Mental Toughness

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.

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. : )

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....

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...

bump bc i have this issue

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

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...

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

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.

Run Smolov Squat routine.

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...?

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.

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.