I have often heard people say (or atleast quote others) that the mind is what allows you to break your previous limits, the mind is what allows you to grow, and the mind is everything in bodybuilding (besides nutrition :p). I have observed that that is only partially true. One can use the mind to surpass previous limits set by the mind, there’s no doubt about that. However, the mind can not surpass itself. A mind can not imagine something more imaginative than itself, it’s just not possible. That’s how the physical world operates, you can not create something you cannot conceive.

Now I can use my mind to make my body perform more reps than last time, load more weight than last time, or do more sets or run faster. However, the mind eventually has a stopping point (until you push past it and create a new one). This is called being uncomfortable. Lifting weights until you are is a way to expand you horizons maybe a little bit. But it’s not worth putting in enough effort to just get uncomfortable, and then quitting. The real victory is when you are able to push through that discomfort, and you realize that there exists something beyond being uncomfortable.

I argue that if one is seeking the absolute largest amount of results (in terms of pushing your physical limits), the body must have the final say. The mind can push the body very far, but the body without being led by the mind can go further. This is exhaustion. This is what makes you feel like you just conquered something and grew and became a new, better person. When you no longer allow the mind to guide the body, the body will go significantly further than the mind can. This is partly because the mind operated on previous experiences, and will contrast your current workout with previous ones. Instead, use the mind to focus on the muscular contractions, or on nothing at all (if your form is very good already). This will remove the only obstacle between dramatically changing your body, and becoming a greater individual. Being able to remove the mind from the workout will cause your body to rely on it’s own guidance, and I believe it to know itself much better than the mind ever will.

You can see this as a sort of meditation, when you remove the mind from the body, the body operates under its own guidance. The body knows how much it can take, and it is nearly always much, much more than the mind would have thought. Additionally, you get to observe your body at work, operating as it knows best! This opens up much learning potential.

Sometimes, we get to the gym, hyped as always, ready to lift/workout, only to find that we can’t lift as much weight as usual, or have much less intensity than we ought to. I have witnessed people (including myself) become depressed, disappointed or frustrated after such an occurrence. Getting all exited to lift the weight, break that PR, only to find out your warm up sets feel heavier than your working sets usually do. This, my friends, is a golden opportunity in disguise.

How can we know we are something, if we have never been the opposite? In the absence of what we are not, is what we are. When you are weak, you are given the chance to be strong. One can not be strong without having been weak, as there is nothing to compare “strong” too. This is simply relativity, the way our physical world functions. I can not be one thing without comparing it to being its opposite. There’s no getting around it, this is what creates our world. I will never be old, if I have never been young first. You can not say 300lbs is your best, if you’ve never had something worse to compare it to.

Now, when you get into that state of disappointment and frustration, you have the opportunity to experience the exact opposite, success and joy. Simply change your sate of being to reflect this. Acknowledge the situation for what it is, acknowledge how you feel. Now change how you feel, realizing that you can now achieve something great, because you have just experienced something lame. Changing how you feel will thus provide you the strength and determination to power through this seemingly impossible plateau, and lead to you feeling exactly opposite to how you felt before! You might even break a PR! I have seen this happen, and it is miraculous, yet so simple. This barrier is not a physical barrier, but rather a mental block. Simply change your perspective to that of the Truth (seeing the situation for what it is) and use it to your advantage. Create something great out of something not so great. Use one opposite to create the other. You created this state of being for yourself, so now create the opposite!

A large theme in Buddhism is cultivating a one pointed mind. In bodybuilding, a one pointed mind is the key to allowing the body rather, than the mind, to take charge of when it needs to quit. I think of having a one pointed mind as being entirely encompassed in your present experience. You are in the Here and Now, you feel the moment, not one thought is taking away your attention from the current experience. Some call this a “flow state,” and when I enter this state in the gym, I begin to allocate my entire consciousness on what my body is feeling in each continuous moment. Although I physically see, hear and smell my surroundings, I am not consciously aware of the information being processed by those senses. I am strictly experiencing how my muscles are responding to the stimulus I present them with. This allows me to ignore any potential mental barriers, which lead to lower plateaus. Only by having this one-pointedness can I be sure that I am pushing my body beyond its current limitations.

I have noticed that the overwhelming majority of the plateaus I have experienced in bodybuilding are a result of a thought that I chose to embody. This thought would usually say something like “I can’t do another one” or “my forearms can not bear any more weight” or thinking about anything besides what I am experiencing in the current moment. After eliminating those thoughts, the only thing that is capable of getting me to put the weight down is the physical failure of the muscle I am training. That is my goal, that is the instance I feel like I’ve accomplished something great. This point is the point that makes every ounce of effort you have put into this movement worth it. After I succeed at attaining my physical limit, I become a more powerful, understanding and confident being. There is no feeling more blissful than giving something absolutely everything you can give it. That is true success.

