Forget the Path of Least Resistance: Conditioning Your Body and Mind

If your only intention when working out is to become strong as an ox and build muscle so you can look like a superhero then you might be wondering if conditioning is really that important. Besides, getting lean and avoiding gaining fat can simply be handled with good nutrition and an exercise routine, right? Your body can benefit greatly from both physical and mental conditioning. If done correctly, you can significantly improve your performance, intensity, and muscle growth.

Physical Conditioning

Conditioning is not just about cardio, it is more about getting in shape overall. It promotes muscle growth, cardiovascular health, energy efficiency, and the ability to take on more intense physical activity then recover more quickly. If done right you can pack on some serious muscle by implementing compound movements which force your whole body to adapt.

When incorporating conditioning into your regular workout routine, you should combine your lifting with faster movements that will help to develop and strengthen fast-twitch muscles. In order to affect your fast-twitch muscles, it is vital that you train your explosiveness alongside compound movements. When strength training this can be achieved by lifting weights as forcefully and fast as you able to. It’s not really about the literal speed at which you are moving, but rather your intent to move as quickly as possible.

You may find that resistance bands are a useful tool for increasing your functional muscular strength, developing substantial muscle power, and more effectively preventing injury. Use of these can also allow you to change the emphasis of your muscles during your exercise. Resistance bands can help you to significantly increase your explosive power . They are also ultra-portable and discreet, so they can easily be packed up for travel and allow you to get out of the gym while still getting an intense workout.

With conditioning, you are also training your body by forcing it to constantly adapt to new challenges which can promote better recovery times in between your sets. By increasing your recovery speed here, you can get a better, more intense workout in during a smaller amount of time. This should help you to increase your muscle growth by way of increasing your body’s overall work capacity.

Mental Conditioning

Just as conditioning your body can allow you to lift more weight, more efficiently, conditioning your mind can drastically increase your productivity. It’s not about consuming new information, but rather finding mental productivity hacks to create an effective training routine for the mind. Additionally, conditioning your mind can put you in the driver’s seat rather than at the mercy of your thoughts.

Mental conditioning is as much about positive thinking which can create actual value in your day to day life, assist with building skills that last beyond a smile, assist with broadening your sense of possibilities and open your mind to a wider range of options. Positive emotions can significantly improve your ability to develop skills and resources that you can use later in life.

In order to condition your mind, you will need to work on discipline. Discipline can be defined as training that molds your moral character or mental faculties. It is essential to your ability to start a new habit, then continuing to repeat those actions that eventually will lead to reward. By maintaining your consistency you are training your mind to react similarly to your muscles. This conditioning requires constant stimulation to produce a growth in your mental strength.

When you are conditioning your mind you can include the following exercises:

Assess what’s on your mind

Take a moment to figure out what is on your mind. Try to gain an understanding of your state of mind.

Focus on positive thought

Focusing on positive thought and emotion by way of positive affirmation or even mantra can be an easy way to help reshape the way that you perceive your day to day experiences. You may also want to try to exercises such as meditation where you can focus on being present in the moment.

Practice every day

In order to properly condition your mind, you need to consistently practice positive thinking on a regular basis. Maintaining discipline and consistency will help you to achieve strong mental conditioning.

Your total body health can greatly benefit from the conditioning of both your mind and body. Not only will this help you to handle the physical demands of anything that you encounter, but it will also ensure that you can push past any mental obstacles that you run into. Conditioning properly can help increase your strength, explosive power, and overall body health. Consistency in your conditioning training can provide you with results that can also increase your body’s ability to recover from intense strenuous activity much more quickly, allowing you to handle greater challenges.