Mental Toughness
Today one of my orientation task was to read an IR blog about Mental Toughness, which made me think about my hill sprints at “Big Red” yesterday.
Ouchie….That is all I can say.
Honestly, I wanted to give up halfway up my first hill sprint. My lungs were burning, my legs had gone straight past the burn into shaking and I wanted to just start walking.
My mind was convinced my body was saying, “I can’t do anymore. I need to walk.”
But my mind didn’t give in. My mind kept my body moving all the way to the top of the hill.
And then my mind made my body do that two more times even though my legs would have been happy had I sat down and not moved the rest of the day after the first sprint.
I didn’t let my mind give up so my body kept moving.
Mental toughness is what pushes your body past that initial pain and fatigue. Mental toughness is what makes you push through to the finish even when your muscles are screaming. Mental toughness is what makes you successful.
Clients will tell me all the time, “I can’t do anymore.”
But their arms won’t have collapsed. Heck most of the time, their arms won’t even be shaking one little bit.
Based on the physical signs, I KNOW they can do more.
But they feel the burn so their mind is telling them their body can’t do anymore when it actually CAN.
They aren’t mentally tough.
But mental toughness is something that needs to be trained as much as the physical does. You won’t reach your fitness or health goals if you don’t train your mind as well as your body.
And to become mentally tough, you don’t have to push your body to absolute failure. I’m not asking you to go and workout till you barf. Or take on a “Big Red” sprint when you still feel uncomfortable with sprints on a flat.
All I’m asking you to do is push a little further than you did last time.
If you thought you could only hold a wall sit for 30 seconds, next time don’t let yourself move until you’ve done 35 seconds even if your muscles are burning.
Once you’ve done 35 seconds, next time shoot to hold it longer. Even just one or two seconds longer.
Each time push a little further. Test your mental toughness just a little bit more.
Each time you push a little further, you expand your limits and help your mind to realize that you CAN do more.
Keep pushing and testing your limits. Your mind will become tougher and you will find that your goals are more easily within your reach!
Unfortunately, I am human (or so I think)
I haven’t posted a recipe in a while. Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing as much cooking as I had planned to since Ryan and I are staying with his very wonderful, generous and hospitable family until our lease starts.
So since I’m not always in control of cooking the dinners, there are always temptations around.
And unfortunately, I am human.
I don’t find it necessarily a sacrifice to forgo the flour tortillas or the bun on the burger, but boy do I have a hard time passing up guacamole and chips, homemade baked goods or frozen yogurt.
There are just certain trigger foods that you just can’t seem to ever resist.
And I’ve been indulging, in my opinion, way too often.
So yesterday Ryan and I made a pact to eat completely Primally this next week with no small indulgences.
Maybe this works for me because I’m competitive, but committing to eat well with someone else always seems to motivate me. I don’t want to cheat because I don’t want to let the other person down and because I don’t want to “lose” the bet.
By committing to eat well with Ryan, I’ve not only gained a support system to help me achieve my goals but I’ve also made myself RESPONSIBLE for being someone else’s support system. By eating well together, we have found a way to hold not only ourselves, but also each other, ACCOUNTABLE.
There are many ways you can hold yourself accountable.
Telling other people about your goals is one way.
BUT I’ve found that telling other people works even better if you can get them INVOLVED in helping you accomplish your goals.
When people are involved in helping you accomplish your goals, they are much more likely to stay on top of you to achieve them. Also, if you can get them to try to accomplish the same goals, you then have even more RESPONSIBILITY toward them.
For instance, with Ryan and I both working to eat perfectly Primal this week, I won’t want to eat badly because then he will know I failed AND because I don’t want to eat badly and tempt him to then cheat as well.
The accountability along with the added responsibility of helping him achieve his own goals keeps me on track to achieve mine.
So next time you attempt to achieve something that maybe you’ve failed at accomplishing before, get a friend or family member to work toward the same goal with you! Holding yourself accountable and making yourself responsible are key to achieving your goals!
A slight change in programming
I’m constantly looking to learn, grow and improve upon what I’m currently doing. And I encourage everyone else to do the same.
So for the moment my heavy barbell lifting will be put on hold as I learn how to master all of the other equipment at the new gym I work at.
Does this mean that I will no longer be lifting heavy weights?
HECK NO!
The only thing that will change is what types of heavy weights I will be lifting.
But my training is always constantly changing.
Honestly, if you are still doing the same training that you were doing 6 months ago, you should be embarrassed.
Things change. Workout programs get stagnant and stale.
