Use Your Weight Training Equipment With Maximum Intensity!

You can't pack on size by going through the motions in a nonchalant manner. You have to be intense when you use your weight training equipment. This intensity level is largely determined by your mindset. Focus on increasing your motivation, confidence level, and drive.

Sometimes you see people at the gym who go through their muscle building workouts in a lackadaisical way. They perform their exercises with minimal effort, occasionally chatting with friends during the actual movement. These people never seem to grow. Coincidence? Hardly. In order to build muscle you have to approach your muscle building workouts with maximum intensity.

Many factors determine your intensity level, including your motivation, goal orientation, confidence level, and drive. Intensity is really independent of your strength, although some people confuse the two concepts. A novice athlete who lifts twenty-five-pound dumbbells, using every bit of determination he or she can muster, has a higher level of intensity than a larger or more developed athlete who lifts thirty-five-pound dumbbells with a nonchalant "what-me-worry" attitude. Won't the more "advanced" athlete be surprised when the novice's intensity level stimulates so much muscle growth that he starts lifting forty-five-pound dumbbells, bypassing the level of the other athlete!

The intensity you achieve is dependent on your mindset. Lifting a weight is a simple case of mind over matter, in which the mind sends neural impulses to the muscle ordering it to lift the weight. As a result, the amount of weight you can lift is frequently determined by the amount that you think you can lift. This is the major reason why athletes of the same height, age, and body type can lift widely varying amounts of weight. To a significant degree, the boundaries of individual accomplishment are set by the person's self-esteem.

You need to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve what you set out to do. Only when you are confident of your direction in life will you be able to rise from the mass of athletes and soar to your true potential. It is not enough to believe that you may get stronger. You have to believe that you will get stronger, just as the sun rises every day. Rather than letting yourself fall victim to negative thoughts, block them out and fill yourself with positive mental programming. Don't take no for an answer!

You can set a positive course for your muscle building workouts and by-and-large stick to it. The self-image each of us has determines what we can and cannot do. If this self-image is expanded, a whole new range of opportunities opens up. The choices are personal, but the methodology is the same for everyone. Believe in yourself and most of the battle is won. Once this is accepted, the excuses have to stop. The will to excel comes from within. High levels of intensity are possible if the mind wants them badly enough. Mental power, properly focused, will allow you to reach your full potential in muscle building workouts.