Cultivating this one-pointedness is the key to embracing every instance in your life. The longer you can remain in this flow state, the more you realize that heaven is a state of being, that limitations begin in your mind, and that everyone is naturally in control of their own perspective. This flow state is a result of bringing the entirety of your awareness to the present moment. It is your natural, baseline state. All you need to do to experience it is remove anything that takes you out of the current moment.

“It’s not about the daily increase, but the daily decrease. Hack away at the unessentials.” – Bruce Lee

Anything going through your mind that you are aware of is distracting you from the present moment. This is not to say that ignoring your thoughts will put you in a flow state. It’s rather being aware of your thoughts, and consciously being able to empty them from your mind. You must accept them first, only then can your thoughts disappear for good. If there is nothing in the mind, it is then not limited in its ability to function in the moment. It is no longer assigning meaning to what is inherently empty. You cannot focus on the present when your attention is captured by the happenings in your mind. Become empty, become mindless. Only then can you use your mind to it’s fullest.

To derive the absolute most benefit from your training (or any situation/action), you must watch yourself performing said action. In the Training article, I spoke about watching your body work, and working out based on the current needs of your body, rather than following a pre-constructed schedule. This article goes into more depth on the observer and flow. 

There exists a consciousness “behind” the mind and the body (I say behind because it feels like it is deeper entrenched within my body). From this consciousness  you can simply observe your thoughts, and observe your body. Being able to do so gives one tremendous power over their physical life, as well as the ability to transcend it. You are able to watch the body perform on autopilot, using all the knowledge the body has acquired wether you are conscious of this knowledge or or not. From this standpoint, you merely have to watch you body perform whatever tasks it needs to perform to achieve the goals you have set for it. You body knows what it needs much better than any logical deduction your mind could ever come up with.

“I never made a single one of my discoveries through rational thinking” – Albert Einstein

“As you plant, so you reap” – Lao Tzu

Observing as the observer also allows you to watch thoughts flow through your mind, without being attached to them. This is probably the most incredible power we possess and use to control our physical reality. When you become aware of the thoughts going through your mind, and realize that you are in no way forced to be attached to them, you gain complete control over the state of your physical existence. From this standpoint, you can see the thoughts go by, and choose which ones to act upon. You can choose which thoughts you want to embody, which ones dictate how your reality presents itself. As you become aware of a thought flowing through your mind, you can CHOOSE to associate yourself to it. This causes you to embody a physical and emotional state, and immediately your physical reality will reflect this. If you choose a positive thought, you will see your reality bringing you more positivity and of what you asked for. You see your world through a positive lens. You will receive whatever you put out. People who are in negative states (upset, frustrated, sad, depressed etc) have simply experienced a negative thought that passed through their mind and associated themselves with it. They chose to create a negative reality for themselves at that moment. The catch is that the more of a certain kind of thought you associate yourself with, the more you will have those thoughts. Consistently acting upon thoughts of the well being of yourself/others, or thoughts of non-attachment or love, for example, will bring about more thoughts of that nature. In turn, you have a larger selection of positive thoughts to choose from, and therefore less negative ones.

If you have ever been depressed, or in a lasting state of sadness, you will notice that the only way out is thinking and embodying positive thoughts. Instead of thoughts like “I want,” or “I need to do this less” you may think “I have” or “I choose to do this more.” The simple act of changing the thoughts you have and acting upon them is what creates your physical states. In this case, we go from a state of wanting (which warrants not having, and thus powerlessness) to a state of abundance, having, and therefore power over. We go from “doing things less,” which is a negative thought, to choosing (control) to do something more (which is positive). Thus as the depressed person begins to realize what they HAVE, rather than what they WANT or DON’T HAVE, they go from a state of lacking to a state of power and abundance!

In bodybuilding, we can use our thoughts in many ways. Instead of thinking “I want to look like this” we can think “I choose to do this.” This takes us from a state where we have little control over the situation, to a state where we are in full control of exactly what we need to do to yield results. While squatting, we can observe our thoughts as things get difficult. As your mind takes cues from your Central Nervous System, it instructs your mind (not in words) to put the weight down because the hamstrings are straining hard and are approaching their limits, or maybe the joints in the knees are experiencing an aching sensation. You might be thinking “rack the bar” or “put the weight down, no more!”(maybe at that 8th or 9th rep). If you are aware of these thoughts (which are the reason you put the weight down in the first place), you can choose to not listen to them. You can ignore them and keep going (until you get to that 15th or even 20th rep!). It is in these instances that the body grows and strengthens, as you are surpassing the plateaus you created earlier. You can tell yourself “I choose to do ten more,” or “this is lightweight!” The point being that you don’t have to stop when your mind tells you to stop. It’s not your mind that’s doing the work, it’s your body! Stop when it stops.