AND if you want to be truly fit….if you want to be that Renaissance fitness person, you constantly have to be learning, trying and perfecting new skills!
So over the next few months, you not be hearing much about the traditional deadlift (although I do love you barbell deadlift and will miss you greatly!).
Instead you will be hearing more about Olympic lifting, kettlebells, tire flipping, plyometrics, sled pushes, battling ropes, kickboxing (not the classes without gloves), and Brazilian Jui Jitsu. You will still continue to hear about all of the wonderful bodyweight exercises I love, 1 leg squats, push ups and pull ups, in all sorts of variations.
Are you excited?!?!
I AM!
So get ready for the next phase in Man Bicep Training! Time to learn and grow and become stronger, fitter and happier!
Side note: There is no revision currently to my dieting beliefs. Simply put they are still “Eat whole natural foods and avoid processed crap and refined or empty carbs.” However, I will be discussing different foods and how I feel about them over the next couple of weeks since there have been some common questions arising.
Have I mentioned before that I hate cardio?!?
So my new AWESOME job that I’m so STOKED about (they all say “stoked” here…it sounds as weird to me as “wicked” originally did…) has tasks that we complete that help us develop as leaders, individuals and trainers.
I looked down the list and I was excited until I saw “Running” as one of the tasks.
BLEH!
Have I mentioned before that I really really dislike running anything more than a sprint!?!
Well I DO!
And I thought that the running would be the worst of it (and by worst I don’t mean necessarily the hardest…I just mean the thing I dislike the most.)
BUT it isn’t.
I had my first real intense encounter with the VersaClimber yesterday.
Uhm…I definitely didn’t look one iota like this when I was on it…Gasping for breath and sweaty is more like it…
It is now my new “favorite” cardio machine. It used to be the erg (oh how I love/hate the erg), but now it is most definitely the VersaClimber.
Completing all of the VersaClimber tasks is going to be absolutely miserable in that way that I love.
So I guess maybe the running actually still is the worst thing since it isn’t just sprints…
What piece of cardio equipment do you love to hate? Have you had an “encounter” with the VersaClimber!?!
P.S. Don’t expect this blog to change from lifting to cardio just because I went to a new gym! Killer weight workouts are still to come! 🙂
I faked it…
“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”
– William James quoted in “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
I barely lost a match during any of my college seasons.
Was it because I was the most skilled player?
NOPE!
Was it because I was the best player?
NOPE!
Was it because I was the fittest player?
NOPE!
It was because I had convinced myself I could beat anyone.
I wasn’t born with that sort of confidence.
I just faked it…until it became real.
Of course most of my teammates thought I was crazy and that really I just was that confident, but they were wrong.
I really had faked it until I started to believe it.
If you repeat something as truth enough times, you will start to BELIEVE it!
When I ran across the quote at the top of this post in my reading yesterday, I got super excited. I wanted to jump up and say, “SEE!!! I TOLD YOU!” (There was no one there though so I had to wait until now to say it…)
By regulating our actions, we can indirectly regulate our feelings.
By telling myself every day that I could win. By training like I was a top player. By walking and talking like I was great – I had made myself feel like a winner. I had convinced myself that I was.
So even though I came into college as the lowest ranked recruit in my year by ACTING like a WINNER even though I definitely didn’t FEEL like one at the start, I had BECOME a WINNER.
This is why you shouldn’t ever…I mean EVER…say the word “CAN’T.”
If you say you can’t do something, you will start acting like you can’t do it and you will feel like you can’t do it.
BUT if you tell yourself “I can,” and keep repeating it while ACTING like you can, you will eventually be able to do it because you will feel like you can do it!
Changes don’t occur overnight, but your feelings will start to change.
It is all one big cycle.
You act a certain way because you feel a certain way, but if you change your actions, you will change how you feel.
So today choose who you want to be and what you want to accomplish.
Set a goal and tell yourself that you WILL accomplish it and start preparing and acting like you will. Soon you will have no doubt that you CAN accomplish it!
Perfection
We all “know” that no one is perfect – that we will never be perfect.
Yet we all try to achieve perfection in our diet and exercise programs.
If we “know” that perfection is unattainable, WHY ARE WE PRESSURING OURSELVES TO ATTAIN IT!?!
DON’T DO IT!!
Slip ups, mistakes are going to happen, but they don’t mean that we’ve failed or that we should just give up trying because we weren’t able to be “perfect.”
I’ve tried to attain perfection according to other diet and exercise programs and I’ve always fallen short. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but I just couldn’t follow their rules every day, all day. There were just times when I was too worn out/stressed/busy/on vacation to be able to stick to all of the rules.
