduled cheat meal is consumed, then the bodybuilder gets right back on the diet on the following meal instead of blowing the diet for the whole day, or week.
For any challenge that the successful bodybuilder faces, a solution is researched and executed in order to continue with the bodybuilding lifestyle. There is no room for frustration nor thoughts of dropping the bodybuilding plan in the mindset of a successful bodybuilder. They always think damage control, never “falling off the wagon”, so to speak, as once off, you run the risk of never getting back on.
Successful bodybuilders always look for solutions NOT for excuses.
Make A Commitment
It is of utmost importance that you commit yourself to the set date by either setting up a photo shoot or just simply telling others about it. Once you share with others what your goals are, that makes you accountable, and thus more likely to follow through. You can even make a small friendly contest out of it with your training partner, or people at the gym, by taking before and after pictures, along with stats such as bodyweight and body fat percentage, so that you and whomever wants to participate can see the progress made, and thus, determine a winner.
In my case, I apply myself positive pressure by either setting up a photo shoot, signing up for a guest posing or even entering a bodybuilding contest.
Make sure that once your goals are achieved you reward yourself by going to a nice restaurant and perhaps having a less than healthy meal. As long as you get back on your program on the next day, such a cheat meal will not have any detrimental effects on your physique.
IMPORTANT NOTE: By the way, my good friend Lee Labrada is hosting a Lean Body Challenge where for just getting in shape over a period of 12 weeks, you get the chance to win:
* An All-Expenses Paid trip to Houston, TX to meet Lee Labrada
* Personalized nutrition counseling session with world-renowned nutritionist, Keith Klein
* A One-Year Supply of Labrada/Lean Body Products
* Official award certificate, suitable for framing
* Your photo & story posted on Labrada.com for all to see
* Labrada Winners Jacket
* AND a 4-day trip for two on a Carnival Cruise to Cozumel!!!
Like myself, Lee is willing to do anything and everything to motivate you get in shape! So if this is not motivation enough, then I don’t know what could be. Please visit Lee’s site and sign up for the contest soon as the deadline is January 7!
Conclusion
In a nutshell, choose whatever it takes to make you motivated and committed to a clear and definite date. In this manner, you need to deliver results by a certain date and you will no longer procrastinate and skip cardio sessions nor training sessions. As a result, you will achieve weekly results that will lead you to your bodybuilding goals faster than you ever thought possible.
Start Out The New Year On The Right Path By Using Positive Pressure To Ensure Your Bodybuilding Gains!
Best of Health!
Hugo A. Rivera
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