Taken outside the gym and into a nutrition aspect, it is also your thoughts that dictate what, when and how you eat. Become aware of your thoughts, and you can watch any craving or desire for a food your body doesn’t really want go away! It is the thought saying “this is so good” or “pie is my favorite” that engages your body in taking action so that the said food ends up in your mouth. Noticing the thought “I am hungry” or “let’s go get fast food” allows you to detach from it, and choose wether or not you act on it. You can then change it to “I noticed my body appreciates live foods, so I’ll eat those blackberries,” or just change the thoughts into something completely new, such as “let’s go to a club!” and go to a club. These are just examples, what I am saying is that by observing your thoughts, you have the choice of acting upon them or not, and therefore altering your reality and what you physically do and feel. Step back into the observer behind the thoughts, and watch how your thoughts become your world.

I am choosing to get shredded! Reasons to get SHREDDED (or just healthier):

“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” We are all inter-related, the action of one person effects the lives of everyone else. Have you ever noticed that when you spend time with a person who at that moment is happier than you, you become happier? Or when you are with a highly enthusiastic person, you become more enthusiastic? This is always occurring  regardless of scale. You being happier makes the rest of the world a little happier. You being negative make the rest of the world a little more negative. Although we are all physically separate, we are all connected to each other. Cells in our body are all separate, yet they all work together to create the larger system, YOU.

I was reading my physiology textbook one day, and came upon the concept of diffusion. The textbook explained that  each individual particle has the capability of moving to any location it wants, at any given time. To us humans, we might consider this “free will.” Even though the particles have free will, they ALWAYS choose to move to the less concentrated area, to promote homeostasis. I thought about this, and drew a parallel to us as a species. Although we have free will, and are able to make our own decisions about anything and everything, we will always “choose” to do what is best for the homeostasis of whatever is above us on the scale. Just as cells freely move to where is best for the organism they make up, we will move to where is best for whatever it is we make up, on a larger scale.

The more unhealthy and/or overweight people exist on this planet, the more unhealthy/overweight we are as a species. The more healthy each of us can be as an individual, the more we can counteract those who negatively effect our health. As referenced in Habits are Easy, this generates a snowball effect. The more people get healthy, the more momentum is generated for others to do the same. The more momentum we have, the easier it is to overcome the state of unhealthiness we are facing. Getting healthier helps our entire species!

Here is what I mean by becoming physically healthier: 

-Forging the body through resistance training (anything that puts a positive strain on your body, causing it to adapt, making you stronger/faster/flexible/more efficient etc).

-Eating what your body wants and works best with.

Why become physically healthier? I will list the larger, personal benefits I have experienced as a result of resistance training and proper diet:

-Greater ease in everyday movement (as I am stronger, more flexible and can adapt to strain better)

-A more clear state of mind, which in turn makes everything else much easier to do, and allows for more creativity and problem solving abilities

-A deeper sense of peace with myself and my life

-Increase in mental health and spiritual connection (being able to better be guided by that which is within me). Again, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

You can imagine how each of these benefits provides even further positive attributes to your life. For example, greater ease in movement allows you to physically get more things done, and faster. A clearer mind state allows you to better understand how you function and how you can use your thoughts to achieve whatever you want. A deeper sense of peace allows you to take things in one at a time, positively, thereby moving through life much more smoothly and enjoyably. You create a more positive relationship with yourself and with other people. A deeper connection to your spirit, however, is the most formidable reason to be more physically healthy. The connection to spirit is your doorway to the infinite, to becoming the best you can be at anything and everything. Intro to Spirit and Motive goes into depth on this subject.

In conclusion, being physically healthy not only tremendously increases your own quality of life, but you also help the entire world become a little bit more positive. The best thing you can do for others, is to work on yourself! This is not to say that being selfish and repelling others is the way to go. What I mean by this is that when you better yourself and become more positive, you effect the quality of life of everyone around you as well. People become more receptive to you, and more positive, like you. You help others by going through things they must go through. For example, if you become more compassionate towards yourself, you become more compassionate towards others. In turn, this helps others become more compassionate with themselves and others as well! We again eventually see a snowball effect! Now get out there and get healthy and positive for yourself, for me, and for everyone you know!

