Becoming a champion bodybuilder requires a tremendous amount of personal drive. You must want to succeed. You have to pay your own dues; long torturous hours in the gym, high protein diets, quality bodybuilding supplements like the ones from illpumpyouup.com. No one can do the training for you.
But while it takes inner strength and desire to succeed, you’d be amazed how positive external influences can improve your muscle-building progress. Whether it’s having a training partner, keeping a workout diary, or doing your training in a particularly suitable environment, positive external influences make us put out more in workouts. And the intelligent bodybuilder learns to take advantage of such influences.
At the same time it makes sense to minimize the negative influences. For example, don’t hang around with people who constantly criticize your training, your progress or your bodybuilding generally. You need positive reinforcement, not constant put-downs.
One of the biggest favors a bodybuilder — or any athlete — can do for himself or herself is to keep a detailed workout diary. Such a diary not only gives you a day-to-day, year-to-year record of your workouts (so you can use the information to plan the evolution of your training), but a workout diary serves as a great motivating force. When you actually write down what you’re doing workout to workout in the gym, it’s much less likely that you’ll skip workouts, or gloss over such important factors as training intensity, progression, etc. If you’re serious about your bodybuilding, you owe it to yourself to keep a workout diary. All the champions do it. Why not you? Training environment plays an important role in athletic success. So it makes sense to train in an environment that’s conducive to maximum progress. Working out at home works for some. But for most bodybuilders the stimulus of training in a regular gym, seeing other bodybuilders pushing themselves to the maximum, making gains almost before one’s very eyes, is a powerful positive influence. It’s no secret why Gold’s Gym and World Gym are frequented by so many champion bodybuilders, many of whom could easily train at home. These champions come to the gym for the training atmosphere as much as the weight equipment.
Competition itself can be a very positive external influence. It’s so much easier to train hard and effectively when you have a specific goal in mind. Indeed, a lot of bodybuilders can’t really train to their maximum unless they have a contest coming up.
For many bodybuilders the most positive of all possible external influences is a good training partner. The value of a training partner goes far beyond having someone help you with some forced reps.
The bodybuilder normally associates the word “conditioning” with the development of a muscular body. However, there is another type of conditioning — psychological conditioning — in which behavior is influenced or controlled by external stimuli.
Despite the personal effort that goes into training, all bodybuilders are really the products of external stimuli. Massive muscular development and crushing power are not intrinsically satisfying, not without the association of external stimuli. The super bodybuilder must probe the lonely depths of training. The stimulus of recognition gives him hope and encouragement.
A training partner puts us under stimulus control, meaning that the stimulus increases the probability of the response. During a workout, for example, a partner will exhort, “C’mon, three more reps!” — when you’ve barely been able to complete the last one. Yet his signal causes you to attempt more, meaning the stimulus of his concern increases the probability of the response.
There are two types of reaction: voluntary and involuntary. If you accidentally get your finger sandwiched between two plates when loading a barbell, you react reflexly, without thinking. Such stimuli are called unconditioned, or unlearned, stimuli, and they produce unconditioned responses.
The Vietnam veteran who falls flat in response to an auto backfiring is reacting to remembered jungle gunfire. He has learned to fear and respect a sudden explosion.
Years ago the Russian scientist Pavlov conditioned a dog to salivate by ringing a bell just prior to feeding. Eventually the bell alone produced salivation — a conditioned reflex. He also drew two geometric figures: a circle and an oval. The dog was rewarded with food for selecting the circle. Each day Pavlov made the oval more circular. When the dog could no longer distinguish between the two, it howled in distress.
Conditioning can be used to good advantage in bodybuilding training. Any stimulus can be used as a conditioning stimulus. You have to find an unconditioned stimulus that causes the response you want.
Massive muscle and great strength are satisfying because of their association with other stimuli, with other rewards. The praise and respect of those important to you are powerful rewards. So are trophies and titles. Money is a strong motivating force. Money, for its own sake, is not intrinsically satisfying, but we will strive for it, often to the point of self-destruction, because of its association with other desirable stimuli.
When you train alone, you have to rely on your own devices, essentially the basic reinforcers that make your efforts worthwhile. The rewards, however, are projected. They may hopefully become realities in the future.
The training partner, on the other hand, offers instant realization. His presence alone is a form of respect. He elects to train with you because he sees you as a worthwhile partner. His simple affirmation of “Good!” after your monstrous effort on an exercise is instant praise that reinforces. He monitors your growth on a daily basis, and his positive assessment is an instant reward that continues to motivate you.
The additional pair of eyes and hands offer a security and assurance unavailable alone. Two people are stronger than one. The individual can draw on this strength. He develops conditioned responses that are strong and frequent. Thus reinforced, he becomes a better bodybuilder faster. And isn’t that what every bodybuilder, male or female, wants?