Health and Fitness For Life

Internalize to maximize...

The ultimate race walk experience will depend on
your ability to visualize and actualize your peak walking performance.
Whether you are an elite, masters, or recreational walker - mental performance
training can maximize the benefits of your physical training. As athletes
visualize themselves performing with perfect form and technique their brain
stores those images to its performance hard drive. Sports psychologists
believe that when the athlete is in the performance moment they are then
able to retrieve this information and click into a 'state of flow' more
easily. Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully
immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full
involvement, and success in the process of the activity
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology). You may have heard it
described as being in the 'zone'.

Focused Motivation
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian Psychology Professor best
known as the architect of the 'state of flow', flow is completely focused
motivation. Csíkszentmihályi identifies the following nine factors as
accompanying an experience of flow:

1. Clear goals
2. Concentrating
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness
4. Distorted sense of time
5. Direct and immediate feedback
6. Balance between ability level and challenge
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding
9. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is
narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.
Not all are needed for flow to be experienced.

So how can you apply the state of flow to your race walking program?

1. Start before race day. Take a few minutes everyday to close your eyes
and picture yourself walking with perfect form and alignment, cruising past
other walkers and crossing the finish line feeling strong and triumphant.

2. During your pre-event training walks, see yourself in your minds eye.
Picture that perfect walking posture; hear your controlled rhythmic
breathing, imagine your strong heart pushing your blood out to your working
muscles. Think about how great you feel and what a positive thing you're
doing for every cell in your body; picture those people you love and how
proud they are of your efforts.

3. During the event go back to those helpful thoughts you used during your
training walks. Now it's time to visualize the finish line and feel your
muscles empowering you to reach it. Use a bit of self-talk when the going
gets tough; find a positive mantra to strum through your head that helps you
break through the challenge...' I know I can, I know I can, I know I can'.

With these positive mental techniques in your back pocket you'll surely have
the best race of your life!

Don't forget your liquid glucosamine and chondroitin to help keep those joints flexible and healthy for walking.