The more time you invest in one specific thing, the more it grows. The more you give to it, the vaster it becomes. This is simple transference of energy, and it is absolute. The more bricks you add to a house, the larger it gets (whether it be taller, thicker or wider). The more energy you invest into your body, the more it becomes like the energy you put into it (this alone should speak volumes about proper diet).

A habit is a repetitive action performed over time, and often becomes subconscious. However, a habit will build up the more you do it, whether or not you are conscious of it. Habits deepen with time, and the deeper a habit is engrained in your life, the harder it is to break. Therefore, we can use habits to our advantage to effortlessly reach our goals.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu

A goal is set into motion when the intention to accomplish it causes someone to take action towards it (this does not even have to be done consciously). The first action sets you up for other actions, and each consecutive action can bring you closer to or further from your goal. This happens one action at a time. Baby steps become giant leaps given time. By building habits that will move us towards our goal, we set ourselves up for success!

Say our goal is to develop an aesthetic physique through bodybuilding. The entire process might begin with the thought: I want to look like Brad Pitt/Tyler Durden in Fight Club! Or something like that, whatever would encourage you to begin researching bodybuilding or lifting weights. At first, you would do a lot of thinking about how to move towards your goal, or you may spend time researching how to do certain exercises, or how to eat. Eventually your thirst grows, and you find more and more resources that you build off of. Say you begin lifting weights, and are at the gym 3 times per week. You read that you need to eat a lot more food than you previously have been eating, to grow bigger. You begin putting in a lot of time and energy towards going to the gym, and eating properly.

Gradually you begin to figure out what exercises you like, which ones work best for you, when to do them, when to eat, what to eat, etc. By this point, simply the feeling of becoming stronger and moving towards your dream physique every time you leave the gym is enough to keep you going back every day you have scheduled. You develop a habit of achieving that feeling. The more you do it, the better you get at it. This even further propels you into doing more research, gaining a better understanding, and paying more attention to what you eat and how you lift. Day by day, you build upon what you knew the day before. The original thought has snowballed into a lifestyle change, one step (action) at a time!

After much effort and time has been placed into bodybuilding and many steps (actions) have been taken, you realize: hey, I’ve been going to the gym 3 times a week, every week for 6 months now! You were never really even noticed that you hadn’t skipped a single day, or that the feeling of gaining on your goal was keeping you on track. Day by day, you had simply been learning about your interest, online, in magazines, from your ripped neighbor, or in the gym. Until now, you had just been following what your research said, and were trying to adapt that into your own regimen. You understand how simply a habit can enter your life, inch by inch. 

The next step is to consciously use what has worked for you, based on your own experience, to (consciously, this time) form habits that will bring you even closer to your goal. You decide : “I’m going to lift this many times a week, and eat this at this time, and bring my notebook to track every session.” Day by day you incorporate what you have learned into your life. Every day you learn more, sometimes you alter your routine or diet, based on new information. At this point, you have consciously created a habit that is moving you in a direct path towards your objective. Every time you do something out of habit, you remember your reason for it. Before taking any action, you ask yourself: “will this bring me closer to my goal, or further away?” Avoiding certain things, or bringing other things into your everyday life is altering these habits, but your momentum is so powerful at this point that you only choose actions that will bring you closer to your goal. Your habits become subconscious, and every day they are helping you progress. This allows you even more room to figure out/think about how your day to day living could be directed at faster achieving your goal, or even heading towards another goal at the same time. Therefore, while you are preoccupied trying to move towards new goals or moving faster towards your original goal, you are already moving towards your original goal on autopilot! 

Just to show you how powerful you can be, imagine you have 3 goals set for yourself. All you have to do is set the intention for this goal to become a reality (anywhere, however you can, it does not matter). Once your first action towards each of these goals is taken, all you have to do is follow with a second action in the same direction. And then a third action, anytime after the second. The more actions are taken, the closer you get. When moving towards three different goals at once, take action towards one goal, and then the next goal, and then the next. This is easy if you just go one step at a time. Each action catalyzes the next, and before you know it your everyday habits will grow into an avalanche of success. Imagine doing this with 10 goals!

“Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance” – Kai Greene

The most successful bodybuilders are not successful for any reason you cannot be successful (granted in this domain, at the very top, because judges are involved, genetics can in fact play a role.) Their equation is simple. Figure out what works best for them as an individual, and repeat that over and over and over. It takes tremendous numbers of repetitive action to achieve success on a worldwide scale. The important thing is to keep doing these little things, day by day, week by week, year by year. All these little actions grow and grow, until they become the physical manifestation of your goal. They become success. You become success. 

