What's On My Mind - September 2024

What’s On My Mind

What’s On My Mind
Visualization is Incredibly Effective and Probably Not What You Think

This Month’s Health Challenge
Get In Plenty of Daily Non-Exercise Activity

What’s On My Mind

Visualization is Incredibly Effective and Probably Not What You Think - By Kyle Ligon

When I used to hear the term “visualization”, my brain immediately lumped whatever was going to be said next into the woo woo camp of people trying to manifest things into reality simply by thinking about it or adding it to a vision board. I didn’t realize that the term “visualization” also refers to techniques that focus more on mental preparation and can be incredibly effective. In this article, we won’t be exploring the woo woo version (which I think is ineffective and misleading), instead I’ll dive into the mental preparation version which has been a game changer for me.

The visualization process comes after the goal setting process. You can read more about MovementLink’s modern approach to goal setting here, which helps us define the life we want to live, so that we can also define the habits and strategies that will lead us in that direction.

Visualization strategies can be used to help reach your fitness and health goals, and are equally effective in sporting events, presentations, and even social settings. Think of visualization as rehearsal of potential scenarios, the associated feelings, so you can plan and imagine how you want yourself to react and what types of efforts are expected. The goal of visualization is to gain experience in scenarios without having to actually be in them, so we are more confident and capable when challenges inevitably arrive.

In the book How Champions Think, Dr. Bob Rotella shares visualization techniques he used with the University of Virginia’s basketball team

“I always had the players visualize falling behind and needing to catch up. That’s because adversity and setbacks are inevitable in any challenging endeavor…”

Notice, that some people may consider the quote above as negative and think, “Why would you want to put negative thoughts into someone’s head before a game.” We are the most vulnerable when challenges occur and since challenge is inevitable, then we don’t want to have to figure things out when we are at our lowest most stressed. If a team is behind and needs to catch up, who would you put your money on - a team who has visualized this scenario and planned how they want themselves to respond or a team who only visualized themselves winning?

A common saying is that if you are skiing through the trees, you don’t want to look at the trees, you want to look at where you need to go. This is absolutely true and amazing advice. Focus on what you need to do instead of what not to do…in the moment. But, if you have not though all the potential risks ahead of time, like running into a tree, and how you are going to mitigate those risks and what you’re going to do if they occur, then you are vastly underprepared. Visualization is not what we are doing in the moment, but what we are doing to prepare for the moment.

Additionally, imagine someone skiing through the trees who is spending their time thinking about how good they are going to feel when they finish. This is a positive thought, but even positive thoughts can distract us and take us out of flow. In flow, we are letting our brain and movement patterns do as much subconsciously as possible, so we can be in the moment. This gives us the best chance of success. So, it is incorrect to mix-up the difference between negative (and positive) big picture thoughts taking us out of flow with planning and preparing.

Let’s look at an example of how I use visualization to improve my workouts and how sometimes people in the gym can mistake my comments as being negative. Before a workout, when I say things like, “Oooo, this is going to burn,” or “those squats are going to be really hard,” I am mentally preparing myself for what the most probable challenges in the workout will feel like. This allows me to be prepared and ready to react to challenges with the effort I want myself to give. Surprising to some, I am still very optimistic when I say these things. Being optimistic does not mean you cannot think about what may go wrong, it is believing that good things can happen, seeing the opportunity in challenging situations, and having the confidence that you’re going to be able to handle it. Workouts are supposed to be challenging and I visualize myself hanging in there and pushing onward through the challenges.

The more visualization experience I have makes me more able to adapt and get back on track quickly when new challenges arrive. Contrast that with not wanting any negative thoughts ahead of time and then running into an obstacle that you now have to figure out while you are being challenged in a way you didn’t expect. Being prepared is what visualization is all about.

How to Use Visualization:

Step 1: Define your goals.
Step 2: Define your strategies and the effort it’s likely to take. This brings the focus onto what is actually in your control and that is where we want to keep your focus when visualizing the process.
Step 3: Define all of the challenges or things you may need to adapt to that you can think of - anything that may make implementing your plan more difficult. Think not just about the challenges, but how you are likely to feel if those challenges arise.
Step 4: Define how you want yourself to react and what you want yourself to do in each of those scenarios. Where some of the physical aspects may be out of your control, we want everything in this step to be 100% in your control and we can always influence our mindset. You cannot completely control the outcomes, but you want to be ready to put in the amounts and types of efforts that give you the best chance of success.
Step 5: Visualize and try and feel every part of the process.

For a detailed example of how to visualize to prepare for a workout, check out the full article here:

This Month’s Health Challenge

Get In Plenty of Daily Non-Exercise Activity - By Kelly Dodds

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy we burn throughout our day that is not attributed to sleeping, eating, or exercise activity. It ranges from the energy we use while sitting upright, fidgeting, talking on the phone, typing, cooking dinner, pumping gas, walking to work, or doing yard work. Our total daily energy expenditure can be broken down into our basal metabolic rate (BMR- the minimum energy we use to exist with minimal movement, like when we sleep), thermic effect of food (TEF- the energy required to eat and digest food), exercise activity (EA- the energy expended while performing intentional exercise activity, it’s recommended to get a minimum of 150 minutes of vigorous activity per week), and NEAT– which accounts for the calories we burn from movement during the 12+ hours of our awake time that we aren’t eating, exercising, or laying down.

NEAT can vary quite a bit between individuals. Some people have jobs that require them to be very active all day or have a lower body fat set point which drives more fidgeting and burned energy through body heat, so they will have much higher NEAT energy expenditures than people who have sedentary desk jobs, are sitting for 10 hours per day, and have higher body fat set points– this variance can be as much as a 2,000 calorie difference between individuals of similar size per day. Therefore, instilling some habits to lower your body fat set point and increase NEAT (activity outside of your routine gym time) can have a huge impact on your metabolic rate and improve your overall health.

Many of us have step trackers on our watch or phone that can motivate us to increase our NEAT by counting the amount of steps we accumulate during our day. Research studies have shown that people who get 8,000-10,000+ steps per day have better health than those who get less than 8,000 daily steps, with a 60% lower risk of disease and mortality. Additionally, studies show that people who take walks after meals have reduced blood glucose levels. Taking more daily steps, especially adding a walk after a meal, is a great way to improve your metabolism by adding more NEAT into your day.

Other ways to increase NEAT include: ride a bike to get around, park within a half mile of a destination and walk the rest of the way, take the stairs instead of the elevator, take 5-10 minute breaks to move around throughout your sedentary work day, quick little workout snacks, gardening, cook instead of getting take out, cleaning, organize closets/drawers, find active social activities to do with friends or to meet new friends, stand up while you’re scrolling on social media, shop in person versus online shopping, pace while talking on the phone, use a standing desk or sit on a yoga ball while working on a computer, organize walking meetings at work, try fidgeting more, play with your dog, dance, do mobility exercises in front of the TV, replace some sedentary screen time with a hobby that requires movement, or volunteer for a charity event.

This month's challenge:

Pay attention to (or buy) a pedometer to see how many steps you are getting daily, then aim for 8,000+ steps each day.
Identify 3 non-exercise activities you do not currently do, but you could easily implement into your current lifestyle, like 10min walks after meals or a 1min workout snack.
For the month of September, track your steps AND/OR the time you spend implementing these new active behaviors into your day/week.

Note: 10 minute walks are an easy way to get extra steps. Walks are a great way to get morning sunlight to help regulate your circadian rhythm, get vitamin D from sunlight exposure, and lower your blood glucose levels after a meal.