Where does mental toughness come from? I’ll let Mr. Rollins start me off here with a quote I love about the Iron Mind…
“People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes.
They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.”
Henry Rollins
What is Mental Toughness?
Wikipedia says:
Mental toughness is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education and the workplace.
Researchers Jones, Hanton, and Connaughton used interviews with athletes, coaches and sports psychologists to come up with this definition of mental toughness:
Mental toughness is “Having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer; specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.” (1)
Some key words stand out in these definitions:
Resilience
Confidence
Determined
Focused
Psychological Edge
Habit #1 Test Your Metal
“It’s been said that a knight in shining armor has never had his metal tested.”
A huge part of developing mental toughness is repeatedly proving to yourself that you can overcome difficulties and personal struggles. This is what Henry Rollins was referring to when he said people need “the iron mind.”
The only way to get the iron mind is to push yourself physically beyond what you were previously capable of. Growth is hard and painful. The mind resists and begs you to stop. This is your chance to prove to yourself that you can overcome pain and difficulty.
Listen to Henry.. Get the iron mind. Test yourself physically, and overcome!
Mentally tough people do not just react to stress. They choose how they interpret stress and how they will choose to deal with it.
They realize that the stress itself has no real power. All of the power lies within us to make a choice on how we’re going to deal with external stressors.
In moments where we’re feeling stress coming from all angles, we have to realize what kind of person we want to be. If my kids are driving me crazy and I’m tired and have all kinds of things going on, I have to remember that I am a great dad, and the way I react to these situations is what is going to make me great.
In the words of a Navy Seal Commander on Sealfit.com (an awesome site): “How you interpret and handle external stressors determines if you’ll overcome your woes.
Habit #3 Monitor and Adjust Your Self-Talk
Have you ever taken the time to monitor what you tell yourself in difficult situations? If your self talk is negative, studies say your performance will suffer in all areas of life.
How to Improve Self Talk for a Boost in Mental Toughness
According to an article in Psychology Today, there are 4 steps you can take:
Notice what you’re already telling yourself. Pay attention to it.
Ignore unhelpful self-talk
Pick a “power phrase.” Something that makes you feel motivated
Pick a phrase or reminder word to help you stay focused.
Our mind can be our greatest enemy or our most valuable asset. Monitoring and adjusting your self talk can be a huge step in increasing mental toughness.
Habit #4 Visualize
Taking just a few minutes each day to visualize can have a big impact on how we react and perform.
Studies have shown that the mind doesn’t really know the difference between strong visualizations and actual activity.
Athletes use visualization all the time. Research has shown that visualizing shooting and making free throws can actually improve shooting.
You can use this same technique on any area of your life. If you want to react to certain stressors better, visualize yourself reacting the way you want to. This can quickly result in you actually gaining control over how you react, versus being controlled by outside stress.
Habit #5 Be Disciplined. Delay Gratification
“The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.”
Jocko Willink
“Discipline Equals Freedom” is a life-changing book by Jocko Willink, former Navy Seal Commander. Highly recommend.
You really want that double mocha frappucino every morning.. but you have a weight loss goal. Maybe you really want to get promoted at work, but it’s easier every day to not go the extra mile and earn it.
As Tony Robbins says.. “In life, we get what we are, not what we want.” You have to BE, not want. If something is important enough that you dream of it, then you have to be willing to forego temporary satisfaction in the name of achieving, and becoming something much greater.
Habit #6 Control Your Emotions
To have mental toughness, you have to be able to control your emotions. If the slightest bit of stress causes you to unravel emotionally, you’re allowing yourself to be controlled instead of being in control.
Mentally tough people remain in control. They tell themselves that nothing is going to stop them, and they mean it. When something is making you feel like you’re going to lose control of your emotions, use your self talk and focus on who you are. Like I said before, it will become a habit just like anything else repeated over and over.
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Conclusion
YOU are in control. This is your life, your mind. You get to choose who you are and what you’re going to accomplish. Being mentally tough is a choice. If you want it, you’ve got a great start with this article. The only question is.. what will you do now?
Check out some of my other posts that people seem to like:
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Mike (Supastrong)
Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.
These 10 Fitness tips can help take your workout game to the next level. Get stronger, Improve faster, and crush new goals .
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Progress = Motivation
It’s undeniable that progress is the driving force that keeps us motivated to push ourselves forward.
There’s nothing better than seeing hard work result in real changes to our body and our abilities.
It’s critical, then, to make sure you’re doing the right things to keep progress rolling forward.
Sooner or later, we all reach a point where changes need to be made. We plateau, and many lose motivation or become complacent and just go through the motions, repeating the same routine for months or years with little results to show for it.
Here are 10 things you can do to take your workouts, your fitness and your life to the next level. You might just find something that can restart your motivation and get you moving forward to that best version of yourself, where you belong!
Tip #1: Keep a Workout Journal
Keeping a workout Journal will allow you to:
Track Progress over time
See what was working for you in the past when you run into problems in the present
“Compete” against yourself using past performances in any type of workout
Analyze exactly what you’re doing, and how much you’re doing, compared to the results you’re getting.
