Mental Toughness

kelly_e_montana

I would love some feedback from serious athletes who have developed effective strategies for increasing mental toughness during a workout. Specifically, I am thinking along the lines of strategies to push through a long or particularly challenging workout where continuing with significant discomfort is necessary. I've come to participate in serious fitness challenges later in life than most, having never played sports while growing up. I never had that football coach helping me visualize success. I need to be my own cheerleader.

So, for any of you endurance athletes, serious Crossfitters, etc.: What are some of your techniques? Visualization? Mantras? Pain processing methods?

Now that I'm starting to get serious about CrossFit and endurance swimming, I'm finding that my greatest challenges aren't physical but rather mental/emotional.

Thanks in advance.:flowerforyou:

SuperCrsa

Bump to hear some of the responses

mlima14

I usually tell myself that it's just a little more. For example if I'm running on the treadmill (my training consists of CrossFit exercises with cardio and weights) and I see that I'm tired before reaching that half mile, I try to picture in my mind a finish line to cross and think to myself that it's only a little longer and before I know it I've done the half mile. For movements such as burpees or squats or dead-lifts I do reps of 15 then I'll do reps of 5 at a time until I finish (sometimes my routine will consists of 50 reps 1 set then 40 reps the next, then 30 and so on) I try not to think of the whole of what I need to accomplish but mini goals which are a lot easier to get to. I hope that helps. Good luck with your training.

Samstan101

I'm finding running is as much mental as physical at times. I ditsract my self from what's hurting, my breathing or pulse etc by doing mental arthimatic such as working out my gas bill or how many seconds in a given period.

glowgirl14

I listen to music or audiobooks and try to concentrate on what's in my ears rather than what my body feels. And when that fails, I try and distract myself in other ways. And as the above poster said, the phrase "just ___ more". Just 5 more times down this hill and I'm done. I'm already down, I need to just make it up 5 more times, and I'm done. Just 4 more times down this hill and I'm done." Or "I'm already halfway done. Just one more lap, and I'll be over halfway through" "Remember how it feels when the run is over!"

Basically, as SamStan says - it can be very much a mental pursuit. And for me, a huge part of that is telling myself before I start that I'm not going to stop. Know it in my head...the rest is just talking myself through it. : )

IWILLBelieveAchieveInspire

Good music is a must for me wether I'm doing weights or cardio to get through it. The more 'hard' the music( "Android Porn" by Kraddy) the better for lifting weights. For cardio.. songs that help me are, "overcomer' by Mandisa, "invincible" by Hedley, "till I collapse" by Eminem, . When i did the couch to 5k program I found that it challenged me mentally more than another form of cardio had. I was constantly talking to myself in my head and saying to myself, "just a few more minutes, and you can do this!" I went as far as making a small cue card that I put motivating quotes on. I placed it on the treadmill and looked at it often. That helped me tremendously.

kelly_e_montana

Thanks for the responses so far. So far my issue is not pushing through the workout, but doing it at closer to my maximum potential for effort. I feel my times could be better but something (discomfort) is holding me back from going hard. I like your ideas; keep them coming!

JoRocka

stop sucking.

work harder.

You just do the thing because you must- there aren't really ways to make that happen other than internal drive.
You either want it or you don't. I want it bad and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. no matter how miserable.

that's really all there is to it. Embrace the suck- learn to love being in that state. There isn't much else to it. Self abuse is helpful- but a lot of people don't get it. I mean tell me I'm good and it means nothing- tell me I suck and I work hard- most people don't respond to that. It's just not for everyone- but then again- 'everyone' is often okay with being mediocre. So choice is yours.

sumeetg37

Soooo... I too am becoming active a bit later in life (started starting strength at 38). There is a concept called anchoring. Basically before you do whatever it is you are going to do you anchor yourself mentally, get yourself ready to do it whatever it takes. Alot of guys give a short yell. Me personally I try to do the same thing before each set regardless of the weight. Sometimes it works on the heavy sets sometimes.... well it's a work in progress....

amandarunning

I always think along the lines of "if this was easy, everyone would be doing it...but it's not, it's tough, it hurts AND the fact I'm the one doing it makes me special" :-)

Then there's always "pain is weakness leaving my body" "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" "only those who risk going too far can possibly discover how far they can go" "the only thing worse than carrying on, is quitting"...

