To get results as a bodybuilder, you have to possess a certain mental outlook. Commitment to the task, a hard work ethic, and smart training methods are the list toppers as well as to incorporate a nutritional diet into your workout program.

However, there is another key element which is required to move from being a common bodybuilder to the ranks of bodybuilding champions and that is proper mentality.

Championship Quality: Great Not Good

Everyone who enters bodybuilding with the goal to compete holds the vision of winning. If this were not true then you would not go through the grueling process that is required of competitive bodybuilders to win your class, show, card, or championship. However, many bodybuilders fall short of ever winning their dreams because of one particular shortfall… they stop at the point of being good when they should press onward to being great.

The slight difference between good and great is a Grand Canyon chasm when it comes to winning bodybuilding competitions and championships. You may go into the gym and perform an intense workout, feel pumped and then call it a day thinking “that was good enough”. A good workout may make you look and feel satisfied, but it won’t win you titles. In order to compete with the crème de la crème, you have to work past good and complete a great workout. In order to reach the next level of real bodybuilding competition, you have to not only want to win, but hate to lose. The consuming passion and drive that comes from the emotional state of hating to lose will propel you past the good enough state into workouts that reach failure day after day. Here are several steps that will help you to arrive at the proper bodybuilding mentality that will cause you to win championships.

Work Hard

Without a mental commitment to work hard, you aren’t going to get very far in the competitive bodybuilding world. It takes hard work on a consistent basis to achieve the form and definition necessary to win the judge’s attention. What you really have to look at is your definition of what hard work constitutes because one person’s definition may differ from another person’s definition. If your definition of hard work is to reach a point that is only good enough then you are not going to achieve championship results. Therefore, the question isn’t really about working hard enough, but working hard enough to attain your bodybuilding competition goals. Once you reach that point which seems to be good enough, you have to push past it and give even more. Usually in competitions, a very slight performance difference separates first place from second place that can be overcome by exerting that extra effort in your everyday weight training program.

Working hard isn’t only confined to physical workouts, but it also entails applying that same mental commitment to your nutritional diet. You might think those occasional splurges on extra calories won’t hurt your good performance. However, you could easily lose the championship to the guy who went the extra mile and stuck with his strict diet of lean chicken and carrot sticks instead of giving in to the temptation of a pizza pie.

Work Smart

A mentality of hard work by itself won’t win you bodybuilding championships. If workout programs aren’t performed correctly then they can easily end up as failures, preventing you from reaching your competition goals. Therefore, working smart is more important than simply working hard. To work smart means to inquire about and do research on the right training, cardio, and dietary methods that best fit your body type and skill level. Don’t simply take blind advice from an Internet forum group or the big guy at the gym. Although good advice can be found in both settings, there is also a greater chance of tapping into a bodybuilding program or nutritional plan that just doesn’t work for you. After spending a couple of months discovering this, you have lost valuable training time and dulled any edge you might have had in upcoming competitions.

Work With What You Have

If you find you that are not getting the same results as the local bulging bodybuilder or your competition nemesis, don’t let that discourage you. People are genetically diverse and what works best for one bodybuilder may not be the same technique or style which works for you. You can’t control the genes you were born with. Also out of your control is the previous time the other guy has spent in weight training. Some of your competitors may have several years head start on you in their bodybuilding programs. However, you can control your bodybuilding results through working harder and smarter. So, get to work by putting your nose to the grindstone, learning all you can about techniques and diets that will increase your results, and build a champion bodybuilding mentality that wins competitions.