5 Sports Psychology Tips for a Supercharged Mindset
Ever find yourself just going through the motions during your sweat sessions? These 5 sports psychology tips will supercharge your workouts, focus your energy and help you take your training next level.If top athletes use tips like these to win races, we can use them to win the motivation game, right?!
Use Powerful Images
While you’re working up a sweat, use powerful imagery to help you feel lighter, faster and stronger. For example, if you’re running up a hill you could imagine a magnet at the top pulling you up towards it. If you’re doing squats, imagine the muscles in your hamstrings and glutes literally pushing you up from a squat position to standing, like a mini elevator. At the start of your sprint drills, imagine you’re a bullet being shot out of a gun at high speed. It’s all about a little play mixed in with the tough work!
Practice Being In The Now
Focus on what you’re doing and feeling right here and now, during every moment of your workout. Put one foot in front of the other and focus on feeling the ground beneath your feet, the breath in your lungs, the sweat on your face. Take a moment to pay really close attention to your technique too, and try not to project yourself in to the future and worry about what you still have to get through. Just focus on your immediate target and be aware of distractions – really be in the moment and leave the rest of the world behind, just for the small amount of time you’re doing your workout. Appreciate the feeling of your body moving, the strength in your muscles and the heat in your centre. Be grateful you’re healthy and moving!
Take A Mental Trip
Pro athletes who often do repetitive training swear by taking ‘mental trips’ to shake up their workouts. For example, you might imagine yourself running along your favourite beach in Bali when you’re actually just jogging around your local park. Or you could be working out in the gym and imagine you’re on stage performing and have to do every rep perfectly to nail the performance. You might be doing one of your BUF Girls workouts in the park but in your head, you’re a graceful warrior going through a warm-up sequence. It’s all about a little healthy distraction.
Detach From the Outcome
Focusing only on the amount of weight you’re hoping to lose not only saps the joy out of your workouts, it can also distract you from doing the work you need to do in order to reach your goal in the first place. You’re better off focusing on how your fitness regime is making you feel, reminding yourself how great you’ll feel when you choose to workout or eat a healthy meal, and creating small daily or weekly goals that are more motivating than lofty goals that will take you forever to reach! Examples might be completing 4 workouts in a week, switching your usual grains for extra vegetables, or committing to an online or real time program and sticking with it from start to finish.
Look For Motivators
Use everything around you as a motivator that will help you gain an advantage. For example, if you hear that one of your work colleagues is hitting the gym at lunch times, see that as an opportunity to gain a workout buddy and go with them! Or if somebody in the gym is pumping out reps at a good pace, use them as a pace setter for your own reps. If you’re feeling a little low and a good tune comes on, find a beat in the music and get lost in that. Everything is to your advantage.