Great coaches and trainers will always have their clients keep a workout journal. Having access to past workouts can be invaluable.
There are plenty of free apps you can use. I use “Day One Journal.” It’s free and easy to use. It also allows you to place “tags” on all your workouts, so you can easily reference them when you need to.
Advanced
You can dive a lot deeper into this, if you’re a more serious athlete.. You could be tracking things like your resting heart rate each morning and/or your heart rate variability. You could also have some specific workout “tests” you can repeat to measure progress.
Tip #2: Use a Heart Rate Monitor
Example of a Training Session with a HR monitor
Using a heart rate monitor can change the way you work out completely.
You can be specific about what you’re trying to accomplish in your workout by using different heart rate zones for different outcomes.
For example, training for 30 minutes with your heart rate between 110-120 would be a low intensity cardio session, stimulating recovery.
30 minutes with the heart rate between 130-150 would be stimulating cardiac output.. training the heart to pump more blood per beat and enlarging the left ventricle, improving aerobic fitness.
Training for 30 minutes with a HR at 155-170 would be training for aerobic power, and would be a much higher intensity session.
I highly recommend the Polar H10 heart rate monitor. Polar really can’t be beat in this department, and this model is both affordable and accurate. It’s also full of great features.
If you’re more advanced, a heart rate monitor can be even more useful. You can track how long it takes your heart rate to recover after intense activity, with the goal of increasing your one minute heart rate recovery over time. You can also keep track of your resting heart rate by testing it first thing in the morning. A low resting heart rate is the surest sign of improving aerobic fitness.
Tip #3: Have a Clear Goal
If you ask people in the gym what their goals are, you’d get all kinds of answers.
From experience as a trainer I can tell you, most people don’t really know exactly what they’re trying to accomplish. They say things like “I just want to gain muscle and lose weight,” or, “I want to get in shape.”
These are not clear, definite goals. A goal should be something like; “I want to lose 15lbs in the next 8 weeks,” or, “I want to gain 5lbs of muscle and be at 10% body fat by May 1st.”
Goals should be: SMART
Specific – What exactly do you want to accomplish?
Measurable – Don’t just say “lose weight.” Say, I’m going to lose 10lbs.
Achievable – You aren’t going to add 100lbs to your bench press in 30 days. Remember, Progress = Motivation.. Set yourself up to achieve small goals that are attainable, and they will add up to big changes.
Relevant – If you’re training for a marathon, your goals should be relevant to that.. too many people have conflicting goals like, I want to get bigger, lose weight, get stronger, get leaner and run faster.
Timely – Goals should have a time-frame. If you want to add 50lbs to your bench press, say: “I’ll add 50lbs to my bench press in 6 months by doing _______.”
Have clear goals, and be able to express how you’re going to accomplish the goal. If you don’t know how, then that is why trainers have jobs, and there is plenty of information out there as well. It’s your goal, and your responsibility to go after it!
Tip #4: Use High Intensity Training Carefully
Too many people are obsessed with HIIT workouts. And it’s true, HIIT can be a highly effective way to achieve a range of fitness goals. But HIIT training comes at a cost, as it takes considerable energy for your body to recover from a constant beat-down of high intensity effort.
A study by Les Mills Lab concluded that 40 minutes of HIIT training per week was optimal for most people, with added training being detrimental to fitness and performance.
High intensity training, or HIIT, should be utilized no more than twice per week. Even elite athletes rarely go above 3 days per week, and even then it is only for short training cycles.
your bodies simply cannot recover enough to adapt to that much high intensity effort, and so short term gains in performance will soon turn to a massive recovery debt, and your workouts and your well-being will suffer the consequences.
Fitness is best improved by using a variety of different intensities and methods. Keep the HIIT to 1-2 days per week and utilize other methods, low and moderate intensity training on the other days.
There are several ways you can help speed boost your workout recovery. I’ll list a few here from my article: 10 Ways to Boost Workout Recovery:
Recovery Workouts: lower intensity workouts to stimulate blood flow and recovery the day after a high intensity workout.
Compression clothing: Compression can reduce muscle damage and soreness. Check out 2XU Compression Pants if you want real compression.
Pre Workout Protein and Carbs: Pre workout nutrition is often overlooked and has a big impact on recovery.
Massage/Relaxation
Massages and any other form of deep relaxation can be very beneficial.. as they help nudge the body into a parasympathetic recovery state. Studies have shown that massage can reduce Delayed onset muscle soreness by 30%.
Take care of yourself. Focus as much on recovery as you do on working out and training, and you will reap much greater rewards from your efforts and stay in the game a lot longer.
#6 Switch Up Your Training Every 6-10 Weeks
After 6-10 weeks of focusing on one aspect of your training (strength, endurance, size, etc..) your progress is sure to slow down and eventually come to a halt.
For this reason, smart athletes Periodize their training. This means they place more focus in one area for a period of time (usually 6-8 weeks), and then switch their focus. This allows for constant progress.
This doesn’t mean that you completely disregard other areas of fitness. You simply place less emphasis on them so you can focus a little more in another area. If you’re going to try to get stronger for 6-8 weeks, you can add an extra day or two of strength training, and do a little less cardio/endurance work during that time.
