6 top fitness mindset secrets

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6 TOP FITNESS MINDSET SECRETS Copyright by Clinton Boucheix www.fitnessaces.com 1

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6 Top Fitness Mindset Secrets

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Page 1: 6 Top Fitness Mindset Secrets

6 TOP FITNESS MINDSET SECRETS

Copyright by Clinton Boucheix www.fitnessaces.com 1

Page 2: 6 Top Fitness Mindset Secrets

6 TOP FITNESS MINDSET SECRETS

Copyright by Clinton Boucheix www.fitnessaces.com 2

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ARTICLE 1: The True Definition of Conditioning in Sports and Fitness

3. ARTICLE 2: 3 Strategies to Save Time Exercising and Still Get Results

4. ARTICLE 3: Workout Environment: 5 Elements to Consider When

Choosing the Perfect Exercise Setting

5. ARTICLE 4: Jack of All Exercises, Master of All?

6. ARTICLE 5: Borrowing Commitment: A Guide to Using Exercise

Accountability Systems

7. ARTICLE 6: 7 Ways to Harness Doubt During Exercise

8. FINAL SAY

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Copyright by Clinton Boucheix www.fitnessaces.com 3

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever gone after certain goals in your health and fitness but when you set

towards it, you were met by obstacles?

How many of those obstacles were more to do with how you thought and felt when you

needed them the least?

How often did it seem like something inside of was holding you back?

It’s interesting how something seemingly so intangible as thoughts and emotions can

impact our experience in fitness, exercise, sports and physical activities.

I’d like to thank you for joining me. As a special thanks I’ve compiled some of my best

articles on how our mindsets, our attitudes, our emotions and our ways of perceiving

things can influence experience of fitness and exercise.

Also, the way that these factors can either hinder or enhance our progress in our quests

for whatever physical goal we have set for ourselves.

What’s your fitness quest?

-Do you want to lose the weight?

-Are you after muscle?

-Is it your fitness and stamina you want to improve?

-Is there a certain performance level that you want to reach in your sport?

-Or, do you just want to look goood?

Whatever your fitness quest is, I’m willing to bet that you not only want the training tips

to reach them, but some tools to overcome them freakin annoying blocks and barriers that

come from within your head and heart.

When I wrote these articles, I drew from my own personal experience of the things that

held me back and the things that had propelled me forward in the past.

Some of the internal challenges and barriers that I have learnt from over the years are

things like;

-doubt in my skill, ability and understanding when teaching myself a new martial art

system or weapon skill

-my energy levels for living by a standard of consistency in my training schedule

-time and commitment issues

-trying to learn new skills when my body is used to conflicting skills

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I’ve discovered quite a few things in my fitness quest that I’m proud to say is, to this day

only making me stronger and better.

Now that I’m done blowing my own horn, I just want to say that I hope you find what

I’ve discovered (and am still discovering) insightful and inspiring, while taking away

something you can use and implement in your fitness and exercise experience that will

bring a little further along in your fitness quest.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 1

The True Definition of Conditioning in Sports and Fitness

By Clinton Boucheix

Conditioning is a word that is used a lot in the

fitness industry but what does it really mean

to have conditioning? There are those that are

ripped from strength conditioning, marathon

runners have to go through a type of stamina

conditioning and then there is the conditioning that is necessary for fighters and martial

artists.

Conditioning can come off as this hard core

concept of hard work and training to build your

body up so it can perform or endure what the sport demands of it.

And it's true.

However, that is not the whole picture of what it means to be a conditioned athlete.

Building your body and it's performance potentials is only the outcome

associated to having "great conditioning".

The other half of the definition of conditioning is more about the discipline, the standard

and the values that you adopt.

"Great conditioning" is the result of adopting and integrating habits, standards and values

that slowly, over time changes and transforms the conditions of

the body.

Conditioning isn't so much about building yourself up but rather more about adopting a

specific way of being that will serve you in the long run which is beneficial for the

performance and execution of the skills in a given sport or physical activity.

So, how do you integrate a great conditioning ritual? One that will meet your athletic

needs based on the sport or physical activity of your choice?

A good place to start is by looking at where your values are placed in your sport. By

looking at the components that you already have a natural inclination

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to favour and value, then you have a platform where you can design for yourself a

discipline that you are more than likely to commit to.

If for example you naturally favour cardio, then use that as a base to develop a discipline

to condition, not only great cardio but also as a way to condition better form, more

strength and greater endurance doing the activity that is the source of cardio. It's also a

great way to develop secondary attributes. If, for instance you typically rely on jogging

for cardio but you would like to develop

another physical skill or work on some upper body, than you might consider cardio

boxing. Or you might want to develop better foot co-ordination and do

some skip rope.

