Mental toughness is learnt not inherited. If you are mentally tough, you have learnt to be, if your not you didn’t. Mental toughness has nothing to do with your heredity, intelligence or character – its an acquired skill. The process is the same that applies to physical skills – hard work, understanding and practice, the point is, if you want to be mentally strong you can.
The ultimate measure of mental toughness in order to feel better and and hit any target, is consistency. This is why during lockdown its important to implement this sort of focus on a daily basis.
Being in the zone puts you in a more relaxed and energized state, this will make you feel strong plus keep you on track in a positive and controlled state of mind.
We can all lose track for a short period of time, but with lockdown lasting for so its even more important to hold your focus and consistency. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted, look to embrace being out of your comfort zone and take on board new ideas and challenges.
Here are a few ideas you may want to look at in order to mix things up, test yourself in your hour of exercise.
Stairs – find some steep outdoor stairs and after a good warm up – power up with a sprint or quick walk, depending on your fitness level and walk down as a recovery. Repeat 6 – 12 times. An excellent heart rate and fat burner workout.
Beach/Grass sprints – Try to find a flat joint friendly surface with a bit of give eg beach or grass. Mark around 40-80 metres and after a decent warm up, work on your speed with short sharp sprints and walk back as a recovery. Look to repeat 10-20 times
Building distance and speed – Each time you run/walk try to add a a small amount to your distance, or speed to a distance you have covered before. This will help hold your focus and give you that feel good factor knowing you have achieved something each time you go out.
Lamp posts – Seek a good route that has regular lamp posts, focus on speed and technique for 2 lamp posts, followed by a slow jog/walk for 4. This type of training keeps your heart rate high throughout the session and as you never fully recover between the sprints it is excellent for endurance as well.
Online Fitness/Health & Wellbeing Platform – During these times its important to have a go to place for all things health, fitness, motivation, wellness, Q&A plus indoor and outdoor workouts. This is exactly what i’ve done to keep you positive and focused, for all details please visit my website.