Top Athlete Mentality
I came across this great article on Eat to Perform and it caught my interest. Wouldn’t you want to know what the top athletes are doing? Everybody is at a different point in their fitness journey and I am pretty sure none of us have all of these things going for us. It’s great to know what the top performers on the planet are doing to keep themselves where they are at. Give us some direction and motivation don’t you think?
1.They don’t look for a quick fix.
The best athletes with the best physiques – the people you admire – have been working on their bodies for a long, long time. They’ve been dedicated to their craft for years or in some cases decades. It’s simply unreasonable to give up on a dream because you couldn’t make it happen in a matter of weeks. Likewise, if you’re dissatisfied with your results, you won’t improve by throwing in the towel. You need to be in it for the long haul.
2.They know where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there.
The best athletes move from goal to goal, constantly setting their sites on new horizons to maintain a sense of interest along the way. Even if they aren’t competing, they are training for something.
3.They don’t try to reach their physique goals by cutting Calories.
The best athletes are rarely looking to be in a calorie deficit – they view food as a way to enhance work capacity and they focus on maintaining and building the muscle they are earning in the gym.
4.They don’t worry about putting on body fat due to overeating.
Fat is easy to lose but muscle is hard to gain. Most athletes spend a good part of their life chasing the latter and so they don’t have to worry so much about the former. For that reason, the best athletes in the world actively seek out weight gain. They do this by lowering their activity level and building their bodies for a specific result. In that process, they are often intentionally put on a bit of fat.
The best way to say it is “ass moves mass”. Want to squat more? You need to put a lot of quality work into developing your quads and glutes, perfecting your form, and increasing your work capacity. That cannot be accomplished in a Calorie deficit, and it’s a lot harder to do if you’re worried about your scale weight.
5.They don’t feel guilty when they miss workouts.
The fittest people take time off or reduce their work volume as part of the plan to get better. When you’re pushing the limit of human performance, rest isn’t just beneficial – it’s necessary.
Yeah, if you’re chronically missing workouts and you haven’t been to the gym in months, you might want to do something about it and work on your time management…but don’t feel guilty if you have to push a workout a day late or you miss one session after months of consistency. Consider it extra recovery and get back at it hungrier than you were before.
6.They surround themselves with people who’re better than they are.
The “Big fish-little pond” effect is what happens when you’re the strongest/fastest/best athlete in your gym and you no longer have anyone to compete with; you’ve caught the biggest fish in your little pond and it’s time to expand your horizons. This concept can be applied to pretty much any situation where you’re no longer challenged by your environment.
Read full article here
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