I love going where it hurts though - problem is I keep hurting myself!!

cpusmc

Thanks for the responses so far. So far my issue is not pushing through the workout, but doing it at closer to my maximum potential for effort. I feel my times could be better but something (discomfort) is holding me back from going hard. I like your ideas; keep them coming!

Be careful that the (discomfort) you are feeling is not your body trying to protect you from injury especially as we age. You should be able to identify the difference. If the discomfort is in fact a mental block then something that has helped me for years is to envision the time, the weight, the "it" we are seeking to achieve and see myself doing it, over and over. Once my brain starts to see that picture of success as reality it tends to become a non-factor and the body naturally follows. Once you hit the "it", set a new "it" and start the process all over again.

Good Luck...

kelly_e_montana

Thanks! I appreciate all of your advice. I have lifted for a long time but getting into more intense cardio has put me in fear of constant vomiting or passing out. I have vomited after a race before but I have never made the pukey board in CrossFit during a normal WOD. I think I just need to do one or the other and get over it so I know where my red line is. I know that sounds terrible to some, but how do you really know what your limit is if you never find it?

I do tend to do better with positive reinforcement. My coach told me I am his protege the other day and that made me really want to show him that his belief in me was not in vain. Everyone is different though. I like the idea of telling yourself to act like the best because you are.

dbmata

Embrace the suck.

During the training for my triathlon my efforts got me into some mentally dark places. There's a point where you're fully depleted, you're hurting, and you think you can't make it anymore, you might cry a little, and all you want to do is quit. You just embrace the suck. Realize that you can't move forward without pain, and that if you embrace it, make it a friend, you'll know when it's coming and use that as a training or competitive tool in the future.

It also helps for when true physical pain happens during a race. For me, I took a good kidney punch during the swim in my last tri. It hurt, a lot. I had gotten used to pain, so I kept going.

So I guess essentially:
1. Realize that it's going to hurt at some point, and that hurt may be emotional.
2. Be ready for it, and know that it isn't going to kill you or hurt you permanently.
3. Embrace it and realize it's a part of what's going to happen whenever you push yourself so far beyond your comfort zone.
4. Remind yourself that it's only fleeting, you'll get through it, and it's going to make your harder, stronger, more capable.

Then go drink it off.

mlb929

I hear Shaun T in his Asylum series saying "this is when the real work begins". In my minds eye, I tell myself that I need to push to reach the point not achieved before to make forward progress. The constant pushing forward movement I want comes from just simply digging deeper within myself. I do it for ME and only me. I don't do it to look better, feel better, for my husband or kids, I do it for ME. I want to consistently challenge myself to prove I'm better at something than I ever thought I would be. I love that oh so good feeling of being a little sore and able to feel my hard work paying off.

freddi11e

bump bc i have this issue

jimmmer

stop sucking.

work harder.

This is what I believe.

Just got to pony up and perform. No one's going to do it for you.

meshashesha2012

former athlete and getting back into it.

my advice is to not THINK too much about it. focus on the movement as a whole rather than what individual muscles are doing. visualize it happening before you do it . focus on breathing through it.

i've heard it compared to a type of self-hypnosis. i've played through sprained ankles, broken toes, pulled groin, etc and not realized it until after the game was over. keeping that in mind it's probably not somewhere you want to go with every workout because there is a price to be paid once you get out of the zone and realize what may have happened to your body while you were lost in the eye of the tiger :laugh:

this happened to me yesterday when i was powering through box jumps after doing heavy squats. i failed the last set, scraped my shins and then kept going on a smaller box. i hadnt noticed i was bleeding from both shins until people started freaking out

cwolfman13

Embrace the suck.

During the training for my triathlon my efforts got me into some mentally dark places. There's a point where you're fully depleted, you're hurting, and you think you can't make it anymore, you might cry a little, and all you want to do is quit. You just embrace the suck. Realize that you can't move forward without pain, and that if you embrace it, make it a friend, you'll know when it's coming and use that as a training or competitive tool in the future.

