How to Exercise When You're Mentally DrainedSusanna Sullivan knows resiliency.
As a middle school teacher, she teaches pre-algebra to over 100 students. And surprise, surprise this age group is not always the most cooperative. Often when the last bell rings, she is wiped out but doesn’t have the luxury to go home, plop on the couch and catch her breath. That’s because she’s training for the World Championships in the marathon. Rain or shine. Ready or not. Tired or not. Her training keeps chugging along. It’s funny because traditional high-performance advice is to avoid mental fatigue. And if you do have it to delay a harder workout for a more ‘ideal day’. But Susanna doesn’t have that choice – each day brings unexpected challenges so she has to find an alternative route to recharge after a long day. Whether you are training for a marathon or not, this is a common challenge that stops people from following through on their workout routine. So what do you do? Susanna shared with Runners World that her ‘secret weapon’ is her own motivational self-talk. Studies have found that when subjects are mentally fatigued their endurance drops by roughly 19%. But when mentally fatigued participants are given motivational self-talk (and taught to use motivational phrases such as “You can do it!” and “Let’s go!” when negative thoughts creep up) they maintain their endurance. In fact, they perform at a similar level to those who are mentally fresh. And this is exactly what Susanna deploys on those days where she is beat and the last thing she wants to do is lace up for a long run. For Susanna, she tells herself things such as “Just make it up this hill” or “You only have to run for two more minutes”. She finds these milestones are a heck of lot easier than dealing with 100 6th graders. Motivational self-talk is one of the most powerful skills in fitness – yet it’s rarely talked about. Elite athletes know the importance but the general population struggles to grasp it’s value. And it comes in two ways: #1: Recognize the Negative Thoughts That Bog You Down #2: Use the Motivational Phrases That Power You It takes both to make this work. And in my experience #1 is more important because sometimes we say things over and over again that weaken us and make it 100x harder to follow through. Years ago, I knew someone who voiced I hate exercise all the time. They were strong and a hard worker but this dragged them down. And while they can have that opinion, you have to ask: “Is this supporting me?” “Is this really helping anything?” If not, it might be useful to let it go and upgrade your self-talk to something that empowers you and supports you to getting to the next level of health and fitness. Kelan Ern P.S. Another strategy for greater follow through and motivation is fitness rhythm. Inspired by one of the greatest commodity traders and entrepreneurs on the planet – it can help you breathe new life into your vision for fitness and help you find a relationship with exercise that aligns with you. This is what I covered in the June 2023 Mind-Body Breakthroughs. If you haven’t already – check out it out free while you still can.
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