Periodizing your training will give you the best chance at continuous progress and is the best long term strategy to follow for optimal gains in fitness.
#7 Use The Right Supplements
If you walk into any supplement store, you are bombarded with literally thousands of different supplements all claiming to have incredible results.
It’s really important to understand that these supplement companies are not bound by the FDA, and can make all sorts of claims that aren’t necessarily true at all.
Keep it simple. There are supplements backed by a ton of research showing they work, and exactly how they work and what they DO.
Once you understand this, all you have to do is choose the right ones to help you with your goals. If your only goal is losing weight, creatine probably isn’t going to benefit you, regardless of what the label claims.
Supplements That Actually Work
Creatine
-Increase Power/Power Endurance -Increase Strength -Increase size -Use for heavy/max lifting, short sprinting, HIIT
L-Citrulline
-Increase Nitric Oxide -Vasodilator – Improved blood flow -Gives a “pump” when lifting -Use for higher volume lifting, strength/size, HIIT
Antioxidant Supplements
-Tart Cherry, Turmeric, other similar products -Reduce Inflammation -Using frequently can hinder the body’s natural ability to control inflammation from your training.
Caffeine
-You know it works! -Decreased perceived exertion/makes exercise feel easier -Can train longer without feeling fatigue -Increases motivation to work harder -Regular use/tolerance diminishes effectiveness
Beta-Alanine
-Decreases perceived exertion -Can work at higher intensities for longer/delays fatigue -Use for longer sessions, endurance training, HIIT
BCAA’s
-Branched Chain Amino Acids -Reduce muscle wasting during prolonged training -Use during training if you havn’t eaten a pre-training meal or are training in a fasted state. -Use for longer duration sessions to spare muscle tissue
Use supplements that are complimentary to your Goals and proven to work.
I prefer to buy my supplements from Bulk Supplements. It’s cheaper, you get more, and it’s the supplement in pure form, with no added fillers.
#8 Always Perform a Warm up
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the gym is going straight into a workout without warming up.
The likelihood of getting injured can be reduced by performing a dynamic warm up; raising body temperature, increasing elasticity of the muscles and pushing blood into the joints.. creating a “cushion” and readying the body for more intense work.
Research has shown that performing a warm up can improve performance. Warming up properly can make you stronger and more powerful during your workout.
A Proper Warm-Up:
5-10 minutes of light cardiovascular activity, slowly building up to higher intensities
dynamic stretching (not static stretching where you hold for 30 seconds), and mobility work.
Lower intensity movements similar to what you plan on doing in your workout, gradually building up to working sets. If you’re going to be bench pressing, start out with some light presses, warm up the shoulders, etc..
Making sure you warm up will result in less injuries, and will lead to better performances in your workouts.
Research also shows that warming up may reduce the amount of soreness you experience after your workout. Keep your body healthy… use the warm up as a way to focus on the upcoming session and get your mind focused and your body ready to push new limits.
#9 Always Perform a Cool Down
There is less research pointing to the benefits of a cool down versus warming up.
Studies have shown some conflicting results with respect to using a cool down as a means to faster recovery from training. However, there are absolutely some very good reasons to incorporate a cool-down into your training sessions.
According to one study in the Journal of Sports Medicine, an active cool down may help prevent immune system depression and promote faster recovery from intense training sessions.
How to Cool-Down Properly
Perform light cardiovascular activity for 5 minutes, gradually reducing your heart rate as low as possible.
Perform some light stretching, focus on relaxing
Foam rolling is a good idea, if you have the time and the means
Assume a recovery position, anything where you feel relaxed.
Focus on driving the heart rate down as close to resting as possible. Spend 3-5 minutes in this position.
A good cool-down can help speed up the process of the body going into a parasympathetic recovery mode. Walking out of the gym amped up with your heart rate rate still in the training zone isn’t a great idea.
#10 Never Neglect Your Aerobic Fitness.. Your Life May Depend on it.
Regardless of what your goals are, having at least a base level of aerobic fitness is paramount to your overall health and longevity. There are very direct links to aerobic fitness and mortality risks.
A massive study of more than 122,000 people foundthat the higher your level of cardio-respiratory fitness, the less chance you have of dying from all causes.
The importance of this study cannot be overstated. Aerobic fitness reduces mortality risks across the board, with NO upper limit observed. The better your aerobic fitness, the less chance you have of dying, period!
This doesn’t mean you have to turn yourself into an endurance athlete. Training the aerobic system is simple and can be done with 3-5 sessions per week of low-moderate intensity cardiovascular sessions.
You can incorporate some extra cardio into almost any training program. Check out my article related to this Here.
Conclusion
I hope this was helpful for you. If you take your workouts and your goals seriously, there is no doubt that incorporating some, or all of the 10 ideas in this list can be of great benefit to you. They certainly have been for me, and I’ve been doing this for a long time!
Continue to improve and find that best version of yourself!
Let me know what you think with a comment, or email me at Contact@supastrong.net
Thanks for being here!!!
Mike (Supastrong)
Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.
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