Vince Gironda was literally a fountain of bodybuilding knowledge, and he firmly believed the single most important thing which separates those who have success in building their physiques, and those who don’t is positive mental suggestion.
And that goes for anyone: not just those who aspire to Mr. Olympia.
It’s widely known that the mind can have very powerful effects on the body. For instance, if a person is a hypochondriac, even though they have no physical ailments, the symptoms of the illness they have become convinced they have can begin to show. Another example is the placebo effect, where a person is prescribed a medication and believes they saw benefit from it; only for it to transpire that the pill contained no active ingredients whatsoever.
Vince clearly believed success started in the mind, and then transferred to the body, and not the other way around. Quite literally, this means, in order to quickly build your muscles to the very best of your genetic capabilities, you need to begin to visualise how your body will look, over, and over. Particularly whilst performing exercises.
Arnold Schwarzenegger famously stated that whilst working his infamous biceps, he saw them as huge mountains. And, look what they became… as close to mountains as was humanly possible.
Vince believed the biggest mistake a person could make was to dismiss positive mental suggestion as “hogwash”, and said unless a trainee developed this aspect of their training, they would get nowhere.