Static, explosive, and endurance are the types of muscular strength we commonly deal with when talking about athletics. As strongmen, we need all three of those types to be at their upper-most levels when peaking for a contest. If you can't lift the weight at all, your static strength is too low. If it takes you too long, you need to become more explosive. And if you can't do it enough times, you don't have the proper endurance. Each of those strength types are limited, however, by a type of strength that we rarely discuss and very few people spend time training: mental strength.
Your mind is the body's governor. It places limits on what you can do. It's an evolutionary safety mechanism that helps keep us alive. You want to listen to it because it provides comfort and stops pain. But on the athletic field it can restrain you and keep you from greatness.
Without proper mental toughness you will never achieve your best. I've seen plenty of athletes not realize their full potential because they mentally quit before they reached their physical limits. Some competitors like Rick Hoyt and Mark Zupan aren't exactly household names, but have a mental strength that few can comprehend. Both men have overcome adversity to achieve things once thought impossible. In the top ranks of pro sports, Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong have both displayed such superior mental strength that they are regarded by many as the best ever in their respective sports. It's not just their physical skills that have made them great, but their mind's ability to continue on when many would accept or even welcome failure.
Yes, I said that right, welcome failure. When they body begins to give negative feedback and threatens to quit the mind can always push a little further. More times then you would think, in all levels of competition, people lose because they gave in and decided not to push a little bit further. They tell themselves "The hill is just too high, I haven't trained for this incline" and they lower their RPMs. "No, I can't lift this weight overhead it just feels too heavy", and they drop it. "Holy shit that D-back hit me hard, I'll never make the end zone" and he gets run down by a safety. Then strangely there is a sense of relief. The body thinks it's safe and the mind has an excuse to stop.
But for someone with top mental strength, that isn't how they think. They process pain differently. Some are naturals at it and some have trained themselves for it. I am willing to bet that Lance Armstrong's inner monologue goes more like this: "This hill is a bastard, my lungs are on fire. The guy behind me must be dying. Lets see if he is really ready to pay the price." and he cranks it up a notch. Like his competitor behind him, he has prepared himself physically to go the distance. More importantly, though, he has prepared himself mentally in a way the guy behind him can't even fathom. In order to be the best you have to do the same thing. If you are saying to yourself right now that you already do this, then I suspect one of two things: you either are already the top of your field, or you have poor self-assessment skills.
How do we change this mind set? How do we learn to use physical pain to our advantage and make the other guy quit before us? Well, it's not easy, but I have a plan. I have a plan that I follow and that my athletes follow as well. I'm going to break it down for you in a two part series over the next two weeks. After you implement just a few of these techniques you will be amazed at how you do in any athletic contest. You will see immediate feedback in your performance, and it wall also help to change the way you think in general.
Posted by Mike Gill at 10:08 AM