The motivation behind aesthetically developing the human body and growing holistically as a human being through bodybuilding are on 2 entirely different spectrums. One is rooted in physical reality, and has limitations and exhaustion. The other is the most fulfilling and exquisite state of existence, separate from the world of form. Additionally, the latter can be used to reach the former’s objectives.

Bodybuilding at first glance seems like (and is) a means to look better, to develop a physique and therefore boost health, confidence and ego, amongst other things. It looks like an entirely physical and intellectual process, based solely on facts and scientific information. We move more weight for the sake of moving more weight, for that feeling of progression, to add that extra quarter inch to the biceps, to obtain that shredded six-pack we see in all the magazines and on television.

Many also lift/exercise to promote physical and mental health. The diet is incorporated into the equation, because it’s hard to grow when we lack the energy and proteins to build new muscle. We also want to keep the body working effectively so we don’t get sick or injured and therefore can’t train. We want to have a healthy system when we get older and need it more than we do now. After all, the physical body is the only thing we will have with us until the day we die, it makes sense to prioritize its maintenance and well-being.  All these external reasons are very effective in motivating one to train and be healthy. However, they will all eventually fade away, when the physical body dies. Our physical world is enclosed in Time. Because time passes, all within the physical world passes. None of it lasts forever.

The other motivation behind bodybuilding (or doing anything else, for that matter. This article and website happen to be about bodybuilding) is that which lies within. It is the tranquil, knowing, ever-steady flame that burns inside each end every living being. It is always there, waiting to be consciously observed and put to use. Everything you have learned and known in this physical reality, it has always known. Anything you could ever do through your body, it can create. The Spirit that lies inside us all is in fact our ticket to the everlasting. This Spirit is what tells you what exercise to do next, not your structured, pre-made workout plan. This Spirit is what moves the weight those 3 extra reps, resulting in hypertrophy. When you get so lost in your work that you are unaware of your surroundings, when you become the experience, and cease to be the experiencer. Rather than YOU contracting YOUR biceps, You ARE the biceps. You enter a realm where you there are no limits, no pain, no suffering, no effort. There is just you, and this you is the entire world, all at once. You are the biceps contracting, and you are the person contracting the biceps, at the same time. There ceases to be a YOU separate from the world.

“The Tao that can be told, is not the eternal Tao.” -Lao Tzu

This state of being is not a state of words, for it is not in Time. No words can describe it. Although a picture can be painted for others, the picture is merely an interpretation, someone else’s end result. One must experience it firsthand to understand, until then it is not possible. I use the analogy: “Contract your pecs, and watch the weight move, rather than moving the weight with your chest.” Contracting the pecs is what moves the weight, it is the WHY. And then you watch it move. This is different than moving the weight with your chest, which is an end result, the HOW.

When that connection to Spirit is made, is almost feels unfair to others (although while in this state you make no distinction between yourself and others) because any limitations you ever thought you had or could have are now gone. When you previously could do 8 reps, you can now do 30! The reason I have ever stopped my set in this situation is because the muscle literally feels like it is breaking (not tearing, but breaking! weird, I know). Fear steps in and returns me to my physical reality, where I put the weight down for fear of actually breaking my arm.

When I lift a weight, it is because the absolute only thing I want to do at that moment is to contract one individual muscle against a resistance so that it takes the shape of the contraction. Nothing else exists in my mind at the moment when the muscle is pulling against resistance. Throughout the entirety of the rep, and throughout the set, 100% focus is placed on the contractions. I am aware of absolutely nothing else around me. One set like this feels 5fold better than an entire workout without this kind of focus/awareness.

On compound lifts it is the same, except I will only be focusing on one or maybe two muscles/pairs of muscles that are working for that specific lift. For example when I am squatting, I will place all my attention on pulling with the glutes and/or hamstrings. I know the quads are working hard already, and they are not the ones that need the extra work. I focus all my attention on the hamstrings/glutes and do not even feel the quads working, but I know they are. Near the top of the movement, I feel the glutes contract hard, and the hamstrings are locked out (similar hamstring position to on an abductor machine). After completing a set to failure with the hamstrings/glutes, it isn’t very difficult to hammer out another 3-10 reps, incorporating the quads to a much greater degree.

The Spirit knows what is best for you, under any and every circumstance. After all, it is a part of you, maybe it IS you, underneath all the external layers you have accumulated. You want to develop your physique? Go to that quiet place inside of you and let it guide you effortlessly through your workout. Let it guide you through your entire day, as your physical gains are made outside the gym rather than while lifting. You want to experience the Void, where there is nothing but emptiness, endless possibilities? Return to that eternal place inside of you, and hop on for the ride. It will always be there for you, whenever you want it. All you have to do is find it, and it will do the rest for you. Or rather, YOU will do the rest for yourself 😉