Coaches spend their careers trying to tap into their athletes’ mental toughness. Coaches know that they have to train the mind just as they train your body. Being psychologically strong and mentally tough can be a more important characteristic than being physically strong. Personal trainers realize this, too and practice a lot of the same techniques that coaches use. Your mind can push your body to perform beyond the physical actions you ‘think’ you can do. Have you ever had a personal trainer say, “Last set.” Then you pump out fifteen reps, not sure that you’re going to complete the last three only to hear your trainer say, “Give me five more!”? Of course you have! And I’ll bet that you finished those extra five reps, even when you thought you couldn’t, right? This is mental toughness.
Mental toughness is difficult to explain, but we all know what it is. It’s a powerful combination of will, determination, focus, confidence, conviction, and passion. It’s the unwavering self belief that, “I can do it.”
Many people believe that this quality cannot be taught, that you’re either born with mental toughness or you’re not. I, on the other hand, believe that you can be taught mental toughness. All you have to do is watch one episode of The Biggest Loser and see trainer Jillian Michaels hammer “You Can Do It!” into the minds of those contestants who have lost the ability to push themselves.
So what can you do if you don’t have a personal trainer or a coach to pull this toughness out of you?
Here are some tips for ways you can improve your own mental toughness so that you can achieve your physical or athletic goals. (Although some of these can be applied to help you reach just about any goal.)
Challenge yourself with your workout
When you ‘think’ you can’t do any more or go any further, do it anyways.
- Add another set.
- Increase the reps in your last set by five, even when your last few reps were difficult.
- Run just one more mile.
- Run as far as you ‘think’ you can in one direction without thinking of the way back.
- Just when the timer on your ‘thirty minutes’ on the elliptical ends, increase your time by ten more minutes.
- Quit counting reps all together. Try doing as many reps of an exercise as possible in a given amount of time. For example; do as many bicep curls as your can in two minutes or as many crunches as possible for the length of a song.
Find What Motivates You
Motivation is at the core of mental toughness. To stay motivated, you must first find out what personally motivates you. Are you motivated by winning or being the best? Enter a competition or a race. Or get a training partner and have mini competitions for who can push out the most reps or lift the most weights. Are you motivated by the fear of failure? Tell your friends and family about your goal and ask them to hold you accountable. Find your motivation and let it drive you.
Give Yourself Pep Talks
Coaches give pep talks it before games. Trainers pep you up to complete your reps. Be your own pep rally. Remind yourself why your training so hard, tell yourself to pull it together, push through, get your fat but off the coach…whatever brings out your second wind. Repeat this in mantras to yourself. It may feel awkward at first, but talking to yourself will pay off.
Acceptance
Accepting that there will be people who won’t believe in you, that there may be set backs, there may be activities you won’t be able to perform, parties you may miss, and deserts you won’t taste. Accepting these things and move on. Don’t dwell on things that will harvest negative energy.
Focus
Focus on your goals and focus on the steps you need to take to achieve those goals. Visualize achieving your goals and don’t let anything stand in your way or distract you.
Prepare
Unexpected and uncontrollable events will occur. Anticipate problems and know the solutions ahead of time. How you handle unexpected events could break your focus. And you need to remain focused at all times. Fitness and bodybuilders could prepare by making a back up of their routine music, preparing meals ahead of time, and bringing an extra posing suit. Triathletes could prepare for blisters, a hold in the bike tire, or extreme temperatures. Team sport athletes should be prepared to play without their star player. The point is; when you know you’ve prepared for all the possibilities, your mind will be more at ease so your body can perform at it’s best.
Stay Positive & Keep Positive People Around You
A positive attitude and positive thoughts will energize you and carry you through those tough training sessions, early wake up calls, and meal plans. You can’t expect to perform your best if you’re filling your head with negative thoughts and surrounding yourself with negative people.
