YoYo’s World

As a life-long athlete, I’ve always had those strenuous exercise regimens where I’d ask myself, “Why am I putting myself through so much discomfort?” I’ve loved to play sports, but I’ve never liked to condition. Even though I know conditioning is vital to progression and success in sports, I still never enjoyed it.

Over the years I have learned certainly tricks to help my mental endurance when it came to exercising. First thing to help you push through pain and discomfort is to realize that yes to do feel pain, but another immediate determinant of physical success is mindset. It’s all in your head basically. Your mind can strengthen and also weaken depending on your level of mental discipline and cleverness. I use the term cleverness because you can begin to adapt certain mindsets and thoughts that will help trick your negative thoughts.

Over time consistent application of these mindsets during exercise, will help give you the inner strength and discipline to take your exercises to the next level. (Don’t forget you can apply these to everyday life, but as of right now, that topic will be another day in another post.)

1. If I’ve done this once, I can do it again.

This is a very powerful thought. You’ve done it once, what’s keeping you from doing it again? In the end, what keeps you from taking that extra step is the fact that your body is recognizing discomfort. Since your body is not accustomed to enjoying discomfort, it will try to reject the activity you’re putting it through. If you don’t have strong and hard-set thinking patterns, then you will surely fall prey to your body’s discomfort.

If you don’t have strong thinking patterns glued in your mind, this phrase, “If I’ve done this once, I can do it again,” can help plant a seed for strong thinking. When you begin to feel fatigued or you sense negative talk coming along, repeat the phrase in your head and try to logically come to a conclusion that shows that this phrase is right. This will also help keep your mind distracted and will help you finish your laps and/or reps.

2. What’s stopping me from taking another step?

If you find yourself feeling a little burnt out, ask this question in your head and seriously try to answer it. When I do this, usually I think about the fact that well, there really isn’t anything that is keeping me from making another step and I go through as to why in my head. Sometimes I’ll think, well I haven’t collapsed and fallen to the ground, so my legs must still be able to support me. My arms haven’t fallen to the sides of my body and have gone limp, so I can still do one more rep, or at least push my arms as far as they’ll go.

Walter Payton, otherwise known as “Sweetness,” a running back that played for the

Chicago Bears (da bears), once was asked how he exercised in the off season. His response was, (paraphrased) “I exercise until I’m at the point of dropping.” He means of course that he exercises until he absolutely can’t move anymore. Now I am not telling you to take it as extreme as he does but his response exemplifies the idea, “What is keeping me from taking another step,” perfectly.

3. Count to one hundred

In running, there is a phrase called ‘hit the wall,’ which means the time in which you just want to stop everything that you’re doing and take a break. Ed Bran, a world class runner was asked “when you ‘hit the wall’ during a run, ho do you get past it?” His response was, “I count my steps to 100 and repeat as need.”

This is a very effective method to use because it first helps to distract your mind from negative thoughts and second, it helps you focus on where it counts, your pace. It is easier to motivate yourself to make one more step by counting to one hundred. It’s something you don’t even really think about once you get started. You just count, 1,2,3…and you begin to develop a rhythm that feels more natural and comfortable. You don’t think about the fact that you’re taking shorter breaths, or the fact that you feel fatigued. All you end up concentrating on his 1, step, 2, step, 3, step and so on.

This is my favourite method to use because I have found the best results through this method than any other. Does counting to one hundred sound like a daunting task? Well it my mind it doesn’t, so by counting to one hundred, I make a huge task manageable by separating it out into microtasks. Time management experts will tell you that if you feel overwhelmed with a project, split it up into mini projects and it won’t feel so impossible to overcome.

So the key here is MICROMANAGE!

            Try all of these positive thinking methods out during your next routine exercise and see what kind of results you get. Once you find that these really do work, it will motivate you to push yourself each time you exercise.

Take care, be careful and be safe!

-YoYo

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