"Respect the Now" Training journal 01/11/12

[davidJkong]

Monday was my chest Blast, Tuesday was killer legs and Wednesday is respect the now day. You say; "What the heck is that?"
Well, I take two days off a week and this happens to be one of the days. I let my body rest but it doesn't mean I stop.
Let me tell you why. Back in my Karate days I injured myself months before tournament season but I was commited. At first, my mind wanted to give up while throwing every excuse at me and trying to create doubt. I knew I had a few months to perform and I wanted to give myself the benefit that I could heal and I could have enough time to practice.I physically could not practice but I continued to go to the Dojo and watch every Kata and Kumite (sparring) match. I spent nights going through my head every step and pattern. I then picked apart every fight and placed myself in every position. After months went by, my body did heal and I had two weeks to prepare myself. So every day I went and practised, physically applying my body with months of mental practice. Not once could I accept fear or fill my head with what ifs. All of a sudden I was on a bus to the Provincials and sleeping in an overcrowded stinky room getting no sleep before the big day. You know what? I won gold in Kata and Kumite (Sparring). Since then I knew that even while my body was at rest my mind did not have to be but I had to keep calm and positive.
Today, I apply this belief to my rest days. I focus on the next workout adding or subtracting movements while feeding my body with micronutrients from raw green veggies,water and applying the protein ratio so I can heal. I make sure I continue to remain calm and positive. This is important! Remaining calm helps the body receive and distribute the nutrients without any extra stress keeping my cortisol levels low. Cortisol is the devil.

{Cortisol (hydrocortisone) is a steroid hormone, more specifically a glucocorticoid, produced by the adrenal gland.It is released in response to mental or physical stress.}

After two days of hard core workouts the body can get worn down from this hormone. By researching different tools to keep stress at bay it becomes easier to manage. Some of the tools I use are Yoga breathing (Pranayama) three times a day, green tea Matcha mixed with a tsp of Macca, green drinks and the most important is filling my day off with positive motivating things. To do this, I make sure I take a glance at my vision board, head to the home page of Vegan BodyBuilding & Fitness then coast through stories of awesome athletes or I hit the internet as well as communicate with my friends; being social making sure I get my vitamin P (people). Tim Van Orden taught me that.
By keeping calm I'm allowing my body to heal and prepare for the following workouts.

Okay, I'll stop rambling but remember to take a moment for Now. Respect the body but stay connected with the spirit and mind. All three go hand in hand and by doing this your rest day will be a successful one. Results will follow.

David

[C.O.]

Your story about working yourself mentally to stay in shape and prepared physically is an amazing one! Thanks for sharing. PS - I am now researching more about cortisol and tweeting about it.

-Dylan

[Baby Hercules]

Congratulations, David, you have mastered VMR, Visual Motor Rehearsal. It's a very powerful technique. Olympic and other professional athletes receive intensive training in it and a lot of celebrities and successful business people practice it, too, although they usually refer to it as visualization. What you call it matters not at all; what it can do for you is phenomenal.

Here's why: recent neurological research has uncovered the simple yet powerful fact that the brain does not know the difference between what it experiences and what it imagines. It responds to both scenarios as "real" and prepares the body accordingly. Subjects in MRI machines were told to look at an object, then close their eyes and imagine that same object. The same parts of the brain lit up both times. Another study, one of my favorites, looked at three groups of people. The first group lifted weights. The second group lifted weights and visualized the act of lifting on their off hours. The third group only did the visualization, they never touched a weight. The results after six months were astounding. The ones who only lifted weights had modest gains in strength and mass. The ones who did both lifting and visualization understandably had the best improvements. But it was the third group that blew the scientists away: they had measurable gains in both strength and mass with visualization alone. They never entered a gym.

Further research has proven that the brain responds to VMR much better if it is familiar with the activity it is visualizing. In other words, if you have never played golf in your life, imagining it doesn't help all that much before you start. The brain hasn't learned the maneuvers yet, hasn't laid down new neural connections in its learning process. It's those neural connections that strengthen via VMR. To be technical, it is the myelin sheath around the neural pathways that becomes strengthened when you practice something. The more you practice, the thicker the sheath becomes, the faster the messages travel from the brain to the muscles, and the better you get. Since the brain doesn't know the difference between doing something and imagining it, visualization is a very powerful tool for myelination. You can use it to dramatically improve any activity, from bodybuilding to playing the violin.

Arnold Schwarzenegger did something similar to all this. Will Smith practices it daily. Maybe you will be our Vegan Bodybuilding VMR celebrity.

The vision board is a great way to increase mental focus, as you know, as well as activating other things, which you must also already know if you're referring to it as a vision board. Agreed on excess cortisol: it has been the warning light on my stress indicator panel for decades. Like so many health sheep, I set about trying to regulate the cortisol with food and vitamins but we both know how ludicrous and ineffective that is. Then, I simply addressed and reduced the stress. Bingo. Health problems just melted away after that. A mostly raw vegan diet keeps me happy, high, and sane. Yes, micronutrients are key. "P Vitamin"?!--LOVE that! I'm plagiarizing that utterly but I'm giving you credit.

Baby Herc

[davidJkong]

Yo Herc! Thanks man and thanks for breaking it down in a technical way. I would love to sit and have a green drink with you one day. Thanks for the Props! So cool

[davidJkong]

Thanks Dylan!