TOPIC: How Can A Bodybuilder Control Their Aggression?
The Question:
Increasing aggression can be a useful tool for working out and getting through tough sets. However, it is important for a bodybuilder to have the ability to turn off their aggression as quickly as they turn it on.
How can a bodybuilder control their aggression?
What are some methods to increase/decrease aggression?
Is it easier for one to increase their aggression or decrease their aggression?
Bonus Question: Have you had problems controlling your aggression? What did you do?
Show off your knowledge to the world!
The Winners:
- 1. soundcheck129
- 2. History in Effect
- 3. Br00klynn
- 3. g4owensj
Prizes:
- 1st place - 75 in store credit.
- 2nd place - 50 in store credit.
- 3rd place - 25 in store credit.
1st Place - soundcheck129
View This Author's BodySpace Here.
How Can A Bodybuilder Control Their Aggression?
While aggression can sometimes help pump out that last rep, it's important to distinguish the line between aggression and anger. Though most bodybuilders enter the gym intending to build their muscular strength, mental strength should not be ignored. One must be sure that any aggressive feelings are channeled toward positive aims and not destructive behavior.
The keys here are knowledge and discipline. It helps to have a partner in the gym with you to help you look for warning signs that signal a possible outburst. If you don't have a partner, though, monitor your behavior closely. Are there certain factors that push you across the line? Do specific thoughts lead you to angry outbursts? Chances are, you can find patterns in your behavior that foreshadow an imminent explosion.
But merely seeing the signals is not enough - you must have the discipline to act on them. After all, knowing is only half the battle. I know from experience that it can be difficult to step back during an intense workout and take a few minutes to cool down. However, having the discipline to recognize that regaining mental clarity comes first is essential. It's not worth one more rep if you get banned from the gym for letting your testosterone get the better of you.
What Are Some Methods To Increase/Decrease Aggression?
Increasing Aggression
Crank It Up
- When I want to get in the zone, I always listen to some metal. Music can have a huge influence on your state of mind, so get some tunes that will get you pumped. Rap is also a popular choice, but it's ultimately up to you.
Boost Your Testosterone
- is the hormone that is often credited with fueling
- and aggression in men. Big lifts such as
- ,
- and
- can increase testosterone output. In addition,
- and
- have been linked with testosterone, but don't get carried away - overall health comes first.
Air Boxing
- If you feel like you're fighting, you may just inspire some anger. Punch the air, a speed bag, a padded wall - anything that won't hurt your fist. This will get your blood flowing and get your body ready to wage war on the weights. Just make sure you don't punch any other gym patrons, or you'll be at the mercy of someone else's aggression.
Get Inside Your Head
- Many great athletes use visualization to aid their performances. Imagine a situation in which you'd need to get violent. Pick a fight with your mind. Call yourself names. Pretend your boss just piled a project on your desk two minutes before you were set to leave on your anniversary. Your brain has impressive powers; harness them and there is no limit to what you can do.
Stimulate Yourself
- While not usually the intended effects, some
- can inadvertently cause aggression. Most of these are stimulants or nitric oxide products. If they don't necessarily increase your anger, you'll at least get some energy out of them. There are also many testosterone boosters available if you want to explore that option.
Decreasing Aggression
Get Loud
- Extreme frustration can be like an unstoppable force or a caged animal inside of you. But instead of knocking someone out when you let it out, channel it through your vocal cords - yell. Obviously, obscenity is discouraged. If your gym policy prohibits screaming, step outside or into the locker room. A great way to dampen the noise is to yell into a pillow, sweatshirt or other piece of clothing.
Squeeze It Out
- If you really feel the need to get physical, squeezing a stress ball can do wonders. Just concentrate on letting the aggression flow out of you. If you don't have a stress ball, any piece of foam will work. These are great because they take a beating and come right back.
Air Boxing
- With this method, be VERY CAREFUL to ensure that no one is within your reach. Punching the air can drain some of your excess energy. You can also punch padded walls, but be careful not to punch anything solid or you'll wind up in the hospital, even more frustrated.
