Willpower and spirit for a bodybuilder

Each person has his own large and small peaks that he dreams of conquering. The limiting factors in achieving these peaks are often a lack of will and health. It is bodybuilding or fitness classes that significantly contribute to the development of strong-willed qualities and the promotion of health.

In this article we will try to answer the following questions: What is willpower? How are body strength, willpower and spirit related? the importance of willpower in bodybuilding. how to develop willpower? Further ways of improvement or how to develop willpower? examples of the manifestation of willpower by famous bodybuilders.

1. Psychology
2. How to develop willpower?
3. How to develop willpower?
4. Contents of the article:

Psychology

Any purposeful activity is always associated with by force of will. Volitional effort is the basis of any effective mental or motor act. By volitional effort we mean a consciously performed effort made on oneself and which is an impetus for the implementation of a certain action. However, when an action is carried out easily and habitually, it seems that it happened on its own, as a result of a desire. We are easily convinced of the presence of volitional effort when we need to overcome significant difficulties. Therefore, you need to keep in mind that volitional effort usually has a different level of severity: both in duration and in intensity. The will and volitional manifestations for certain activities may not be formed in a person if the living and upbringing conditions were incorrect or unfavorable.

Bodybuilding is closely related to overcoming volumetric and intense psychophysical stress of varying coordination complexity, which is often associated with fear, which can give rise to frightening thoughts and ideas. Systematic training with weights helps to overcome the fear associated with failure and defeat; non-recognition, underestimation, contempt, pain during exercise; making independent decisions; taking responsibility. Overcoming these obsessive states requires volitional effort.

How to develop willpower?

Volitional effort there is the beginning of all beginnings. The importance of will is well characterized by Melbourne Olympic champion (1956) in pole vaulting Bob Rigads in the book “The Heart of a Champion”:

“When you remember the great champions, you understand that it is the will to win that sets them apart from other athletes. The will to win, not just the dream of winning. I know a lot of people who have this desire. They wouldn't mind getting to the top of the podium. I saw these guys in stadium locker rooms, lying on benches and dreaming. They will tell you about the things they could do, the heights they could reach, if they trained the right way. But time will pass, and you will find them there in two or four years, still “talking in vain” about what they would have achieved if only they had paid the real price for it. But they really can’t take it and pay it. To do this, you need to work hard and constantly deny yourself many things. Unfortunately, their willpower is not enough for this. Their dream will remain a dream. By this I do not mean to say that there is no need to dream. On the contrary, I think that the greatest things in the world are dreams, great impulses and aspirations, but I think that the most important thing is the will to turn this dream into reality.”

The importance of will to achieve a goal is clear. Will essential component of success in the struggle for knowledge, health, happiness. Will is cultivated in conditions when there is an objective need to overcome certain obstacles and difficulties in achieving a goal clearly recognized by the athlete.

However, psychologists believe that this approach oversimplifies the real picture. Also I.M. Sechenov argued that our will is the active side of our mind and moral sense. This position of the scientist has two important consequences. First: a person will not manifest a volitional effort, especially a large one, unless necessary. Its manifestation is sanctioned by the human mind. Second: it directs volitional activity (whether to commit an act or not), moral sense, and moral beliefs of a person.

Thus, firstly, one should not judge an athlete’s willpower too hastily, based only on the effectiveness of his activities. The most prominent or strongest athlete is not at all the most strong-willed, in view of the fact that speed and strength often depend not so much on volitional efforts, but also on a number of other psychophysiological and also morphological factors that are not subject to the will.

Secondly, there is no willpower in general as such, manifested in the same way (the same way) in all situations. When overcoming specific difficulties, some people turn out to be more strong-willed, while others are less so.

Volitional effort characterized focus. In this regard, its functions are distinguished: activation and braking (starting and stopping, strengthening and weakening, acceleration and deceleration). In different situations, a person uses different components of volitional effort to varying degrees: sometimes he uses the maximum of volitional effort once (or rather once), in other cases he retains (holds) volitional efforts of a certain intensity for a significant period of time, in third cases he inhibits reactions. The nature of volitional effort has not yet been fully revealed, but there is no doubt that it is associated with the tension of certain muscle groups, that is, it represents an ideomotor act.

The duration of volitional activity also depends on energy activity. What does it mean? - so the greater the resources an athlete has, the longer he can maintain his volitional tension. And here we come to the question of will and its components that characterize the manifestation of willpower.

How to develop willpower?

In the process of performing various types of activities, a person develops individual components of volitional efforts:

1. determination,
2. determination,
3. endurance,
4. perseverance,
5. courage,
6. independence,
7. discipline.

From the conditions in which these properties are cultivated directly, Physical Culture (and how its varieties: fitness, bodybuilding, powerlifting and others) - the most real and effective mechanism.

Determination - a volitional component, in which the continuity of its manifestation depends both on practical actions and actions, and on their comprehension, on objective self-esteem. After all, the thought of changing behavior can cause a new manifestation of volitional effort. The determination of athletes contains many bright goals: immediate, intermediate and distant. However, the sense of purpose of young people does not always contain directed active activity to achieve them. Therefore, shortcomings appear. However, athletes tend to strive to overcome difficulties that create the main obstacles on the path of life, to strive in order to test their will, character and at the same time learn something new and interesting. This process goes through immediate goals determined by upbringing and life itself. When cultivating determination, there is one immutable condition: the immediate goal must be achieved. In the educational and training process, this can be the mastery of the optimal health-improving and developmental volume of load with the obligatory improvement of the psychophysical state, both in the subjective assessment by the athlete and in terms of objective indicators (for example, heart rate, etc.).

