The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox

Life is your Mindset Gym | Mindset | Science | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox | Train your mind in the gym | Training

Are you training your mindset?
ByJuan Acevedo July 10, 2019July 3, 2020

Both of my athletes Francy and Henrick agree with me that mindset is important when it comes to athletic performance. This is unusual because they mostly think I am full of shit. Truth is most people know that what you think greatly determines how you perform at a given task. This is very intuitive and obvious on a superficial level. We all know that if you think you suck at running, well guess what? You are going to suck at running. What is really hard for most people is to flip it around and use this idea to their benefit. But in fact, the base of all sports psychology is exactly this: if you want to be good at something you have to believe that you can actually be good at that thing.

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Growth Mindset | Mindset | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox | Train your mind in the gym

What is Cognitive Reframing and how to use in training
ByJuan Acevedo June 28, 2019July 6, 2020

Our identities are made of narratives. We cannot escape that. But we get to chose. Tear down the unproductive ones. Create ones that keep you growing.

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Fitness | Mindset | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox | Train your mind in the gym

Henrick's Rower and Results Oriented Mindsets
ByJuan Acevedo May 29, 2019July 6, 2020

The first time I explained to one of my male athletes that the Concept2 rower was made with a specific body type in mind it totally backfired. Henrick was complaining to me about the size of his arms, telling me it made doing pull ups harder. He was using this narrative to explain why he...

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Fitness | Mindset | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox | Train your mind in the gym

Francy's Rower and Outcome Oriented Mindsets
ByJuan Acevedo May 15, 2019July 7, 2020

“How is that working for you?” is a rhetorical tool I use with a lot of my athletes. Whether we are talking about a nutritional habit, a workout strategy, or a marital problem, I have found it to be very productive. This is because it is a grounding experience when one asks it honestly. It prompts the person in front of you to really match what they are trying to get out of their behaviors with reality.

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Fitness | Skill Transfer | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox

Handstands and balance in life
ByJuan Acevedo March 4, 2019September 18, 2020

What you practice in your training, should have more transfer to life than good looks and bragging rights.

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Close the Gap | Fitness | Smart Practices | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox

Slay you should and Slay you must
ByJuan Acevedo December 5, 2018June 9, 2020

There is this feeling you get when you go to the gym and everything goes your way. I call it The Slayer, because it feels as if Beyonce did a Metal Song: fucking EPIC. You get it in one of those days when the warm up feels light and easy. Your technique sets are a display of grace and control. When you hit your workout the weights move as if they were feathers, your breathing matches your movement in perfect harmony, your transitions are smooth and short, and the only time you trip in the whole workout you stay composed AF and correct immediately with a smile on your face. You fucking slay like Queen-B. Heck! Even your hair game is on point! You finish on the ground exhausted but proud: I am so motherfucking fit, you think to yourself.

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Fitness | Smart Practices | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox

Training Hard
ByJuan Acevedo October 24, 2018June 10, 2020

We all love to train hard. We love the feeling of working our asses off, yet I think training hard, truly training hard, is greatly misunderstood. Hours of media featuring Energy Drinks, Athletic Shoes, and awesome-sports-movies-action-montages has lead us to confuse training hard with intensity. We have this image in our head that training hard is finishing a workout sweaty and gassed, lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling like somebody just punched us in the face and stole all our money while quoting Jame Joyce. That outcome turns out to be fairly easily achieved: just do 50 burpees as fast as you can without stopping... it will take you less than 5 minutes and if you really commit to not stopping you will finish on the ground regretting life.

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Mindset | The Gym as Your Mindset Sandbox | Train your mind in the gym

Slay your inner troll!
ByJuan Acevedo August 27, 2018June 12, 2020

Trolls suck, and even though they are an Internet creation they are pretty much everywhere IRL too. Yes, they might be called douche bags, and they are not constrained by gender, race, or religion. The only thing that unifies them is that they are just a waste of time and energy. But my experience is that when it comes to fitness and nutrition, we all have an inner troll. And to be honest, this is the worst kind of troll there is.

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