Live Strong

Going for floorball training week in week out, the one thing that has been constantly on all our lips is this whole topic on "mental strength".

What exactly is mental strength?
According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, the definition for mental and strength is as follows:

Mental: of or relating to the mind; of or relating to intellectual as constrasted with emotional activity

Strength: the quality or state of being strong : capacity for exertion or endurance, power to resist force

Within my floorball peers in Penang, we have this inside joke about "mental tak kuat", a term we coined while we in Perth, Australia for APAC 2008.
As floorball training gradually intensifies by the weeks, this whole concept pertaining to mental strength seems to be the talk of the town, well at least to the floorball folks in Penang.
Then during the course of this week's training, my floorball coach enlightened us about a women softball team in the States who in effort to mould and build their mental strength, they were registered into the NAVY SEAL training.
For those who are familiar with it, the Navy Seal training is regarded as the world's toughest military training ever.
For further reading on this, click here.

Reading that article sparked the curious cat in me.
If there is one athlete I can interview to question about mental strength, it would be this guy -

Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong has always been an athlete I look up to.
Well, I'm not particularly interested in cycling.
It's his life, both on the tracks and off the tracks, that appeals to me.
Talk about mental strength, I'm pretty sure he has it.
(For more background on Lance Armstrong, read here.)
I put my researching skills into good use and look up some articles about him and content relating to mental strength as well.
So I thought I'd share some of it.

Mental toughness, according to Cameron Schaefer in his article entitle 'Building Mental Toughness: Simple, But Not Easy', is "the ability to will oneself through less than ideal situations and conditions whether that be battling cancer or simply waking up early to go workout".

There are several ways to build mental toughness but for most of us, consistent and intense physical exertion is the most accessible and common way to do it.
Schaefer included several keys to building mental toughness:

(The following are excerpts taken from Cameron Schaefer's blog)

1. Show Up -

“Everybody wants to know what I’m on.

What am I on?

I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day.

What are you on? ”

(Lance Armstrong)

What separates a guy like Lance from 99% of the world is the fact that he showed up everyday, when it was raining, when it was hot, when he was sore, when he was tired….

He showed up everyday.

JUST SHOW UP!

What happens after you show up is where the real fun begins, but most people can’t even make it to that point. If it’s working out, tell a friend you’ll meet them at a certain time so you will be less likely to back out. If it’s battling an addiction, make yourself go to a recovery group every time it meets.

2. Hurt Vs. Injured -

My high school football coach, John Deti, used to always ask players that limped to the sidelines during a game, are you hurt or injured?

This may seem trite to some, but he was keying in on a fundamental issue. Soreness, stiffness, bruises… These are just parts of any game or any physically demanding activity, but they should not keep one from continuing. Injuries on the other hand, like muscle tears, broken bones, etc. are a different thing entirely and should be taken care of. One of the best ways to develop mental toughness is extreme physical exertion…

If there is no discomfort , you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough.

This is different from causing injury which hinders you rather than helping.

3. Unfamiliar and Unexpected Are Your Friends -

Part of building mental toughness involves being comfortable performing in stressful situations. One of the best ways to develop this trait is by consistently doing things you have never done or trying things a different way.

Fear of the unknown keeps many from ever developing mental toughness, but by consistently placing yourself in unfamiliar situations you can learn to deal with stress and fear.

Some good ones that I’ve tried include rock climbing, attending the Air Force Academy, swimming (what is recreation for most used to stress me out since I was a terrible swimmer until recently) and mountain biking. You don’t have to do something crazy, just something that you don’t normally do and something that puts a little fear in your heart.

4. What’s Your Motivation -

Whenever you find yourself in a tough position you will need something you can focus on to provide motivation. I don’t know exactly what Lance focused on during the hill climbs of the Tour de France, but I’m sure it included a mixture of other cancer patients he had met along the way, yellow jackets and a finish line. Lately, for me it has been my daughter and my desire to have her look at her father’s life someday and say, “Wow, he really pushed himself and accomplished some great things.” I want her to be as proud of me as I am of her. Whatever it is, everyone has to find something to focus on for motivation. If you allow your mind to focus on your pain or your laziness you will have a hard time pushing through any adversity.

5. Constantly Challenge Yourself -

What most people fail to understand is that mental toughness is something that has to be practiced and developed over time.

The key to this is placing yourself in challenging situations… constantly doing things that are hard.

This is a fundamental principle of military training. Sure, push-ups and sit-ups help develop you physically, but after a couple hundred of them it becomes much more of a mental game than a physical one. The military uses physical training and yelling because it creates a stressful environment that breeds mental toughness and forces one to deal with intense discomfort and anxiety, the fact that it gets you in shape is a side benefit.

6. Surround Yourself with Lance’s and Beau’s -

As with most things in life, you will become who you spend time with. So, if you want to get more mentally tough, spend time with people that already are. It’s contagious. I always love working out with Beau because just when I’ve had it and am ready to leave the gym he is just starting…he pushes me by his example. Lately I’ve been pouring myself into training for a marathon. Being as I’ve never run one I have tried to meet and talk to others that have in hopes of gleaning some insight and motivation from them. Whether you are training for a marathon or not, surrounding yourself with other mentally tough people is a sure way to become mentally tough yourself.

Other mental strength techniques that have been used widely around the world are things like the self-fulfilling prophecy, visualization, getting into the zone, etc.
Reading these articles made me see what the human mind is capable of doing to the body.
It's both enlightening and somewhat scary though.
I googled up Navy Seal training and the things they go through just to hit optimum performance both mentally and physically is sickening.

Amazing stuff.

I'm still contemplating whether to join the Penang Bridge Half-Marathon.
Today is the last day of registration.
Mental tak kuaaatt.. :P

I leave you guys with this quote by the great Lance Armstrong, one of my all-time favourite athletes around
(Did I mentioned that he's extremely eloquent with words as well?) -

“Pain is temporary.

It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year,

but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.

If I quit, however,

it lasts forever.”

(Lance Armstrong)