Boost Your Resilience Through Visualization
Written By Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
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.
Detailed Workout Example
With the process more formally laid out, let’s run through this one more time with a pre-workout visualization:
My goals for a workout are to follow the program and work out for F.I.I.T - For Intent, Intensity, and Technique. I then think about what I think the hardest parts of the workout are going to be and come up with pacing and rep schemes am I going to start with and how they may change if I’m wrong.
I then want to think about what the workout going to feel like and put myself in my own future shoes.
For an example, here’s what a 5-15 minute high-intensity workout typically feels like for me. I recommend reading this slowly and really trying to visualize yourself in the gym going through a workout.
Before the workout, I am usually feeling a bit of additional stress. There are a lot of unknowns and the only known is that the workout is going to be challenging. It helps me to remember that stress is enhancing and the release of hormones, elevated heart rate, and hyper self-awareness that can come with stress, may make me feel different than normal, but are all things that I can use to my benefit.
The start of the workout usually feels very OK and doable. Oftentimes, it feel easier than I’m expecting. To not come out too fast, I typically have to go way slower and rest a little longer than I feel like I need to at that moment.
About 1min30sec into the workout is when the workout typically shifts and all the sudden starts to feel very challenging. This challenging moment usually takes my focus from the present and into the big picture.
This can be overwhelming as I realize how hard the workout already feels and how much further or longer I still have to go. If you haven’t taken steps to really define why you are committed to putting yourself through a challenging workout like this, then not only will these moments lead to a lack of effort afterwards, but may be moments when you quit (luckily, quitting here is much less likely in a group setting). For me, I am trying to further and further develop my skill of following-through on what I want myself to do regardless of how I feel in the moment. I tell myself that I can always change my plans afterwards, but not during a tough moment (unless there is a really good reason to…there almost never is). You can read more about this in my article: How to Increase Your Willpower.
There is an advantage to this natural tendency to be drawn towards the big picture as it allows me my first check-in on my workout strategy. If I get that highly challenged, fight or flight feeling well before that 1min30sec mark, then my pacing and strategy is likely too aggressive. If I don’t feel challenged at that mark, then maybe my strategy is not aggressive enough. Either way, before taking the next step, I make any adjustments and commit to my new plan.
I bring my focus back on what’s in my control which is simply doing the rep I am on. I focus on just getting my next set started and really like to hyper-focus on an aspect of technique that I want to improve on. This not only has driven my long-term technique development, but helps distract me from how terrible the workout feels and how fatigued I am.
Overall, at this point, I just want to embrace the challenge and hang in there, knowing how good it is for my life.
The next significant moment for me comes during what I call the middle minutes. My tendency is to overcompensate from that first overwhelmed feeling a minute and a half in and settle into a pace that carries almost zero risk of being unsustainable. The problem with this is that if I am never risking my pace being too fast, then I never know if I am pushing myself hard enough. Not every workout needs the highest intensity possible, but going to that dark place every now and then is important. I want to remind myself that if I get my pacing wrong and go too hard too soon, as long as I keep my technique high, there are no real consequences besides a burning out too early…which still makes for a great, albeit very uncomfortable, workout.
The next distinctive reflection moment comes with a few minutes left in the workout. It’s the moment when I realize that I no longer need to work at a pace that is sustainable for a long time and I can start getting more aggressive with my effort to empty the tank by the end. This is where I typically start trying to negotiate with myself, trying to find any reason to justify just coasting into the finish or that it’s OK if my technique gets a little sloppy. My goal here is to shut those negotiations down. What works best for me is to remind myself that it is not often that I have the opportunity to challenge my technique and practice finishing strong when I am already this tired and fatigued and I need to take advantage of it…again, simply focusing on following through on what I want myself to do.
I want to note that if I am having a really rough day or am really fatigued from previous days of training, sometimes, ahead of going to the gym, I will give myself permission to take it easier. In those scenarios, even if I don’t go hard, I am still following through on my plans. I am always amazed though at how often the switch flips in my head once I start moving. As I’ve learned for most things, getting started tends to be the hardest part and oftentimes, even if my plan was to take it easier, once I get started, I can get motivated to change my strategy back into a normal day.
Through the process of visualization, especially when it’s things you have visualized and experienced a lot, the process gets faster and faster. Maybe you start by taking a few minutes to sit down, read through my pre-workout visualization example above, and really put yourself in those shoes. As you do workouts, these moments are more noticeable and stick out to you. That mix of visualization and actual experience builds and compounds dramatically.
Remember, this same process can be used for big events, presentations, difficult conversations, etc. When you learn how to leverage visualization techniques, your experience and understanding of situations expands in amazing ways.