Bodybuilding is a fantastic sport that has more positive impacts on your body and mind than most people are aware of. Bodybuilding is such a psychological activity in fact that arguably you could say this is the main deciding factor that leads either to success or failure and the simple fact is that most people who don’t manage to get into shape just haven’t put in the same effort or tried for as long or as hard as those who do.
So, what is it that makes the ideal bodybuilder? What is it that sets them apart from the guy or girl who fails to get into shape the way they want to? Here we will look at some of the personality traits that will make you succeed as a bodybuilder.
Perseverance
This is the single most important thing for bodybuilders to develop and it comes above everything else including your genetic propensity to build muscle or burn fat. The thing that stops most people getting into shape is impatience – and when they don’t see the results that they want within the first month they often just tend to quit. Bodybuilding takes time and you need to be able to persevere even when you aren’t feeling the normal drive to go on if you hope to ever achieve a half decent physique.
Discipline
Perseverance is what enables a bodybuilder in the long term to be able to go for your goals and to stick to your routine. In the short term though what you need is discipline – discipline to pull yourself out the front door to the gym when you’re feeling tired and when all you really want to do is just veg out on the couch. It’s also mental discipline that will help you to push yourself to your target distance on the treadmill when your body is screaming at you to stop.
Intelligence
Bodybuilders have a reputation as being dumb ‘meat heads’ but this is of course a rather unfair judgement. The reality is that actually most bodybuilders are very smart and in particular have a very scientific outlook when it comes to their bodies and nutrition. There’s a lot to understand here from hypertrophy to microtears to anabolic states, and being smart enough to be able to grasp all the science will help you a great deal in this regard.
Toughness
One reputation that is fair for bodybuilders however is that of being very tough. The simple fact of the matter is that bodybuilders aren’t wimps. To be able to push yourself that hard, and to be able to ignore the excuses that most people make when they don’t feel like training takes guts and obviously it requires a certain kind of mindset to be able to ignore the kind of strain and pain that you can feel when you’re trapped under the iron.
So, these are just a few of the traits that are required if you hope to become built like a tank. What’s important to remember here though is that just like muscles, this type of mindset can be developed and trained. So, if you’ve failed to get into shape so far, maybe it’s your mind that needs a workout first?