Mental Toughness

"Can you talk a little about the mindset, attitude, or mental conditioning it takes to do these workouts? What is that part of it like? Seems like it takes a lot of will/discipline to push hard like that? Do you have thoughts about how people can exercise their mental muscles in this way?" -Amy

     Although I am clearly not an expert, I think that your mindset about working out, as well as mental toughness, are just as important as any other aspect in fitness.  When I think about it, two things come to mind - Your mindset during a workout and your general mindset about working out.  They seem similar and do have similarities, but they are different things.

     During a workout, your mindset is so important.  I think we can all personally relate to this with examples, whether it be ourselves or someone else that comes in mind.  For instance, I can think of multiple times when I was at the gym for 2 hours or more.  The difference of those times is what I actually accomplished and I think this is where your mindset during working out comes into play.  The more you are into your workout and can take that feeling of "pain", that good pain we talked about in class, and see it in a positive light, the better the workout will be.  I think that one of the hardest things to do is to push past that initial feeling of fatique or laziness during a workout.  You may be on the 3rd lap of your run, first set of pushups, whatever it may be, when you get that first feeling where you just want to stop and call it quits is the point where you will decide to keep going and make that time worthwhile, or just give up.

     I have given up plenty of times because lets face it, it is the easy thing to do.  However, I know that when I get past that first feeling of laziness and fatigue I feel like I could go on forever.  I think the best feeling in the world is that feeling after a really long, hard run.  Yea, it may suck during the run, but afterwards it feels amazing. I guess what I am trying to get at is that if you can see your workout in the positive light, what you are getting out of it and how amazing it feels, you will have a successful workout.  However, if you begin the workout with a pessimist approach and never get past that, I just dont think you can get much out of it.  You will be much less likely to push yourself to that next level.

     Here is another example of mental toughness during a workout that most athletes can relate to.  I think Chris can especially relate to it because we played soccer together.  For soccer, our fitness test is a thing called "300s".  These are basically "feared" by the guys on the soccer team.  This test consists of 25 yard shuttle runs.  You have to go 25 yards and back (50 yards), 6 times (300 yards total).  You have to do this in under 60 seconds, then you get to rest, then you do it again, 6 times.  Generally when I tell people about this it doesnt seem difficult, but it is.  Anyways, the point of bringing this up is that this test in my opinion is 60% mental toughness.  When I came my freshman year I always struggled, always passed but always struggled.  Now, as a senior I always dislike doing them, but I do not worry nearly as much about not passing.  This is because I know I can do it, but also because the players that have been there and have done it many times have developed a mental toughness. We dont just give up and slow down when we get tired.  This is the kind of mental toughness that anyone in any sport or any type of performing arts develops with time.  You learn to push yourself to go further and faster.

     The other thing that I think is really important when it comes to mental toughness is your general mindset about working out.  I know personally that if I can make my workout a routine in some way, whether it be really specific (Mon/Wed/Fri at 2pm) or just saying I will workout 3 times this week I will be much more likely to actually workout.  As soon as I skip a workout one time, I am always more likely the next time to be like "well I skipped last time I can skip this time too."

     

     That is basically how I feel about mental toughness when it comes to working out.  Some people are willing to workout every day, some people are not.  Some people are willing to run one extra lap when they feel like they literally cannot move another inch, some people quit.  I think everyone has it in them to be the person that is mentally tough, but it is really difficult.  

I hope I expressed that in a coherent way. I tried. Please let me know how you all feel and if you agree/disagree.

-Kevin

Spring Break 09

     I basically just wanted to make this post to see if everyone else felt like there health went down the tubes over spring break.  I actually did not go anywhere for break, but I had a friend in town all week and we were pretty lazy.  We did go for 3 runs during the 6 days so far, but the longest run was only a little over two miles.  Also, considering how much we ate and drank and sat around, we should have been on the treadmill for like 4 hours every day.

    Before break, I had been working out a lot and felt really good about my fitness.  One thing that really is difficult about your fitness and conditioning, which I believe we touched upon in class, is that if you stop for just a few days you can really feel the impacts.  In order to get in really good shape and lose a few pounds, it takes weeks of good work outs and healthy eating.  Unforunately, as soon as you stop for a few days you can lose everything you gained.

Well, I hope everyone had a good break and was a little healthier than I was.  But then again, it is spring break and it is OK to be lazy every now and then. Laterz.

-Kevin