Work It Out
- It's no secret that physical exertion is great for melting away anger. And in the gym, you're surrounded by ways to burn it off. You can add a
drop set
- if you feel the aggression still flowing after a particular exercise, or move onto something different. Even hopping on a treadmill or exercise bike will allow you to cool your jets.
Get Away From It All
- This one isn't exactly rocket science - if a certain environment is fueling your anger, getting a change of scenery can calm you down. You can either do this literally, by stepping out of the gym for a breath of fresh air, or just in your imagination. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, relax, perhaps listen to some calming music and let someone
- your shoulders. The anger should melt away.
Happy Pills
- If you really have problems controlling aggression, you may want to talk to a doctor or counselor and see what the world of medicine has to offer. While something like a tranquilizer might be extreme, supplements such as
- ,
- , and
- are great for relaxation.
Is It Easier To Increase Or Decrease Aggression?
I think it is easier to increase aggression than to decrease it. When one begins to get angry, it often snowballs into an unstoppable force. The body naturally begins breathing more quickly and shallow, which activates stress hormones. In addition, pain and stress can increase aggression, and both are present in the gym; stress is prevalent just about everywhere.
And as I mentioned earlier, the mind is very powerful. Merely the memory of a bad or frustrating experience can unleash aggression, and most people tend to remember bad experiences. Unfortunately, memories of calm and relaxing times are not usually as memorable.
It doesn't really take much to snap out of being calm, it happens all the time, so it would seem that increasing aggression is very easy. Think of aggression as a train - very hard to slow down once it starts, but relatively easy to get going if at rest.
Have You Had Problems Controlling Your Aggression?
As a teen, I did have some aggression issues. Although it was convenient to blame them on my older brother, I realized that wasn't a strategy that would work forever, so I talked to my doctor about what to do. He recommended some relaxation strategies, such as deep breathing, as well as trying to put my aggression toward constructive purposes, such as sports.
Because a lot of my frustration actually grew out of playing hockey, he recommended trying to put things in perspective and calm down. This was effective because I realized that there was nothing I could do when I wasn't on the ice, so I shouldn't get mad at my teammates or take every game as if it were a matter of life and death.
Aggression can only get the better of you if you get carried away with it, so harness it and you'll be fine.
2nd Place - History in Effect
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How Can A Bodybuilder Control Their Aggression?
It is important to have aggression in the weight room, so you can hit the weight with intensity that you need to break plateaus and to keep your workout productive. This is great, but the aggression on the other hand can lead to health problems if this aggression is carried to places like the work place or home. Places where aggression do not thrive and in fact are not things we want in those environments.
A controlled mood is necessary for the vital upkeep of one's mental state as well as keeping the others around us safe from ourselves. Controlling your aggression is not just a physical game, but a mental game.
What Are Some Methods To Increase/Decrease Aggression?
I will start off with ways to decrease aggression. Many people go into the weight room pumped and ready to workout with heavy, hardcore music. The sad thing is that they can not turn down the volume in their mind when they reach home, work, or school. Failure to reach this causes many problems.
Decrease Aggression
1. Write Down Your Thoughts After Your Workout
- I suggest after working out you write down your thoughts in your head. I am a poet and I feel like writing soothes my minds from the hardcore life of being a bodybuilder. When I finish my gym workout, sometimes my head hurts and I don't realize the intensity of my workout gets unsafe at times and raises my
- . I instill at the conclusion of my workout a poetic writing session which helps my body and mind calm down to a state that is relaxing.
2. Visualize The World Around You
- The world around you is always subject to change, but what lies in the environment is usually free for the most part of aggression. This world is about tranquility and peace, while hostility is considered very negative in the world we live in.
When you get aggressive think about the friends and family you have, because they want somebody who is peaceful not somebody who raises arguments and gets in temper tantrums. These people love you for who you are and this does not include an angry mood.
Increase Aggression
- Some people are shy, but increasing aggression is not as hard as decreasing aggression in my opinion. Though this is the case, the issue will still be addressed.