It also helps for when true physical pain happens during a race. For me, I took a good kidney punch during the swim in my last tri. It hurt, a lot. I had gotten used to pain, so I kept going.

So I guess essentially:
1. Realize that it's going to hurt at some point, and that hurt may be emotional.
2. Be ready for it, and know that it isn't going to kill you or hurt you permanently.
3. Embrace it and realize it's a part of what's going to happen whenever you push yourself so far beyond your comfort zone.
4. Remind yourself that it's only fleeting, you'll get through it, and it's going to make your harder, stronger, more capable.

Then go drink it off.

I like this, embrace the suck...

I would also add, positive thinking and self confidence. The building of self confidence is a mental practice. Listen to what you are telling yourself...if you're telling yourself that you'll never be able to do x, y, or z, it is likely that you won't. If what you are hearing yourself say to yourself is negative, you need to correct that. Basically, fake it until you make it.

Also, use visualization. Visualize past achievements...I make it kind of like an ESPN highlight reel in my head...and then I visualize myself going beyond that. I focus on times that I felt good and confident and I visualize what it's going to be like to cross that finish line again.

Don't worry about set-backs...understand that they will happen...use them to your advantage and don't let them bog you down. **** happens and that **** isn't really what matters...it's what you do with that **** afterwards that matters. Don't let yourself spiral out of control due to a set back. Same could be said for dieting as well as fitness aspirations.

I've also found meditation to be of significant benefit in RE to building mental stamina.

Kirk_R

Set (realistic) goals and be relentless in your pursuit of them. It's easier to be mentally tough if you know why you're doing it (make sure you're doing things that support your goals). Be serious about your goals.

I also agree with the "stop sucking" thing.

I'm curious if you have the same issue with both crossfit (which I thought was a group setting thing and removed a lot of the need for mental toughness, at least from my perspective... ) and the swimming? It seems like the swimming would be more difficult, mental toughness-wise, since you're on your own although swimming seems like it would be easier to be goal oriented in as I'd expect you're going for specific times over specific distances...

SonicDeathMonkey80

Mental toughness during training and competition are two different things for me. Train (smartly) in the adverse conditions and when it is performance time, you can cycle through what you trained in and it will all seem easier.

Case in point, I had a 5mi race this weekend, with 75% of the roads covered in loosely packed snow that was difficult to get traction/footing in. If I trained light, such as a treadmill or indoor track (not knocking either), or took days off for inclement weather, I would have been ill prepared for the conditions. Instead, I made a choice to train in utter crap conditions: snow, wind, below-0 temps, ice, etc. Mentally, this was another training run, only faster. Toughness was knowing I'd run in worse conditions 20x already this season, and passing people when we hit snow covered roads was motivation to burn harder.

Also, telling yourself "I'm not going to die" along with "life will go on for the next 30/60/120min regardless of how what I'm doing" helps a lot

ninerbuff

I don't do it often, but if the difference was "you'll never see your kid again if you don't complete this", I have a tendency to be able to push past the pain and get it done. Then I go hug my kid.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

astronomicals

proper pre workout meal, quick digesting carbs and fat for intra workout (that dont upset your stomach), a good playlist, proper pacing.

Pace is pretty damn important. I like to have some in the tank so I can burn out near the finish. I finish with a sprint, not a grueling walk. Im a strong advocate of eating during long endurance events.

My experience: Cycling centuries... I dont do endurance lifting.

jjking54

Take pride in going into the pain cave .... Not everyone willingly embraces the idea of suffering to better oneself, but you do.

And that makes you mentally tougher than those who don't.

For me, as a cyclist, particularly when facing hills, I take comfort in the fact that 1) the road can't go up forever, and 2) there's always a fun decent after the climb.

Sarah4fitness

First, make sure in your WOD's that your first focus is on your form. Don't let your form slide in order to "push harder", go heavier, or go faster. The extra numbers on the board aren't worth an injury from letting form slip.

