# Positive mental attitude - Anchoring



## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

*Anchoring - the basics*

With all the talk recently of the best training methods, gear, diet etc I thought it would be a nice break to investigate the mental aspect of training and how you can make anchoring work for you in training.

This is a bare bones look at one of the techniques I use with my Sports Prep clients and also some of the general public that I have treated for various conditions.

Anchoring can be used in trianing to prep yourself for a heavy lift and to get over training apathy on tiring days. Below I talk about collapsing negative anchors associated with stressful situations.

I did some background reading on collapsing anchors and rather than C&P a load of **** that you wont read I thought i'd put it in my own words.

Anchoring briefly is elliciting a desired state of mind through thought or speech or sometimes physical sensations hence the NLP link (neuro linguistic) (mind language).

So just an as example heres a few exercise of anchoring that you already have.

1. Think about the smell of fresh bread and the feeling you get

2. Think about the pump from a giant chest session and the feeling you get

3. Think about lying in a warm bath and the relaxing feeling you get.

All these are sub con anchors triggered by thought.

You can also anchor by other methods, anyone who knows the story of Pavlov's dogs will know how he got the dogs to salivate by only ringing a bell but previously the dogs would be fed when the bell rings so they got into the habit of preparing themselves for the meal once the bell rang.

All very good in theory but now apply this to everyday life and workouts.

DO you dread your leg workouts because you know what is coming, or breaking down even more do you dread Wednesdays because that is leg day (for example)

Or apply it to working life do you dread certain days because you know that this day is when you do a certain hateful task?

Unwittingly you are setting yourself up for a failure or a bad day/workout and this transgresses into the rest of the week because of the build up to the day or event so you feel down maybe a few days prior because you know its coming.

If this is a repetitive occurance then you have a negative anchor. Many people even enhance this through a process called catastrophising (CBT theory) so the event becomes much more stressful in the perception triggering more stress response.

Soon you will only have to think of this event to trigger a whole cascade of feelings that will depress you and if this builds up the end result is depression as a clinical diagnosis.

So thats the doom and gloom out of the way.

So how do we collapse negative anchors and install positive ones?

We can do this in a quick exercise now.

Firstly think of an event that causes you mild stress say for example meeting the in laws, a heavy grueling workout, driving home through traffic at rush hour.

Now whichever hand is your least dominant (i.e. I am right handed so my left hand is least dominant.) just touch your thumb and first finger together while thinking about the situation, close your eyes if you want to get it clear in your head. Think about it for a few seconds then open your eyes and recite your phone number and address (to clear your head). Then repeat this about 3 or 4 times until just by touching the thumb and first finger together you get the image in your head and the mild stress feeling come on.

Now watch 5 minutes of your favourite programme on TV to clear your head and relax you.

Then I want you to repeat the process but on the dominant hand, although this time we are going to think of how you WANT to feel in those situations. Take a positive from it

for example if you are stuck in traffic you could be thinking about what you want to do on the weekend and planning a family outing or something

If you are thinking about your workout think about how massive and pumped your going to be afterwards

If you are meeting the in laws think about how (if you dont get on with them) you are ****ing their daughter in the ass and they know it and cant do anything about it









Whatever postive thought you have and WANT to apply to that situation I want you to think of that while touching the thumb and first finger together of the dominant hand. I want you to amplify it colours, sounds, feelings all bigger like a huge Cinema screen right in front of you blaring out.

think of it for 10 seconds or so and allow yourself to only think of that positive feeling. Then recite your phone number and address like before and repeat 5 or 6 times to anchor the feeling like you did with the negative but when you press your positive anchor the harder you press the moire vivid and powerful the feeling will become.

OK so now you have both the positive and negative anchored and the positive should be more vivid and powerful than the negative.

So now I want you to fire off both the anchors together, i.e. press both left and right thmbs and first fingers together, try and see both of the pictures but concentrate on the positive more powerful one. Now gradually allow the negative to slip into the background and when you are ready let go with your left hand and press firmly on the right hand to enhance the positive.

after 10 seconds re touch your left thumb and first finger while still holding your right. Repeat the process and allow the negative to fade away.

repeat this about 4 times.

now release both hands and shake them loose.

watch some more of your favourite programme and when you are ready try to anchor the left feeling again by touching the thumb and first finger. It should be less powerful. Now at the same time do the right hand and you should get a powerful positive feeling which overtakes the negative.

This is collapsing the negative anchor.

This exercise takes a few gos to really get it right but eventually whenever you encounter this negative situation just by touching the right thumb and forefinger you will get the positive feelingwhich will allow you to deal with that situation.

This can be done with loads of situations and this is just the bare bones. When I do this with clients we incorporate many other techniques to enhacne the effects, but I wont tell you all my secrets


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## YetiMan1436114545 (Dec 7, 2007)

Brilliant post mate, I will try this when I get in


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## chrisj22 (Mar 22, 2006)

Awesome post! :thumbup1:


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## jjj (Jun 1, 2008)

thats ace guna try it mate, i hate wednesday leg days haha


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## Ollie B (Mar 14, 2007)

Mentallity is the foundation of bodybuilding. Infact the most important. Excellent Post Tom, full of useful info. I think this is worth a sticky.


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## BabyYoYo (Mar 7, 2008)

Fab Tom, will try this a bit later on when I get in from work! xx


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## davey d (Jan 8, 2007)

Nice post tom...Thats the same method that helped me give up smoking....


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## Incredible Bulk (Sep 19, 2007)

good article, i read it earlier but didnt have time to post a reply.

i have seen many guys dread leg day and drag ass in the gym and underperforming as its 'such a bad training day'.

i picture a competitor beside me doing a thigh and abs pose and me blasting him off stage with mine

legs are very overlooked by guys in the novices so i want mine to be a wow factor.

i use 15 rep sets and they suck the life out of you, depressing to count to 15 as well when your struggling on #6, as soon as i reach 10 i'm saying

"5 more reps and its done, quit in the last stretch and the previous reps are for nothing"

i never quit when i'm only pushing for 1-2 reps, that would just nark me off too much by quitting


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## maccer (Jul 11, 2007)

thanks for that I will give it a try for sure


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## Captain Hero (Jun 13, 2004)

Awesome post Tom  I really enjoyed reading that


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