Education

A challenge for your mind

When Bevan was studying, he had a tutor who was fascinated with how most athletes spend so much time developing their physical but little time on their mental ability. The number he threw out there was that the majority of athletes will spend 90% on the physical and only 10% on the mental. 
 

So the question is:
If you dedicated more time in your training routine to your mental development – would you perform better even if this meant taking time away from your physical training time? 

While I think the answer may become obvious fairly quickly, we thought we would set a challenge for you to see the effect it will have on your training.
 

Here’s your challenge, for the next 7 days of training apply this mental prep technique:

Before you start your training session devote 5-10mins where you can focus without distraction, this could be in the car before you go to the session or before you leave home.
 

1. Think about what exercises you are going to do in the next session and what the objective of the session is.

2. Identify when the most challenging moments will be and predetermine what you will do at these times. You can do some visualisation and also think of words that you can use to get you through those times.

3. Think about the benefits, either mental or physical, you will get when you have taken the actions that you have predetermined.
    

Once you have tried this for 7 days assess if adding this process has helped you reach a higher level in your training. If you find it does then you could include this as a key part of your exercise routine and watch the results come as you are learning more about how you work successfully.