By Brad Baldwin, NYC personal trainer

“The human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one imagined vividly and in detail.”

Many New Yorkers blame genetics for the reason he/she can’t get lose weight or make progress. These same people have zero visualization as part of their training generally.

They walk into the gym for a workout and have no idea how much weight they’re going to do or how many reps/sets. They’re just going by “feel” the majority of the time.

If you read Psycho-Cybernetics you’ll learn that using visualization, self-image and corrective feedback can turn an average strength athlete into a great one. A person that wants to optimize their progress not only knows what exercises, weight, sets and reps they will perform that day but they have played “the mental video” of every rep mentally before hand; often the night before or on the walk to the gym. The more senses he/she uses, the better. Eating a certain food before training, playing specific songs or even wearing a specific deodorant/cologne on certain lifting days can help overall progress (associating certain smells with specific tasks).

When you approach an exercise, you should have so much confidence from visualizing the details prior that the lift has already been done. If you’re not practicing these things you’re really doing yourself a disservice with progress and you’ll probably continue to have “bad genetics.” If you have any questions about furthering visualization don’t hesitate to message me.