In my (mini, only 10 minute sessions for AMRAP) WODs, my mantra is "I can do ANYTHING for ten minutes." (Thank you, Jillian Michaels, for that stupid phrase I can't get out of my head from WAY BACK when I did her little videos.) I haven't worked out to the point where I puke except for when I gave myself heat exhaustion. Puking isn't a good thing. I don't like doing it. You can push yourself without getting to THAT point.

LolBroScience

Run Smolov Squat routine.

JoRocka

Run Smolov Squat routine.

lol that'll do it

Kirk_R

Run Smolov Squat routine.

20 rep squats might be more approachable for someone wanting to develop mental toughness. You do have a good idea though, after years of not lifting heavy (have been doing more running, which doesn't work well for me in combination with squatting) I have been in the doldrums, squat-wise. I should do smolov again. Now where did I put that spreadsheet...?

CeleryStalker

Take pride in going into the pain cave .... Not everyone willingly embraces the idea of suffering to better oneself, but you do.

And that makes you mentally tougher than those who don't.

For me, as a cyclist, particularly when facing hills, I take comfort in the fact that 1) the road can't go up forever, and 2) there's always a fun decent after the climb.

I could tell you were a cyclist before I even read your entire post. LOL "Taking pride in the pain cave" reminds me of what my husband and I refer to going out on a group ride and demolishing everyone in the pack (in a friendly, competitive fashion, not like a couple of jerks, lol) We refer to our rides as 'suffer fests'. It's funny because cycling is the only sport in which I willingly embrace the suckage. I love going out there and crushing souls. Nothing is more empowering than being a chubby girl on a bike and just annihilating an entire team of like 70 people, the majority of which are ultra fit and have many more years on the bike than I do

OP, another tactic I use when NOT on the bike is something I call 'transfer of pain'. Say I'm in the gym on a treadmill. I loathe the treadmill. I have no idea why I feel the need to even get on one, given all the other choices. I think it's part of that 'embrace the suck' going on. If it sucks, it must be good for me, therefore, I do it even though I despise it. But what helps get me through it is rather than focusing on my own pain and my own workout, I focus on the thud thud thud of the guy next to me, going faster than me, for much longer than me. I think about what pain HE must be enduring, how bad it sucks for HIM, and before I know it, my time on the treadmill is up. Works like a charm every time. LOL

LolBroScience

Run Smolov Squat routine.

20 rep squats might be more approachable for someone wanting to develop mental toughness. You do have a good idea though, after years of not lifting heavy (have been doing more running, which doesn't work well for me in combination with squatting) I have been in the doldrums, squat-wise. I should do smolov again. Now where did I put that spreadsheet...?

I think either could technically lead to mental toughness increase, just a different type. Difficult to explain, but sets with 6's versus sets with 3's it's like summoning a different inner fire, haha. It really just boils down to a just do it and a don't quit mindset.

LolBroScience

*double post*

ItsCasey

When I was growing up, my parents never let me quit anything. They pretty much let me do whatever extracurricular things I thought I wanted to do, but the deal was, I could not quit until it was finished, and if I didn't want to do it again the next year, then I didn't have to. What they always said to me was "Once you quit something, you become a quitter for life because it gets easier and easier to do."

And in my opinion, doing some lesser version of what you set out to do is the same thing as quitting, so not giving it your best effort? Don't even bother with it then. For instance, I write down my HIIT work on my whiteboard before each lifting session. That's a contract I make with myself. If I wrote that I'm going to do a 10-round front squat ladder, then short of injury or death, it's getting done. I'm not going to move the goalposts. Having said that, failure and quitting are different things. If you give it all you've got and you just can't do it, then you can still rest easy knowing you did everything you could.

My big strategy is compartmentalizing. I know I'm not going to quit, and I am almost certainly not going to die, so what I'm left with is a task that needs to be completed in steps. My training session is 3 sets of deadlifts, followed by 4 assistance lifts? Then I start with the first set of deadlifts. That's all I need to worry about. That one set. I give it all I have. When I'm done with that, I have another set of deadlifts, and that set is the only thing I focus on. And I just keep doing that until, eventually, the training session is complete, and I gave everything my best effort. I think that can be applied to every kind of task. Break it down. Focus on the steps that will get you to the goal.