Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

In my previous post on the mental approach to achieving elite goals, I suggested that we can use similar techniques to achieve our personal fitness goals.  In contrast to Mind Gym, which discusses goal achievement through visualization, The NYT article I read discussed the psychology used by high achievers during their performance.

According to the article, elite level performance not only requires a high pain tolerance (obviously) but also a specific mental approach to the pain.  In the words of Mary Wittenberg, an elite runner quoted in the article ‘The ability to manage and even thrive on and push through pain’ is one of the key secrets to becoming an elite runner.

There are different tactics for coping with physical discomfort, two of which are dissociation & association.  Dissociation means to think of something other than the task at hand in order to distract yourself away from the pain.  While many athletes do this, top level performers tend to associate.

Association is the more difficult of the two and is the act of focusing directly on the act you are performing.  This means concentrating, focusing, and even thriving upon the pain, the exertion, the actions your are taking, and the competitors.  It seems association tends to produce the better performance.

My opinion in working with & speaking to high performing athletes
The psychological aspect of performance is the most important factor of performance in my opinion.  Sure, everything requires certain talents, genetics, and physical ability.  But  in the athletes I work with and talk to, one thing comes through loud and clear:  the absolute faith and confidence in oneself and their ability to achieve.

Athletes have faith in themselves, their ability, and the time and effort they’ve put into their training, and they have an approach to dealing with the pain and discomfort of performance.  Whether that’s for a workout or for a race it doesn’t matter.  There will be pain and they don’t care.  They want the pain because they want the triumph.  They train hard and put forth maximum effort, they teach themselves to put everything on the line, even when it means potentially missing the game winning shot.

REALITY:
Basically, if you are an elite athlete, you will be doing a lot of drooling all over your own face, sh*tting your pants, busting your teeth, breaking your nose, and burning out your legs until they want to fall off.  That’s how bad they want to win. You’ll be given not only the gift of physical ability but also the mentality it takes to use these gifts.  And you will achieve it.

How can you use this information to achieve goals
While the NYT sited association as a method for elite performers, it may not be the best method for us normal people.  In applying this information, what is important is to have A method.  You must have a productive mental approach to achieving fitness goals.  No, we aren’t all trying to be elite runners, but people who have goals such as say losing 100 pounds, are relatively speaking, attempting a goal similar to training for and running a marathon.  It’s a long term goal that requires will, dedication, and pain.  There is really no easy method for achieving this goal just like there is no easy method to being an elite runner who wins marathons and half marathons.  It’s just a different version of the same thing.

If you are interested in using this information to achieve more, my final piece of advice is to know yourself and your capabilities.  Be real with yourself about what your mind allows you to envision and believe.  Use that as a starting point and then begin to push yourself forward.  Try different mental tricks and see if they help propel you forward or hold you back.  Find the ones that work for you and then continue to refine and fine tune your own personal mental approach.

Most of us would say being an elite athlete requires physical talent, drive and disciplined…right? But what about the famous artist, the corporate executive, the Special Forces soldier? These people have achieved ‘elite’ status in their chosen field as well. What is it that causes people in general to achieve their dreams? Do those at the top possess something special that others of us simply don’t understand? Does ‘elite’ success depend on skill, desire, luck, or talent? These are the questions I ask myself as I observe people in the gym working to achieve their goals.

I recently read two very different but interesting pieces on performance, specifically elite performance. The first was a New York Times article that discussed various mental approaches to pain. The second was a book called Mind Gym, by Gary Mack and David Casstevens. I’ve divided this into two articles, the first based on mental tactics for goal achievement and the second based on the mental approach one takes to achieve elite level performance.

One main question I often wonder about is whether the reason elite athletes (or anyone who achieves impressive goals for that matter) are elite because they have special abilities others don’t have (mental & physical) or if their achievements are a result of the depth of their desire. After reading the first few chapters in Mind Gym, I became even more convinced that the true ability of the elite athlete or high achiever is in their mental approach to the game (of life).

I personally feel elite athletes and achievers are the ones who don’t mind feeling like they are the best within themselves. They’ve given themselves permission to mentally dominate their own playing field and to really believe they can do it. And while their physical playing field may be a court, field, or stadium, its true location is within their own mind, where they visualize continuously until they win.

What I mean is, they don’t envision themselves on some crazy spaceship headed to war which somehow allows them to become king and conqueror of planet Zadar (that was supposed to be funny). They take the environment around them as real, they observe it in themselves as real, and then they dominate it within themselves..as real. THEN they go act it out.

The book Mind Gym, Alex Rodriguez who is one of the greatest players ever in the game of baseball started out in little league wanting to be a major league baseball player. For a brief period, his dream switched to professional basketball…and then back to baseball…why? In his words…’not to many Dominicans playing in the NBA’. With the goal of baseball player he had before him something he could believe in, and he envisioned, from every angle including fans, manager, teammates and himself, that he was the best, and guess what…it worked.

High achievers can teach us the mental approach that allowed them to soar! Elite athletes have phenomenal capabilities that most of us wish for, but more than that, they have something to teach us about achieving our own goals.