By focusing on what you already prefer, you are much more likely to build on it and

develop a discipline and from a place of discipline is where conditioning

can flow from the best.

Also, using discipline is a powerful way to predispose yourself to growth

and improvement in a specific skill or attribute. Once you have established a discipline on

a particular practice, then it's only a matter of pushing yourself and upping the ante in

order to improve and refine that conditioning.

Let me leave with one final thought, and that is, when thinking in terms of the type of

conditioning you feel you may need for whatever fitness goal that you

have, think about what habits you need to adopt and how you need to be in the process of

the training rather than what you need to do to reach and achieve a goal to finally arrive

at. Chances are that when you arrive at that goal, in order to maintain it, you will need to

sustain the conditioning by maintaining the practice that got you there in the first place.

Conditioning is a process.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 2

3 Strategies to Save Time Exercising and Still Get Results

By Clinton Boucheix

Exercising and keeping fit is important and its easy enough to do but that's assuming

you have a lot time on your hands. Would you say agree with that statement? What if I

could tell you that was completely false? What if you could have exercise routines that

not only save time but get you the physical results you

desire?

I'm sure its been stated before but I'll say it,

we live in a pretty busy and hectic world with work commitments, family commitments,

relationship commitments...health commitments. Maybe you've been leaving out that last

one because of the first three or some others I haven't listed. You don't have to neglect

health and fitness due to time constraints anymore.

Here are 3 effective strategies to have effective workout sessions throughout your

calendar without compromising your other priorities;

1. Use short windows of time

As busy as we are, there is always small windows of time throughout our day that goes

by unused and unproductive. Why not use those lost minutes to work up a sweat? Yes, it

can be done.

In as little as 5 minutes, you can get a great cardio or you can achieve a mini circuit, if

done frequently will build strength.

Cardio: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

This is easy. Lets use jogging as an example, though this can be used with nearly every

form of cardio routine.

Use a timer.

-jog at a moderate pace for 20 seconds

-Sprint hard for 10 seconds

-Repeat step 1 and 2 about 10 times

Strength: Mini circuits

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-5 exercises each done for 1 minute or for reps of 8-12

note: if you do reps of 8-12, you might get it in under 5 minutes depending on the

exercises. That means you could ad more exercises or maybe even consider doing 2 sets.

2. Incorporate exercise in your lifestyle

Remember those lost minutes?

Park the car further away, then walk or jog the rest of the way.

Cycle to the store rather than use the car.

Do squats, push-ups, chin-ups or dips while waiting for the bus or train.

When you see stairs, jog them. That could even save you time.

3. Brief yet intense sessions

A session doesn't have to be 60 minutes, 40 minutes or even 20 minutes if that's too time

consuming. You can get a great workout or cardio session as I've already suggested in as

little as 5 minutes. However, if you want to make time for specially committed training

routine and still save time, make it brief and intense.

This is excellent practice because what this will cause you to do is invest a lot of yourself

and when you do that you will get maximum results.

You can use a combination of mini circuits and HIIT. You can Do larger sets or more

sets. And lastly, you can do longer HIITs or shorter, more frequent HIITs and with

varying exercises.

Be creative and remember at the end of the day it all comes down to this.

We all have the same amount of time, what makes the difference is how we place our

commitments. Whether we do something or whether we don't, it all comes down to

commitment.

Inspire by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 3

Workout Environment: 5 Elements to Consider When Choosing the

Perfect Exercise Setting

By Clinton Boucheix

Environment has such a large impact on our

willingness and commitment to exercise. If your surroundings are not encouraging,

then neither are you likely to be.

The last thing you want is to be preoccupied

by the discomforts of your surroundings while

you are working out.

Have you ever felt one of the following discomforts when exercising or even

when thinking about exercise?

-Cooped:

Feeling overly confined

-Unfocused:

Not able to place your attention on the session

-Out of place:

Feeling like your just not where you need to be

-Unsafe:

Overly mindful of obstacles and risk factors

It is not OK to have any of these kind of feelings when associating to your workout plan

and you cannot afford it either if you want long term consistency in your exercise rituals.

Making sure the environment that you choose to exercise in is an encouraging and

effective setting is key to how we think, feel and associate to our workout plan.

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This is important, both in the moment of the session and out of moment when thinking

and associating to the session. You have to be able to feel confident with the environment

that you are going to exercise in.