1. Work Out
- Working out always gets me pumped if I am down or need some extra aggression. I use my frustrations of the day and stress, transforming my day in to a "beacon of hope" for tomorrow.
Working out feels good on the outside and on the inside feels even better. I would recommend you workout, but make sure you feel the mind-muscle connection that many past Olympias talk about in the bodybuilding field.
2. Play Sports With Your Family
- The art of playing
- with your family is a sign of a loving family. I am not talking about just cooperating with your family on playing some games, but I am talking about healthy competition with your family - the game can range from actual sports games to board games like Monopoly or Scrabble. These games test your physical attributes as well as your mental ability.
Is It Easier To Increase Or Decrease Aggression?
I feel it is harder to decrease your aggression. If you just look at the world today, many arguments are fought on a heated battlefield instead of thoroughly looking at a situation from all sides.
Aggression is only the precursor to horrible things and we should be looking at ways to control it. People who are less aggressive are peaceful for the better half and turning up the aggression is not to the same difficulty or turning down the aggression of somebody else.
Have You Had Problems Controlling Your Aggression?
Yes, I have had problems controlling my aggression and I have made strides to reduce it greatly. I find poetry is means to end stress and thus I use it a great deal to return to a Zen like state. Other times I just meditate for 15 to 20 minutes which gets my body to calm down. The last thing I do is to run outside because it gives me a "natural high" and allows my body to be peaceful.
3rd Place - Br00klynn
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Bodybuilder And Aggression
If your a bodybuilder with aggression. You had better control it or it'll control you. There are many ways a bodybuilder can control his aggression. Some ways are...
- Take deep breaths and visualize a relaxing experience, from either your memory or your imagination.
- Slowly repeat to yourself, "relax, take it easy, calm down, I am better than this, I will not give in to my anger".
- If your weight training at the moment. Stop it and try some slow yoga-like exercises. They can relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer and better.
What Are Some Methods To Increase/Decrease Aggression?
There are many methods that are available to increase/decrease a bodybuilders aggression. If your a bodybuilder and is the type that is soft and needs aggression. You can try to...
- Visualize yourself very close to your goals and the only thing standing in front of them is the weight you have to lift.
- Remember a time in your childhood where you were either bullied or not picked to play a sport with your friends, due to your physical condition at that time.
- Imagine yourself in the moment of survival of the fittest and you need to be in top shape to survive.
- If you have a girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband. Imagine them interested in someone else's physique and you want to impress your loved one. Also you can try to imagine the person your interested in to admire your look after your done with your workout.
Is It Easier To Increase Or Decrease Aggression?
I believe it is easier for someone to increase their aggression because come on we all have that moment in our life's where we either were angry at someone/something or a time where we lost our temper. When were in an aggressive mode. The thought of relaxation and comfort is further away from our minds, then a person who is looking to get aggressive. Because a person can choose whether he/she wants to get aggressive.
Have You Had Problems Controlling Your Aggression?
I'm the type of guy that has a lot of aggression in me. This has nothing to do with my past or what I've been through. Some of my characteristics are being impatient, quick tempered, ambitious, strong, and determined. When you mix them up. You get a guy who can easily have increased aggression. There were many times where I've had problems controlling my aggression.
But when those moments came it was battles I've had to face. There were some I've lost but I've always won the war. When I have aggression issues. I deal with them my self. I try to seize the situation breath deeply and try to resolve the matter without violence.
At times, my aggression got the best of me and some outcomes were violent and verbally assaulting. But I've always asked for forgiveness and apologized for my actions. That is the number one thing you have to do if you let out your anger on someone.
3rd Place - g4owensj
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About a year ago I was away on a business trip for a couple of days, and did some internet searching and found a gym to work out at while I was in town. I won't say the name of the gym, but it was a pretty nice place.
After I arrived, I signed up for a week pass and changed so I could go and start my work out. As I left the locker room and start to stretch a little bit, I notice a rather large guy starting to do a set. As he is doing this apparently one other guy that was watching him made some sort of comment, which I couldn't hear, but the man that was lifting stopped in the middle of his set and started to approach the onlooker with the intent of taking him outside to fight.
