In an endurance performance there are mainly three main variables for success:
- Training
- Nutrition and dietary supplementation
- Mental aspects.
You can deepen and develop these aspects more and more specifically according to your needs and goals.
The mental aspects and the role that the mind plays in performance are the ones that fascinate me the most because they play a key role but you don’t always give them enough attention within your preparation. Other times I have explained to you how motivation is an effective engine to make you achieve your goals, even the most ambitious ones. But today I want to focus on direct management of the effort you sustain during each training session and race. I’d like to give you some tools to help you not so much to improve your fitness as to make the most of it.
Actual and perceived fatigue
The theme is centered on the difference between actual fatigue (with all its muscular and metabolic components) and your perception of fatigue, which is then the one that makes your decisions during your toughest races or workouts. To excel in endurance sports or more simply to achieve your goals you must be able to sustain aerobic activity for an extended period.
You need to learn to understand whether, by the time you begin to slow down, you have reached the actual depletion of your energy stores and your muscle and heart functions, or whether it is your brain that is no longer able to psychologically support physical exertion. The difference is substantial because several studies leading up to Samuele Marcora’s psychobiological model have shown that in most cases athletes reduce or stop activity before reaching actual physical exhaustion. This implies that in a competition the athlete who wins is not necessarily the strongest but the most motivated. If you want to improve your results and reach goals that you have never achieved maybe you don’t need to increase your weekly training hours but you do need to learn to better manage your perception of fatigue. The day you are able to master your mind you will be able to harness your physical potential 100 percent.
You need to find an effective tool that can control your perception of effort. It is important that this is not greater than the effort actually sustained by your body. The data are obvious: If you come to a competition with a tired mind or otherwise rehearsed by other thoughts, your performance will be lower because you will have a greater perception of effort than usual. Instead, there are systems that can help you raise this threshold to walk you toward your desired outcome.
The Self Talk Technique
The system I want to tell you about today is the Self Talk a kind of inner dialogue during which you address yourself. It is as if there is a third person who can tell you what to do during your performance. It can be negative or positive. In both cases, the effects on final performance are important. What you need to develop is positive self-talk-the ability to send yourself positive signals to support your performance. Self talk has proven positive effects in all endurance disciplines. The phrases and terms used in each self talk can be chosen and spoken by you or prepared by a professional (sports psychologist) who provides you with the tools to use on each occasion. Self talk can be used only in times of extreme need or on a more continuous basis. You can use it both in the days leading up to the competition, to boost motivation and self-confidence, and in the various moments of the competition, even in the less delicate ones to always be convinced that you have everything under control.
From the studies done, it seems to give more results when it is phrased in the second person when, that is, you refer to yourself by calling yourself. For example, the phrase “you are having a great race and you are full of energy” is more effective than “I am having a great race and I am full of energy.”
The effectiveness of Self Talk has been demonstrated and measured through studies comparing the behavior and outcome of the same athlete in a maximal exhaustion test faced first under normal conditions and then using an inner dialogue led by a team of psychologists. The effects of Self Talk have been positive and decisive. The most relevant aspect is the reduction in perceived strain that you achieve by using this strategy correctly. As a result, the duration of the test to exhaustion increases, demonstrating that the moment of yield almost always does not correspond to actual energy exhaustion. The reduction in perceived fatigue allows you to perform better even when the racing conditions are particularly harsh. These tests demonstrate, once again, that psychological factors are able to influence performance in endurance sports.
According to the psychobiological model proposed by Marcora during a test or competition you will stop your performance when the perceived exertion is greater than your willpower (motivation) or when you realize that you have reached your physical limit and therefore it is not possible to sustain the same kind of exertion further.
From a practical point of view, which is then what you are most interested in, these results show how important it is to invest energy and time in acquiring the ability to control fatigue during physical activity. To do this you must include psychological work in your weekly planning. A stronger mind can lead you to better endurance performance with the same physical condition.
Find one or more motivational phrases that can keep both motivation and focus high. Positive phrases should give you physical and mental energy and at the same time ward off all those negative thoughts that surface in times of difficulty, putting your final performance at risk. You need to get used to doing this already in training so that self talk becomes a routine you are used to as well as all the other technical gestures needed to build your performance.
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