What does this have to do with your fitness goals?
For the purpose of this blog elite physical performance should be defined by the individual according to his or her own abilities.

Ask yourself, what is it that you think you can achieve.

We need to be real with ourselves (probably not gonna be heading to outer space anytime soon) and select goals that are specific to us as individuals. We all face different challenges, have different gifts, and come from different life experiences. Our life experience is our ‘playing field’ in a sense. And we must teach ourselves to dominate that, whatever it may be. Weight loss, athletic performance, injury recovery, power lifting, MMA fighting, whatever!

Set some goals using the SMART goals technique, then ask yourself if you actually believe you can achieve this goal. Can you envision it the same way Alex Rodriguez envisions himself as the number 1 player in the game? Based on what I learned from the book Mind Gym, if you cannot see it in your mind, it’s going to be difficult and maybe even impossible to achieve. Use your mind to your advantage, speak to yourself in positive ways and envision yourself as a success. These are the tactics of the elite performers and role models of pop culture today. Take their advice and play your game to win.

Remember the words of Yogi Berra: “Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”

In late spring Colleen came to me with one goal in mind: improved triathlon times.  She had started racing last year, fell in love with the sport and decided this year she was going to take it to the next level.

With race season still a few months away, her initial program included personal training sessions twice a week with an emphasis on cardio training, healthy meal plans, and strength training workouts.  I also developed a monthly fitness exercise program specific to her goals.  I created a plan that included swimming, running, and biking tasks for her to complete each week that eventually prepared her for top performance in her first race.

As time progressed our relationship somehow morphed from trainer/client to coach/athlete.  We began to discuss the psychology of goal achievement, performance, pushing oneself, eating habits, and surprisingly…body image.  The following is an excerpt from a body image paper written by Colleen this summer:

“I’ll never have the body I need. The sentence surfaced from some deep place within me as I lay in bed one morning, looking for a reason to get up. I had been going through one of the hardest times I had been yet in my life. The wounds I had suffered at fifteen years old were too deep, the barriers too high; it just didn’t seem worth the effort to fight anymore.”

(More body image stuff to follow at end of article back to training stuff for now)

As Colleens first race approached, I started to wonder if everything I had taught her would result in just minor improvement or a dramatic shift in her performance…I mean technically I’d never trained a triathlete before, and I’ve only participated in a few myself when I was a kid.

Well I guess my good old MSU (GO GREEN) education and Chris Johnson personal training approach came through for me though because Colleen ended up making some huge strides!  Take a look at the difference in her time…***9 minutes faster!***

She Rocks Triathlon 2009 (First Triathlon ever):
50th overall
Swim: 27:19
Bike: 34:25
Run: 24:29 8:10 pace

Time: 1:27:45

Iron Goddess 2010 “She Rocks” 5th triathlon ever):
14th overall
Swim: 20:27
Bike: 33:35
Run: 23:00 7:40 pace

Time: 1:18:42

While the improved race time was a huge goal for Colleen, as we developed more of a relationship, we uncovered other deeper issues that are also crucial to success.  As I mentioned earlier, we adjusted Colleens mental approach to exercise, eating, and body image and I know that this was (and is) her key to long term success and goal achievement.

Because of her dramatic improvement, I decided to do a video interview with Colleen to discuss her perspective on working with a trainer and how it helped her improve not only her time, but other areas she wasn’t expecting to as well.

I created a 4 part video series detailing the different parts of Colleen’s experience.  The topics of the videos range from the difference having a trainer played in her performance all the way to her experience as a young figure skater and how it has effected her self-esteem and body image to this day as a 23 year old woman.

Part 1: Triathlon Results

• Difference having a trainer made
• Having structure improved confidence
• Difference in motivation
• How she feels now that she has beat her time by 9 min

Part 2:  Nutrition

• The purpose of having a structured eating plan
• How being coached on nutrition helped her succeed

Part 3:  Body Image and guidance through mental blocks that women face

Although I’m not trained as a psychologist, being a trainer exposes you to the many psychological issues people face in the course of their lifetime.  Another quote from Colleen’s body image paper reveals the truth about the mental state of many young women today:

Confused, I wondered how I could be too big when I only weighed 110lbs with 8% body fat. I felt naked, covering myself and asking, “What is wrong with me?” I couldn’t change my body, I felt hopeless.

In video 3, Colleen explains how training assists you in the mental aspect of sports, fitness, and self-esteem.  The discussion focuses on the role of personal training and how often it is about more than the workout, it’s about learning positive self talk, positive reinforcement, and reaching higher levels with assistance from someone on the outside who can see what you are truly capable of achieving.

Part 4:  Body Image & the media

• Being suited for sports even if it’s a different sport than you started with.
• Having a different body type than the sport you are in doesn’t mean you cannot be successful in athletics or that you aren’t an athlete
• How she can use the lessons she has learned in her work as a figure skating coach

I hope you found this article helpful and informative as it touches on a variety of important issues that I feel affect all of us on some level.  As most of us know, the line between fitness for health vs. for looks & sexuality is often very thin or even non-existent.  This article brings some of these important issues into the open where they can be talked about and solved.