Mental Toughness

Mental toughness is a personal, persevering decision. You can view this as an athlete's desire to continue exercise, even when passing through higher and higher levels of fatigue. I began experimenting with myself and fatigue this year after the Games and came to see some interesting results. I used to believe that everything about fatigue could be defined physiologically. I would see myself working out and envision the physiological mechanisms that were running out to and stopping my performance.

There are 5 physiological mechanisms of fatigue that I am concerned with. Depletion of energy systems, inadequacy of the circulatory and respiratory systems, body temperature elevation, neurological insufficiency and dehydration can all lead to fatigue. As I read more about these mechanisms I saw that all of them had their short comings. How do you explain the marathon runner that can run a 4 minute mile pace with a heart rate of 200? How do you explain the man who, at risk of death, was able to tread water for 40 hours until he was rescued? Surly their systems had run out. Further still, how do I explain the fact that the other racers in that marathon had the same potential physiologically, but couldn't keep up? Or what about the other two treaders that could not stay above water and were lost at sea? There is one explanation: mental toughness stems from the interaction of the mind and the body.

Mental toughness can be seen as desire or will power. Interesting studies have been performed on sedentary and professional athletes and their ability to withstand exertion. Sedentary people always gave up early, with no real signs of approaching any true fatigue. The professional athletes, on the other hand, were able to withstand huge amounts of work and go on.. So what's all this mean? that mental toughness can be trained just like any other skill. to get to a higher level you must continually push the envelope of your own limits... So what's it going to be???? You wanna be tough as nails mentally, then train for it or continue to be a mental midget.... The choice is yours......