If you want to avoid the uncomfortable experiences I mentioned above, here are the

things to consider when determining the type of exercise setting that you will be working

out in;

-The space;

Can you breathe and relax when you are there?

Do you feel like you have ample free space?

Do you look forward to the environment that you will be working out in?

-The distractions;

Are you over conscious of what's around you all the time and preoccupied or do you feel

centered and clear enough to be present in the here and now for the exercise?

Can you put 100% concentration into your physical activity?

-The type of environment;

What type of setting do you look forward to the most?

Is it outdoor or indoor?

Beach?...

Park?...

Gym?...

Home?...

What gives you the most peace when you think about where you're going to do you

workout?

-The ambience;

This is what creates a certain feel to your surroundings and if this is not right, then there's

nothing keeping there.

I suggest things like the right music, the right lighting and the right clothing attire.

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Anything that can help you feel like you are exactly where you should be really serves to

bring you and keep you right here in the moment.

The safety;

Let's not overlook the health safety side of it. After all, if you have to be constantly

mindful of safety risks while training, then you losing a lot of focus and concentration

that could be going into your session and that constant

mindfulness of risk factors can undermine the quality of the session. So, check the

surroundings, clear the space of any risks and pick places to workout that are free of

hazards.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have a space that you feel good about

when you exercise. By having this factor set up correctly, you increase your chances of

following through consistently, you improve the

quality of your exercise and your experience.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 4

Jack of All Exercises, Master of All?

By Clinton Boucheix

Movement is such a fascinating thing. The reason I aptly titled this "Jack of all exercises,

master of all?" Is because of the synergistic nature that movement has on

other, transferable movements and physical skills.

Every kind of movement compliments other movements, brings fresh dynamics to

those other exercises and can create a unique experience of mastery to physical skills

and activities.

I speak from my experience of practicing 6 styles of martial arts.

You'd be amazed at just how many styles of movements overlaps.

If you took a close look at every kind of sport there is out there and the type of moves,

you would find that those physical techniques repeat themselves In other forms.

What does B boying, capoeira, Kosac and parkour (free running) have in common? These

are great examples of transferable physical skills and techniques. They all have squatted

positions, they each involve the execution of skills on both, the legs and the arms and

they all involve a lot of core strength and core stability.

Ball sports is another example of skill sets that are transferable. The foot work necessary

in soccer can benefit a hockey player. The throws in baseball are

not that different to the passes in gridiron and Rugby. And if you've ever watched 'Happy

Gilmore', there's a clear illustration of how a hockey swing can be turned into a golf

swing. Also, it's a known fact that simple strength training

and conditioning improves a golfer's game dramatically.

Fighting and dancing is not that example of physical skills that compliment each other.

Many fighters have been known to have some skill when dancing.

Bruce Lee had some grace on the dance floor and Mohamed Ali didn't only dance like a

butterfly in the ring.

Many dance styles, if you watch closely at the techniques used will be similar to that of

the skills executed in many forms of martial arts.

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A lot of the kicks and leg extensions that dancers perform are totally transferable in a lot

of kicking martial arts, and a lot of a dancer's upper body posturing are very

useful principles that apply in many martial arts. I could go on forever about the

examples of movement overlaps, but the point is, don't think for a second that by

practicing multiple sports or styles, you are scattering your skill set when it comes to

exercise. The more variety of movement you can bring to your exercise routines, the

more skills you can develop.

In fact, if anything, by limiting your training to just one style of movement, you limit

yourself to a narrow set of motor functions.

On the other hand, by practicing multiple physical activities, you enrich the repertoire of

your motor skills, you complement all of your physical skills, even the ones that are not

being practiced in that moment and amazingly you discover economy of movement with

your body in your everyday life. You learn how to move better and better and by doing

so, you save more energy and perform better.

I strongly recommend that whatever physical activity you currently practice, to question

what else you could do that will enhance it. You'll be amazed and you won't regret it.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 5

Borrowing Commitment: A Guide to Using Exercise Accountability

Systems

By Clinton Boucheix

Commitment is a great thing to have to be able to get an exercise session in, but we don't

always have the best access to that commitment. If you have ever had a gym membership

that's gone unused or fitness equipment that has only accumulated dust, then you know

what I'm talking about.

The good news is that the commitment we need doesn't always have to come from us. We

can borrow that commitment from others. That is why we have personal trainers, group

fitness classes, instructors, coaches, exercise buddies and many more ways to keep us in

the game.

The biggest question is; how do we know what accountability system is best suited for

you?

