At Pat’s Gym we focus on mental toughness in addition to physical toughness. A typical work-out that focuses on gaining mental toughness is one hour of the same exercise. This teaches the athlete how to stay in the moment without getting bored, losing form or giving up.
We also use isometric holds to work on mental toughness. For example, I may have my clients hang as long as they can on a pull-up bar, hold a plank, or wall sit until they can’t (physically) any longer. Usually people will quit mentally on something before they do physically.
It’s important to learn how to give everything you’ve got and how to read your body. Everyone hits a wall, but it is how you respond to that feeling that separates people who are out of shape or amateurs from professionals and Olympians. The notion of something being too hard thus becomes obsolete.
Physical toughness is how much your body can handle and is much easier to teach. We can measure your body’s physical toughness by how much weight you can lift, your resting heart rate, your lactate threshold and how your body physically changes.
To increase physical toughness, we use strength, power, power endurance, endurance, recovery, and interval and circuit training. For different sports and goals, each training system will be emphasized in different ways. A triathlete, for instance, is going to focus more on endurance, compared to a hockey player who is going to focus more on strength and power.
Improvement in physical and mental toughness can be measured by repeating a workout and comparing it to your previous times. When reaching a goal, you will have to develop both areas and learn how to bring them together with a proper training program design.
