Hypno sends Lisa into Hyperdrive, 5 Dec

Thought I'd fill you in on my mind - muscle connection and how its all going. For the past couple of weeks I've been very diligent and committing to listening to my nightly hypno recordings that Grant Patterson (hypnotherapist) made for me to help me relax.

Plus, I'd also had another session with Grant where he worked more on imagery and maximising that sensation to help me see how I want to look through all my hard work in the gym.

above: me nodding off listening to Grant's hyp recording

With the help of his soothing tones in my ear as I drop off to sleep, I've been having a much deeper sleep and feel alot more energised in the mornings and awake these days at 6.30am! or is that because the light streams in to my room at that time?

Free Hypnotherapy download below. Hard to explain what listening to a hypno recording is like, so I asked Grant to make me up one to put on site so that you can get relaxing too in the comfort of your own bed. Its going to feel abit weird at first having someone else whispering in your ear as you try and sleep but bear with it for a few nights. Ideally you should wear headphones as this heightens the effect of the therapy. Listening to his relaxation recording will help you feel more relaxed, get a better night's sleep and you never know - might even have more energy in the gym!

Talking about gym. My strength, energy and focus has really increased in the past couple of weeks. Not sure if its because of the hypno therapy, or because I think I should feel more energised just because I'm going to hypno, but whatever it is - its working! Just ask my poor training partner, the I.T guy. Pretty sure he's experiencing some strength and growth too. Since I'm going hard, he has to keep up and increase his weights relatively too. Here's what the I.T guy thinks of our regime:

'Working out with Lisa I've noticed an increase in the intensity of our workouts over the last few weeks. She has been picking up bigger dumbbells (sometimes to big!!) and pushing a few extra reps with each set. The sessions have got longer too with extra exercises to go with the new intensity. Even though I haven't been having hypno I'm feeling the harder workouts as I keep up with Lisa and am sure her clients are too! Its probably a bit soon to tell but I think the results are starting to show and it's interesting to see how much influence the mind has over the body.' I.T guy

I'm finding that I'm alot more focused. For example, I did legs the other day. And of course squats feature in my regime, they're more of a mental challenge for me than physical. I think I'm just cautious of my back giving in more than anything so I don't like to go that heavy with it. I'm feeling good and strong on this leg day, I get up to 6 reps at 60kg. Usually I'd say that's it as 6 reps was my goal even though I know I could do more. But that day I decided that I could do 2 more.

Before the final 2 reps, I could really feel my mind taking over. Not sure where it came from, maybe it was my now well trained subconscious mind which has been spoken to in the nightly sessions, believing that I can get out a couple more reps. Sure it was tough but my body followed through what my mind believed and I did! so 8 reps was a great mind over matter set for me.

Not just my legs has increased gains in strength but my other bodyparts too. I'm bench pressing 50kg for 6 reps, not bad considering I'm only 55kg! Seated row has gone heavier by another 10kg plate. Shoulders aren't as strong as I'd like them to be but I think they've gained at least couple mm in width - or is that just me imaging it.

Back to squats. Strangely, I think if I had 65kg on the bar I reckon I'd still do 6 reps as I'd set myself that target. So setting rep targets could be a limiting factor itself as it really doesn't make you push harder and go over your pain barrier. So I have to rethink the way I count my reps so that I'm not limited by the amount of reps I'm doing - are you still with me?!! I know it sounds complicated.

Tricking the mind. So it comes down to tricking your mind and confusing yourself so you can keep on breaking your plateaus. To help me trick my mind, I count backwards as I reckon I get the set done faster! If I'm doing high reps to really fatigue the muscle in my last set, I'll start at a ridiculous high number like 40. I might only want to do 20 reps but if I counted 1,2,3 ...etc, I think 20 is too far away and give in. But I find if I start at 40 and count backwards, I'll probably end up doing more than 20 as I'll probably get confused as to what number I'm at.

So far I'm really enjoying hypnotherapy and the results I'm getting. I'm getting some good strength gains and feel more focused and energised. Sure it might be all in the mind but isn't that what its all about??!!!

Lisa, Go Figure
5 Dec 08

I'd really recommend you give Grant's relaxation hypnotherapy a go. I'm definitely going to encourage my clients to download his recording as I know its going to help them attain a much deeper sense of relaxation. You've got nothing to lose, except sleep!

Grant Patterson,
Hypnotherapist

You can hear Grant's relaxation audio by clicking the play button below

or you can download for your ipod etc by right clicking here and selecting 'Save Target As'.

Please use ear phones for maximum effect when listening to the relaxation audio. And preferably listen at bedtime.

Hypno sends Lisa into Hyperdrive, 5 Dec

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