The onlooker who apparently made a comment apologized and tried to walk away, but the aggressor would not allow it as he kept following him around. It took three trainers and a few other staff members, to get the men apart and then to remove them from the club. Now all I could think of was, what had I just signed up for and where could I get my money back.
In hind sight all I asked myself from that incident was "what could have been said to deserve such a reaction, and was it really worth it?" I can see the need to get yourself psyched up (aggressive) towards your lifting, but in that situation getting that psyched ended up getting him kicked out so that he couldn't even use that aggression to his benefit.
By not controlling where that aggression was headed it ended up getting wasted as well as making him look like an idiot and making the club look bad.
How Can A Bodybuilder Control Their Aggression?
I think that controlling one's aggression comes in two parts, the ability to turn the aggression up or get psyched up and then to be able to turn the aggression down or relax. While being at the gym one will need to increase and decrease there aggression many times as they proceed through a workout, getting yourself psyched while you get under the weight and then relaxing as you set the weights down.
A thing to remember is that you need to focus your aggression at the target at hand, not to let your aggression deviate from your target, in this case the weights are the target and fellow gym members are not. Something that some people forget in the gym as well as outside of it is that you are not the only one there, and everyone has paid the same thing and has the same rights to claim the gym as there own.
Basically every member is a co-owner of an equal share of the club. As a rule of thumb, on how to control ones aggression is to ask yourself, "Would my grandmother be approving of how I am acting?/Would I act like this in front of my grandmother?"
What Are Some Methods To Increase/Decrease Aggression?
A few ways that one might get themselves more aggressive would be to envision themselves doing a great feat, from envisioning the set there about to complete to competing in a lifting competition or even picturing a pro doing the set. One could have a phrase that they repeat before beginning such as the now famous "lightweight baby, lightweight".
Another method would be to think of something that makes you angry in an attempt to use that as your mode of aggression. Some people use a combination of the previously mentioned options. Personally, I compete in bodybuilding shows and I like to think that my competition is going to be able to do this and their not going to let up at all, so that drives me.
However, the key to turning the aggression up is the ability to turn it down. Hopefully when you are done lifting you have expelled all the energy from your aggression out on the weights so when you're done with the set you are not aggressive anymore. If this is not the case, then maybe you could try to do some more reps or weight so you are fatigued and have taken out all your aggression by the end of the set.
You could try some deep breathing techniques to relax yourself or taking a sip of cold water. Envisioning a calm moment in your life can also help as well. Basically try anything that will take your mind off of what you have just done, by changing your thought you can change your attitude.
Is It Easier To Increase Or Decrease Aggression?
This is a tough question, if you have naturally aggressive tendencies then being non-aggressive can be very difficult, but if you have passive tendencies then becoming aggressive can be very difficult as well. Overall though, I think that becoming less aggressive personality wise is more difficult, but becoming more aggressive for the short term is more difficult.
If you are aggressive for the short term then you can tire yourself out and that will end that, but to try and get aggressive on the short term you will need to learn how to psych yourself up, which can be very hard if you don't know how to light that fire up inside of yourself.
Have You Had Problems Controlling Your Aggression?
Personally I used to have a problem getting myself to be more aggressive, both in my personal everyday life as well as at the gym. I used to have a very hard time saying no to people and would do almost anything for anyone in an attempt to avoid confrontation. Over time that changed as I had to take responsibility for myself and had to start making sure that I was alright before someone else was (with in reason).
This meekness carried into the gym for some time as I never had a lifting partner. One day however, I worked out with a buddy of mine who would breath real heavy and say things to himself. He began to watch me lift and asked why I didn't get all psyched up to lift? After that encounter I worked on finding what got my internal fire lit. For a while I would think of things that upset me and use that, but as of late since I started to compete in BB shows, I have started thinking about how my competition is completing one more rep than I am, so I need to get two more reps in.