Allowing every muscle in your body to just simply relax, knowing that there is nothing that can disturb you or bother you. Let me take you on a journey to your dream destination. Feel the calmness and tranquillity of this place, and the wellbeing that it brings you…
And I would like you to imagine yourself now at your gym, preparing yourself, you are 2calm, confident and in control”, you stand beneath the rings and repeat to yourself “I will do this, I will really do this“. You feel a strength and determination like you’ve never felt before, and you jump up to the rings. You begin with an aggressive, but controlled kip, feet together, hips moving forward and backward. You build the movement, driving your toes then hips up and into the rings, followed by that strong pull into the transition and finally driving your head through. You swing back down and link into the next one.
Hypnosis is nothing more than deep relaxation
Relaxing the conscious, reasoning mind enough to be able to talk directly to the powerful subconscious. My research involved working with a small number of athletes at CrossFit Clitheroe, tackling specific areas of their performance, reaching new goals and dealing with sticking points. In this series, we will explore the positive benefits of hypnotherapy to a variety of movements and areas of Crossfit, beginning with the ring muscle up.
The mind
Conscious vs subconscious – put simply the conscious part of the mind is the reasoning, logical part, it filters information and is our daily inner dialogue, in contrast the subconscious absorbs what we repeat consciously, without reason, and stores our learnt behaviours and habits. Conscious thoughts if stated frequently enough – re-iterated and repeated – revert to the subconscious and become part of our being, and can become the things that seemingly happen out of control. As humans our nature is to have both positive and negative thoughts, but it is about striking a balance, ensuring that the negative don’t out-way the positive, and if possible the positive winning outright.
At the start of any therapy I ask my clients going forward to become very conscious of their conscious thoughts, and to become tuned into that inner dialogue. This inner conversation we have with ourselves has a big impact on how we act and interact with our surroundings, and has a direct impact on sporting performance.
As humans our nature is to have both positive and negative thoughts, but it is about striking a balance, ensuring that the negative don’t out-way the positive.
The research
Participant A is a fitness instructor and has been Crossfitting for 13 months. She trains and competes regularly; most recently competing in the Athlete games against Britain and Europe’s finest. The one sticking point in her performance was a ring muscle up; she had the technical skill and strength, so it was apparent that the sticking point was more of a mind than a physical matter.
Session 1 focused on building confidence and eliminating any element of doubt, the participant needed to believe 100% in their capabilities. Following the first session the participant was encouraged to have regular inner dialogue with themselves, not questioning – “I wonder if I can achieve a ring muscle up?”, but without doubt reaffirming – “I can and will achieve a ring muscle up”. Two weeks later, the second session reinforced this positivity and then through visualisation enabled the participant to actually see herself doing the movement with ease, not focusing on the sticking point, but instead visualising it as one strong, continuous movement. Following the second session, the individual achieved not one, but two ring muscle ups and stated – “I’m 100% sure it changed the way I look at it, I went up to them with such determination. My fist was definitely getting clenched!”
Self belief and determination
The clenched fist is making reference to an anchor that was set whilst in an hypnotic state – the mind works in an associative way, therefore whilst hypnotised the participant is brought to a heightened level of self belief and determination, which is then anchored through an action such as a clenched fist. Because the mind works in this associative way, the clenched fist when used in day to day life can bring back those heightened feelings and have a direct impact, in this instance, on the individual’s performance.
Now I’m not saying the hypnotherapy is making this individual achieve their goals – no – that’s down to their own ability, technique, strength and dedication. However, in this instance the hypnotherapy, through visualisation, positive affirmations and anchoring techniques, enables them to have complete self belief in that ability. See it as training for the mind to eliminate self doubt.
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to the athletes of Crossfit Clitheroe who participated in the research, approaching it with such enthusiasm and an open mind. Also, to Crossfit Clitheroe owner Chris Templeman, for supporting the research and providing space at the Box for me to conduct it.
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