Mastering VRT, or Visualized Resistance

Pierini first posted this in Transformetrics from his martial arts training, and this was also posted recently by John Peterson, whom I quote here:

"It’s about the “stages of development,” in self-mastery, and here’s how I identify them:
1) Unconsciously-incapable
2) Consciously-incapable
3) Consciously-capable
4) Unconsciously-capable

Let me illustrate what I mean by these four distinctions.
Let’s take a little boy whom we’ll call him Jimmy. When he’s only nine months of age, Jimmy’s mother takes him outside on a beautiful summer day, where he sees his eight-year-old brother Jerry get on his bicycle and head for the playground. At this point Jimmy doesn’t know what a bicycle is, let alone know how to ride one, so he is at stage 1) Unconsciously-incapable.

A few of years later, through watching his brother and other kids in the neighborhood, Jimmy has discovered what a bicycle is. But since he still does not know how to ride one he is now at stage 2) Consciously-incapable.
Two more years go by, and for his sixth birthday Jimmy receives a bicycle with training wheels. In time he starts to get the hang of it and before long the training wheels come off. At first he’s really shaky, but if he focuses on what he is doing he can ride the bike. He is now at stage 3) Consciously-capable.

After a few months of this, slowly improving at bike-riding, Jimmy decides that he is going to go visit his friend Andy, who lives two blocks away. So without even thinking about it, Jimmy hops on his bike and pedals over to Andy’s house. Now Jimmy is at stage 4) Unconsciously-capable. He doesn’t really have to consciously think about how to ride a bike. He just does it!

In getting up to speed with DVR/VRT, we all go through these same stages. Take Benny, one of our Forum members. When he first sees Slim “The Hammerman” Farman perform a leverage lift with a heavy sledge hammer, Benny is at stage 2, Consciously-incapable. He is conscious of what he sees Slim doing, but he is incapable at that point of duplicating Slim’s feat of strength.

Then after careful application, deep focus, and a great deal of sweat, Benny finally succeeds at performing what he saw Slim doing. He’s now at stage 3, Consciously-capable.
A few months later, a friend stops by and asks, “Benny, can you really do a leverage lift with a 12-pound sledge hammer?” And without even thinking about it, Benny grabs the hammer and lifts it without batting an eye. Yes Benny is at stage 4, Unconsciously-capable. He can do it anytime, without even having to think about “how” it’s done.

So what does this have to do with DVR/VRT, Isometric Contraction, and Transformetrics? Simply this: There is a natural learning curve for all of us, and it just takes a little time to get to stage 4—but we all get there!
Don’t beat yourself up for not being able to do it all perfectly right off the bat. In time, with focus and application, you will know exactly how an intense contraction feels. Then it won’t be long and you will know exactly what 35 percent, 50 percent, 80 percent, or any other level of contraction feels like. What’s more, you won’t even have to think about it because you will intuitively know where you are in the process."

Greg Mangan
"VRT Man"