So what happened when I slipped up?
I gave up.
But I realized I would never achieve my goals if I gave up every time I made a “mistake” – every time I cheated on my diet or missed a workout.
I couldn’t let one cheat or one missed workout lead to a week of bingeing or a week off from working out.
I had to change the expectations I had for myself.
I could seek perfection, but my definition of perfection had to include room for cheats and missed workouts. I couldn’t expect myself to be perfect 100% of the time.
BUT I could expect myself to achieve perfection 80% of the time with room for cheats or missed workouts 20% of the time.
I didn’t necessarily want to encourage cheats or missed workouts, but I had to expect that from time to time they may happen and that I could still reach my goals if I was “perfect” 80% of the time.
I stopped looking at reaching my health and fitness goals as an all or nothing thing, but a journey that I had to enjoy.
Plus I found that expecting perfection only 80% of the time lessened the pressure I felt and actually helped me stick to my program more consistently than I ever had before.
If I went on vacation, I didn’t force myself to stick to my diet if there was a dessert I really wanted to indulge in. I didn’t force myself to workout if we were all enjoying lounging by the pool.
But I found that because I wasn’t “forcing myself” to do certain things, I almost had more desire to do them even while on vacation than I ever had before.
And because I allowed myself to enjoy the times I did choose to cheat, it was easy to go straight back to my diet and exercise program when I got back from vacation.
I found a way to strict a balance between perfection and enjoyment of life. You can achieve your goals without sacrificing everything that you enjoy to do so.
You just have to accept that there will be setbacks along the way. And you can’t let them get you down. There will be mistakes and cheats and missed workouts that might upset you at that moment, but they won’t matter if you just accept them and move on.
Perfection isn’t important. Getting right back on track when you cheat or miss a workout is what matters.
It is what makes you stronger and will help you accomplish your goals.
So don’t force yourself to be perfect 100% of the time. Seek perfection 80% of the time and you will find much more success and enjoyment.
All or Nothing
I’d love to tell you that every day I wake up wanting to workout intensely and eat well.
But I don’t.
I don’t think anyone does. (And if you do, consider yourself lucky!)
It can be hard coming back from an injury or a vacation to get back into the groove. Shoot…it can even just be hard to motivate yourself because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed!
There is a way though that we can get ourselves to do and eat the right things even when we are totally unmotivated – we can take BABY STEPS.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing!
Sometimes we can go right back to the workout intensity that we were at before we went on vacation or took some time off.
But sometimes the idea of an intense workout can prevent us from starting up our workout program again. Sometimes we take an extra week off or stop working out all together because we feel unmotivated to work out at the same intensity we were before.
So what do you do to get yourself back on track?
DON’T FORCE YOURSELF TO WORKOUT AT THE SAME INTENSITY!
TAKE BABY STEPS!
So you get back from vacation and know you should workout the next day. You don’t have to go right back into your lifting and circuit routine.
Start out with just 10 sprints. Or just do half of what you usually do.
Anything is better than nothing. AND once you get through that first workout, you will reawaken the desire you had before you took time off.
The same goes for if you’ve had a long day and don’t feel like hitting the gym before going home.
Do something short. Something is better than nothing and it will still keep you on track!
Not every workout has to be the toughest thing you’ve ever done. Short and relaxed workouts can be a great way to get back into something or to keep yourself on track if you are feeling unmotivated.
You can do the same thing with diet that you do with exercise. Sometimes you can just go cold turkey and stop eating all of the crap food you’ve been consuming.
Other times you need to ween yourself off all of the wonderful foods you’ve indulged in.
If clients have a hard time changing their diet, I’ll tell them to give up one thing at a time. Big changes can occur when someone simply gives up soda if they drink it each day.
Making small changes is great. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing!
That is really what it comes down to. You can take baby steps and reach your goal. You don’t have to be “perfect” all of the time.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
The good, the bad and the simply stupid
The Olympics have begun! Anyone else excited!?!
What do you think about skimpy workout clothes for women? Some women feel that they are more comfortable while others believe that skimpy workout clothes are negatively impacting the image of women’s athletics…Either way, the cold London weather may keep beach volleyball players from strutting their stuff in bikinis! Will ratings take a hit!?!
The Good
- I like this quote: “Even when the going gets rough, never forget why you started!” Sometimes I think we get so focused on our failure at that moment that we forget to remember why we are even doing any of it in the first place!
- Here is an interesting article about the Olympics. It is exciting to hear that more and more women are participating!
- This isn’t really good but it is an interesting article about why it may be harder to stay focused on your goals when you are stressed!
