It has long been said that endurance sports are 90 percent mental. Even when you put in all the necessary physical training, if your mind isn't in the right place prior to and during competition, you don't stand a chance. Despite that fact, many of us end up neglecting the brain training necessary to set us up for success. The latest research on the subject underscores its importance, showing that we are actually capable of talking ourselves out of exhaustion when exercising, which has the potential to boost performance.
The study, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, looked at the relationship between positive self-talk and performance. Positive self-talk encompasses just about anything constructive and upbeat you may tell yourself when running or exercising. At the outset of this particular study, researchers had participants ride exercise bikes while they measured their times and peak power output. Upon splitting the groups into two, one received instruction on motivational self-talk and the other got no such instruction.
When they brought the groups back to the lab for another session, the motivational self-talk group improved their times and reported less perceived exertion. On the other hand, no such effect was observed in the control group.
This is a particularly important finding because it shows that not only is motivational self-talk effective, but it also demonstrates that it doesn't take a whole lot of extra time or effort to see results.
Clinical and performance psychologist Dr. Peter Temple says that a positive thought process is necessary for any athlete looking to excel at his or her chosen sport.
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"Think of great athletes when things are going badly," he says. "What do they look like? How do they act? They're not panicking. They're not beating themselves up. If we could access their inner dialogue it would be more akin to, 'Just keep working, you'll be fine,' than, 'What the heck is wrong with you?'"
Learning to utilize positive self-talk effectively is the tricky part. Temple suggests that athletes look at the body and mind as one complete system that works together to elicit successful performances.
"Serious athletes like to think about their body as a machine that needs good 'fuel' to run well," he says. "If the body is the machine, then the brain is the computer that tells it what to do. Our thoughts are the fuel we feed the brain."
Confidence in your abilities is supremely important when you're training and racing. If you're feeding your mind a steady stream of negative statements, your body will react. Most runners can attest to the fact that when the mind gets stuck in a loop of negativity, simply putting one foot in front of the other can be difficult.
"Confident athletes don't get anxious about or dread workouts because they know they're up to the task and their positive self-talk reinforces this," says Temple. "If a coach says, 'We're going to swim 20 laps as a warm-up,' they don't curse the coach in their head and think, 'I'm not sure I can do that' before they jump in the pool. They just think, 'I got this. Let's go!'"
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The importance of this kind of confidence in relation to physical performance has been demonstrated in a number of studies. One such study published in the Journal of Psychology gathered college-aged men to partake in an arm wrestling competition. After testing their strength and matching up participants, each pair of competitors was told the weaker was the stronger of the two, even though the opposite was true. The study showed that in 10 out of 12 contests, the weaker participant won, likely because both believed him to be the stronger one going into the match.
How to Harness Positive Self-Talk
The first step to gain more confidence, which leads to positive self-talk, is assessing where your current mindset stands. Do you get down on yourself a lot or are you fairly upbeat? Do you chastise yourself for the smallest failures or do you use them constructively to change the way you approach races and workouts down the road?
"Working to change poor mental mechanics isn't that different from working to change poor physical mechanics," says Temple. "You break it down to understand it, reassemble it properly to benefit from it, and work at it until you've mastered it."
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He recommends writing down the negative thoughts that pop into your head when you're training or competing.
"Identify the impact these statements likely have on you and your performance," he says.
Whether they make you angry, anxious, or frustrated, it's important to pinpoint their effect.
Next, he says to rework these statements so they don't create obstacles to good performance.
"For example, the statement, 'I'm so far behind, it's embarrassing,' can be stated as, 'Don't worry about others, run your own race!'"
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Like anything you seek to master, positive self-talk takes practice. That's why it's important to utilize it in training so it is second nature when you get to the starting line.
"Be intentional about it and make working on more positive self-talk one of your training goals," he says.
Begin by establishing a few positive and motivating words or mantras, and repeat them in your head over and over again. Eventually, Temple says, "Practicing this type of thinking will make it automatic."
More: Why Some Runners Quit and Others Become Lifelong Devotees
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