There are so many ways to be motivated to keep up our workout commitments, it can be

confusing and hard to tell which ones can serve to the best of our interest and which will

actually put us off.

Here 4 types of major accountability systems:

1. Special attention:

This is the type of accountability that usually comes in the form of one on one coaching,

personal training or any kind of personal support from someone who knows what you

need to know and can get you there.

This person will be able to give you a direct and catered approach so that you can get the

fastest results, correct mistakes in technique and help get that one step further when you

hit that plateau.

2. Community:

This is the group fitness route and this is great for having that sense of connection as you

work toward your fitness goals. The sense that you are sharing the process with others

with similar fitness goals as you is encouraging, you have a support group with mutual

needs and you can spur

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each other on. This type of accountability can be a powerful way just to show up to your

workouts.

3. Buddy support:

If you want to feel personally responsible and independent in your exercise routine but

you still feel that you can't do it alone, then having a friend or family member or someone

you trust to train along side with you is effective at providing the right balance between

having the sense of ownership over your own fitness plan and having access to that

necessary commitment and

motivation that can be provided by the other person.

4. Check in:

If you really like doing things alone, then having a regular contact that either calls, texts

or emails on the exercise day can provide that necessary spur to keep consistent. Of

course, its advisable that both individuals are mutually

using this method for their own commitment factors. Make sure that the check in is for

both people and take turns.

As you can see, by choosing a way to borrow commitment from other people, it becomes

increasingly easier to stay on track and achieve your own personal fitness goals with the

added perk of doing the same for others. Make sure that you choose the right

accountability system for you based on the needs that you feel you need to have along the

way and the type of person you are.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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ARTICLE 6

7 Ways to Harness Doubt During Exercise

By Clinton Boucheix

Am I doing this right?

Is my techniques correct?

Do I know what the heck I'm doing?

Where do I begin?

Do any of these questions sound familiar

when starting out an exercise routine?

Doubt can be quite an obstacle that keeps you from getting into a rhythm when

working out or exercising. It can stop you from either initiating or maintaining

momentum and therefore stop you dead in your tracks from getting the goals or results

you are after in your physical fitness, performance level or skill improvement within your

sport or physical activity.

What poses as an obstacle can be used as an influence to grow and improve, if you just

know how to approach and harness the positive aspects of having doubts within your

exercise session.

Here are 7 ways to harness that doubt to actually improve within your physical activity:

1. Simplify the technique that is causing you to doubt.

When doubt shows up when trying to execute a new skill you are trying to master, rather

than getting overwhelmed, use it as an opportunity to master the fundamentals. Break

down the moves you are learning into smaller

components. Get familiar with it. Question how it feels. And refine them more and more.

Eventually you will be able to piece it all together and advance.

2. Pace of movement

If you doubt how well the execution of the skill you are learning, it could be that your

moving too fast. Slowing down the pace of the physical skill that your practicing can

really open up your eyes to even more distinctions of the

technique. Let doubt tell you that you need to slow down and observe.

3. Intention of execution

Sometimes doubt is also a way to remind us that we are not staying in touch with the

intent behind our moves. Focus on what the skill is designed to do. What is the purpose of

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those moves. And let that guide your understanding of the physical skill you trying to

master.

4. Repetition

Doubt in our ability, ultimately needs to be faced over and over again. In exercise and

sporting skills that translates as doing that skill over and over again. Doubt serves here as

a gauge. If it's still present, it means you simply

need to be more familiar with that skill. I assure you, once you start feeling confident in

your execution, it is a sign that you are skilled enough.

5. Question

This the most obvious way that doubt shows itself as your trainer. Doubt leads to

questions, questions lead to answers and answers lead to better practice and better skill.

Use it.

6. Resources

Your doubt may have you wanting to get better information for clarity and certainty.

Don't hesitate to reach for some research in response to the doubt.

7. Embrace doubt

Doubt can be uncomfortable but as you can see it is also a powerful too for learning and

growth, so embrace it, treat it with the respect and appreciation that you would a teacher,

trainer, coach or instructor. Your next breakthrough could come from your next doubt.

Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT

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FINAL SAY

I'd like to thank you for reading this report. I sincerely hope that you have gleamed some

inspiration from my articles and gained some ideas to enhance your fitness and exercise

lifestyle.

I look forward to providing you with more insights on how you can use your mind and

emotions as an ally on your path toward your own fitness goals and aspirations.

So,look out for my blogs, Fitnessaces.com/blog.

I will also give you a heads up on any fresh posts in my newsletters.

Feel free to share this report with friends and family.

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Inspired by fitness,

Clinton Boucheix

CPT