The Bad
- I HATE hearing that someone penalizes him or herself because they don’t workout or stick to their diet. Don’t penalize yourself for a slip up! Everyone is going to slip up every once in a while. Instead REWARD yourself for doing the right thing! We want positive reinforcement people!
- I disliked this article from the very first couple of sentences. While it is a great idea to keep a food journal, never eating out and never skipping meals is just too unrealistic. The diet that people will STICK TO is one that is easy to fit into their lifestyle. You CAN make a diet work even if you do have to eat out or skip a meal! I actually think that the ability to eat out and even skip a meal is what makes Primal such a great diet and so easy to stick to!
The Simply Stupid
- TAKE SOME TIME OFF! Too often I hear people complain that they are run down or not getting the results they want when they are working their butts off. Most of the time it is because they never give their body a chance to recover. Your muscles grow when they have time to rest and rebuild! Recovery is an ESSENTIAL part of any training regime. If you don’t rest enough, all or your hard work won’t pay off as much as it could!
- Really!?! Decreases cellulite? Strengthens and increases flexibility?!?! And all you have to do is stand on it and it shakes!?! WHAT!!!! Oh but if that isn’t enough you can get the Power Step and do other moves that really have nothing to do with their supposed technology! AHHHH! And the worst thing about all of this was the trainer endorsing the system!
Blast cellulite! “You can get a better workout in just 10 minutes than you would get in one hour on the treadmill!”
Look at all the moves you can do on it that have nothing to do with the shaking step!
Uhm….Red chips serve as a stop sign to help people stop eating!?! I guess this could work…I mean it is way too hard to just take out a serving size or pay attention to the fact that your stomach is full….
Strong, Beautiful and Proud
So I’ve discussed this before with the Olympics starting shortly, but what truly is the “perfect” body?
Mainstream society tells women they should be thin and not even have that much muscle. If you base the “perfect” body off of high fashion, you should be rail thin and tall.
If you base the “perfect” body off of fitness models, you should be down to almost only essential body fat and be proportionally muscled.
If you base the “perfect” body off of a 100 different things, you will find that each one has a different ideal. Some ideals, however, are more acceptable than others.
Generally speaking, women who are big with muscle are not considered to have the “perfect” body – they are considered to be “masculine.”
Uhm…usually I’m the one flexing! 😉
Shoot sometimes even if women AREN’T BIG but can lift heavy weights are deemed to be unfeminine.
But says who?
I actually love the response that British Olympic lifter Zoe Smith had when she was told by people that she was “unfeminine” or a lesbian just because she can out lift many men.
The obvious choice of slander when talking about female weightlifting is ‘how unfeminine, girls shouldn’t be strong or have muscles, this is wrong.’ And maybe they’re right… in the Victorian era. To think people still think like this is laughable, we’re in 2012!
Actually the whole documentary about her and two other female competitors from Britain is awesome!
The “perfect” body for those three women in the documentary is a body that allows them to lift the most weight in their weight class!
The same goes for Cheryl Haworth.
Cheryl Haworth is 5’8″ and 300lbs and a top Olympic weightlifter. By mainstream standards her body isn’t considered “perfect.”
But if you were 5’8″ and 300lbs and America’s top Olympic weightlifter, would you really think your body wasn’t “perfect?”
NOPE!
I think generally our image of the “perfect” body is to focused on aesthetics. We never stop to think about how maybe our big butt or muscled arms (that society may tell us aren’t perfect) help us move and perform as well as we do!
I would much rather have a body that can run and lift and do any activity that I ask it to do than fit a standard of beauty that mainstream society has defined.
I would rather have biceps the size of the average man’s than sacrifice one ounce of my strength!
I’m glad to know that I’m not alone.
What the documentary about Zoe Smith and two other British weightlifters called “Girl Power: Going for Gold.”
Also, watch the documentary Strong! about Olympic Weightlifter Cheryl Haworth.
STRONG! explores the contradiction of a body that is at once celebrated within the confines of her sport and shunned by mainstream culture. Through Haworth’s journey of strength, vulnerability, loneliness, and individuation, we learn not only about the sport of lifting weight, but also the state of being weighty: the material, psychological, and social consequences and possibilities of a having a body that doesn’t fit.
I think Strong! is a must see. TV showings of the documentary started on Tuesday (July 24th). Here is the website if you liked to find a showing in your area!
Can we please start focusing on how strong and capable our bodies are instead of how skinny we can become?
Can we please stop thinking of muscles and strength as masculine qualities?
Man Bicep 