Mind and Body

On Limits

You may have heard a variation of the quote "Your mind will quit 100 times before your body ever does." To be honest, I don't like this sentiment-- it simply isn't true a lot of the time, but like many absolute statements, that is to be expected.

In reality, for most cases, your body can and will "give up" before your mind does. Exhaustion is a biochemical phenomenon and the strongest neural signals can only do so much. This isn't just limited to things like weightlifting, where muscular failure is fairly easy to attain. When lifting something really heavy, you may only be able to perform one repetition, if any at all, before your muscles reach their limit; not even the combined willpower and tenacity of the 300 Spartans is going to change that.

One of my favorite man flicks. I actually have this poster on my wall.

Continuing with the Greek theme, the Olympics are not just a test of willpower. They are a test of genetics and training. The gold medalist is often the strongest or fastest competitor, no matter how hard someone from Montenegro, who barely even qualified, tries. People are limited by their bodies, but I will cede that willpower does play a large role in how hard one trains for athletic performance, so it does have an indirect impact.

I think I've sufficiently demonstrated my point that your body is more likely to fail before your mind in single instances-- however, there is another side to this quote that is somewhat silly. Take long-distance running, for example. If you're not much of a runner, like me, running is not an enjoyable activity. Sure, it's a lot easier for you to stop running (your mind quitting) than it is to run until you puke or collapse or pass out (or a combination of these; your body quitting), but no sane person would ever want to do that.

Ultimately, I like this thought much better:
Don't be afraid to exert yourself and push yourself to your limits, both physical and mental, within reason.

Effort and Willpower

There is a lot of psychology behind exercise and athletics, but I want to focus on one thing in particular: effort and willpower, between which I will differentiate.

I believe effort is essentially how hard you are trying at any given moment. You may think of it as a percentage, but I will mention here that it is one of my pet peeves whenever someone says you can 'give it' over 100%. You can't. It's impossible. You cannot do the impossible.  
 

That being said, you'd be surprised how intense 100% actually is. Human experience is extremely subjective and relative, and most people only evaluate things with respect to past experiences. Most people rarely, if ever, give truly maximum effort. Depending on the scenario, putting forth a large degree of effort can be extremely distressful (e.g., running for your life) or extremely invigorating.

I define willpower as the capacity to give a high amount of effort, or give it consistently. You're not going to do anything difficult if you don't want to do it. This applies to a single workout as well as an entire training regimen.

In modern first-world society, we are conditioned to be relatively lazy and sedentary people. Many have become soft and afraid of effort. Willpower is often shallow because people seldom really need to exercise it-- we are not used to working hard for something we want, because it's relatively easy to live by taking the path of least resistance. Willpower is like a muscle, and if you exercise it, it will get stronger. Do not be afraid of effort and do not let the amount of effort required to meet your goals deter you.

Ignore that double negative.

Don't overdo it, of course, but you need to realize that what seems "too hard" is very attainable. It's just all in your head-- many sane people have already done what it takes to go far beyond your own goals. Take it all one step at a time or one set at a time. Don't let yourself believe "this sucks" when exercising or dieting because if you do, you will have a hard time staying on track.

Of course, exercise doesn't have to be something painful. Working out does interesting things to brain chemistry and on top of releasing endorphins to the point where people enjoy working out with intensity (e.g., runner's high), it promotes mental health: happiness, stress relief, and a plethora of other benefits including resistance to mental disease. You'd be hard pressed to find someone in really good shape who doesn't like to exercise. Get excited about actualizing your goals and doing hard things becomes, paradoxically, easy.

When lifting weights, especially if it's something heavy for you, an oft-given piece of advice is to attack the weight. Don't let it scare you. Do not worry about failure and just do whatever you can with good form. If necessary, grit your teeth and grimace. Think about something that really pisses you off and turn that anger into something constructive-- it will make you feel powerful!

I'll leave you with this well known essay, "The Iron", which talks about the mental aspects of lifting.