It can also be reflected both in individual activities and in group activities (in team sports). Determination is best developed by creating conditions in which the athlete is forced to make decisions himself, the correctness of which is not obvious to him, or when unpleasant consequences for him are likely. For example, in the educational and training process, when he is afraid to perform some exercise or take responsibility, for example, for throwing a shot at the ring and so on. At the same time, it is important to pay primary attention to ensuring that the athlete does not develop a sense of irresponsibility (quick decision-making not so much for the sake of achieving a goal, but for the sake of leaving an unpleasant situation for him).

In order to develop determination, the coach should, if possible, sometimes exclude insurance when performing exercises, cheating, tips and other options for assistance, both physical and psychological. Therefore, the instructor must teach athletes not only physical exercises, but also life: to develop and model various life situations and ways of competently exiting them. And when cultivating decisiveness, it is necessary to instill responsibility, because only a responsible person can be truly decisive.

Excerpt - a very important personality quality, which consists in the ability to restrain one’s physical as well as mental manifestations, if they are inappropriate, if they can cause harm to people or production; finally, if they are simply unreasonable.

Self-control includes: courage, that is, a person’s ability to perform tasks efficiently, despite the emerging feeling of fear and apprehension; restraint, that is, the ability to suppress impulsive, spontaneous, thoughtless emotional reactions; concentration, composure, i.e. the ability to concentrate on the task at hand, even turning a blind eye to interference.

Perseverance in achieving the task it is manifested through patience, that is, through a one-time but long-term resistance to a certain factor (mainly physiological) that causes fatigue, pain, hypoxia (lack of oxygen); and through perseverance, that is, through the desire to achieve a long-term strategic goal, despite the difficulties, failures, obstacles and difficulties that arise. Different from the patience we discussed earlier, perseverance is the repeated, systematic manifestation of will towards achieving a result. It turns out that perseverance is largely characterized by the strength and stability of its motive for this activity that the bodybuilder carries out. Therefore, developing athletes’ sense of purpose and future prospects is an effective means of increasing perseverance. This is facilitated by the accuracy of the proposed task and the athletes’ understanding of its role in the educational and training process.

Manifestation courage associated with the development of courage. Not every display of courage is pedagogically appropriate. It is very important for a coach to consider what exactly the athlete’s courage is aimed at. For example, courage can be a consequence of persistence and take the negative form of stubbornness. In addition, the motives for displaying imaginary courage can be the athlete’s selfish aspirations. They often commit ridiculous, stupid, and sometimes even dangerous actions for health and life, usually only for the sole purpose of proving to everyone around them (themselves and others) that they are heroes. Such actions by athletes must be stopped by explaining to them and the training group what the true, real meaning of heroism and courage is. However, through the skillful use of various pedagogical techniques in cultivating courage, it is possible to significantly reduce the athlete’s experience of danger when performing certain physical exercises (in powerlifting, in extreme strength sports, etc.). This is both skillful belaying and demonstration of successful execution of the exercise by comrades; approval, persuasion, use of leading and special exercises in the educational and training process. At the same time, the trainer should keep in mind that the adaptation of bodybuilders to one complex (dangerous) exercise does not transfer to other exercises, therefore bodybuilders with a greater degree of fear when moving on to learning a new exercise must again use the entire complex of means and methods at the teacher’s disposal.

Discipline as a stable component of personality, it is formed progressively, characterized by instability and changes in the behavior of athletes. This indicates that discipline in the educational and training process can be periodic in nature and depends on interest in classes or on the compulsion to attend them for the sake of getting a tick. Analysis of athletes' discipline in the training process allows the instructor to draw a conclusion about the importance of an individual approach or changing the methodology of constructing classes.

A sports coach should take into account that will manifests itself not only as a moral (or social) component, but also as genetic: volitional efforts are closely related to the typological features of the manifestation of indicators of the properties of the nervous system. Therefore, fear and the athlete’s inability to control himself may have innate basis, along with the inability to endure long-term fatigue, make prompt decisions, and others. This does not mean that it is useless for a teacher to cultivate strong-willed qualities in athletes.

However, one should avoid excessive optimism and banal approaches in the development of volitional efforts. It is necessary to know that on the path of cultivating volitional efforts, the instructor may encounter serious difficulties, therefore sensitivity, patience and pedagogical wisdom are required from him.

At the end of this article I would really like to bring you life examples of willpower famous bodybuilders all over the world, but the article is already pretty long. Therefore, we address you, dear reader, to the section of our website called “Celebrities”. This is where they are collected examples of courage and incredible manifestations of strong-willed qualities world champions of fitness and bodybuilding. Do you know that:

1. Did Milos Sartsev go to the gym every day for 10 years without ever resting a day?
2. Frank Zane and his brother had to fight every day against a crowd of numerous opponents?
3. Corina Everson almost lost her leg and spent her entire life teetering on the brink of death with her rare disease?
4. Don Long is engaged in bodybuilding and manages to win in the absence of both kidneys, living on constant homodialysis?

Read these and many other examples of the manifestation of fortitude and inviolability of character on our website - we still have a lot of interesting things!

Contents of the article:

Willpower and spirit.

Psychology of will.

How to develop willpower.

How to develop willpower.

Examples from the lives of celebrities.