Mental Toughness

Being mentally tough is fundamental to achieving just about anything in life. Whether it is a physical challenge or a life goal, the ability to endure hardship is more important than skill or talent, in most circumstances. There is much talk about training mental toughness and resilience.

This can become an augment on determinism. That is a discussion left for another time. 

What is mental toughness? Mental toughness is the ability to endure mental stress either physical or mental. It is associated with the ability to delay gratification.

Many factors contribute to mental toughness. Personality is a one. Neuroplasticity is another. Cognitive ability, physical capacity, and health are also elements. From the number of factors, the ability to train mental toughness seems complicated.

Many of the factors that contribute to mental toughness are genetically determined. Personality, cognitive ability, (and to some degree) health and physical capacity are determined by genetics. Genetics only account for 50% to 60% of the outcome for most of the factors. Genetic determination can be lower in extreme cases of malnourishment, neglect, or abuse as children.

A genetic determination is only part of the story. The environment partly determines health and physical capacity. The environment is complicated and contains many variables. Many variables are controllable. Many are not. An environment can on average determine an outcome 30% to 40% of the result.

Physical plasticity and neurological plasticity are the mind and body's ability to adapt to change. Physically a change of 10% in muscle fiber can be obtained in training.

An amalgam of personality and cognitive ability determines plasticity. Both personality and cognitive ability are determined by genetics more than health or physical capacity.

Let’s for the benefit of the argument call our subject relatively healthy and say they live in a relatively stable environment. We can subtract 60% for innate ability due to genetics and 20% for uncontrollable environmental factors. That leaves 20% left to elements that are controllable.

What are the controllable factors? Diet and moderate exercise have a high impact on health. Physical capacity is determined by health, strength, and cardiovascular conditioning.

Optimizing health and increasing physical ability can be trained. Is training directly targeted for mental toughness effective? My hypothesis is yes. Given the possible remainder of 10% and the 5% to 10% that every human is capable of, it should be possible to train for mental toughness and see an increase of 5% to 25%.

On an aside, some research done by SEALs says that at the point when you feel like you should quit you have 40% left. That is a precarious number. A mentally tough person with low genetic, physical ability may have 10% to 20% left to give. A person with little ability to delay gratification and high physical ability may have 50% to 60% left to give. While the slogan can be an excellent motivator to incite a person to push through, it is inadequate as a tool to determine how much a person can train mental toughness.

I hypothesize that a person in relatively good health that lives in a stable environment without malnutrition, neglect, or abuse can increase their mental toughness by 5% to 25% through moderate mental toughness training.

"...Not Me, I Never Lost Control"

Alright, alright, I am back. It has been a while. I started this blog nine years ago. A lot has happened since then. I have been away for quite a while. I hope I have changed a bit. I was in the military for the last eight years, and I have been all over the world. I had one deployment to Afghanistan, and I spent a year in Korea. I have driven across the lower 48 states three times. I climbed a couple of mountains, learned to SCUBA dive, and rode my Harley around the Olympic Peninsula. It is great to be back.

Some of my enthusiasm for fitness has waned. The military is a very fitness oriented place and to be honest I am burned out. I have repeated the same things 1000 times. Crossfit was not designed to fill a two-hour Physical Training (PT) block. It was intended to change daily. Doing the Murph WOD every day is not Crossfit. Doing the workouts from weed out programs like BUD's is counterproductive to having soldiers that are fit to fight. Carbs have their place. The form is critical to avoid injury. Fatigue increases the risk of injury because of form degradation, especially for people who are not experts at the exercise.
Running better will make you faster, not running more. The caveat to that is if you are not running at all you are not going to get better at running. That sums it up. For a civilian with a regular job the "lift heavy stay fresh" philosophy applies. Doing some road work, body weight exercises, and functional lifts are good enough. Focus on core, grip, and neck strength. Form, form, form, especially with neck exercises. I think that the same philosophy applies to a deployed environment. If you are going on patrol and may have contact with the enemy starting at a fatigued level is not conducive to the fight. "N' that's all I got to say about that." I will upload some notes from my fitness journals over the past 10 years in the future. 

There is something to be said about mental training. Hanging in there for 1000 clean reps of a bodyweight exercise, an unusually long run, or a multi-day challenge can build mental toughness. Mental toughness can be thought of as a muscle. Like a muscle, it is prone to fatigue and overtraining. It can be trained and strengthened. Rest intervals are essential as the actual training interval just like physical training. Mental training is critical but can be counterproductive to physical training. Of course, that is dependent on multiple variables.

I still love being in, on, around water, philosophy, engineering, shooting sports, and martial arts. I have developed a passion for mountain climbing, hiking, SCUBA, and sailing. I have tastes for the finer things, collecting whiskey, pipes, and good food. I still hold on to being a technologist. It is tempered with some nostalgia.
I look forward to posting regularly and exploring this crazy world together. Biermaster out. 

Yes B.F. Biermaster is a pen name. My real name is so cool it might break the internet. This one has jokes people. If you have read this far thanks.

Another Interval Training Article

Some of my favorite workouts use the Tabata protocol. Tabata’s protocol is a type of interval training developed from the research of Izumi Tabata from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. Basically, the protocol encompasses doing an exercise for 20 seconds then resting ten. It is done for eight rounds, which comes out to four minutes. It is effortless and straightforward. Tabata states in his research that “The rate of increase in VO2 MAX is one of the highest reported.” High-intensity interval training such as Tabata’s protocol has also been touted as being better for fat loss than continuous exercises.

Tabatas can be ported to just about any exercise, and you can get a quality workout in a short amount of time. The most efficient way to use the protocol is to use some kind of full body exercise. Sub-maximal Olympic lifts, kettlebell lifts, or even burpees are practical exercises to use with the Tabata protocol. Complex lifts give the best “bang for the buck” with the protocol. The clean, squat jerk complex, for example, works many different body parts in the same exercise.

The key to the protocol is getting the weight right. To be effective, you need to use a weight that is less than your 20-repetition max (RM) but heavy enough to keep the intensity high. You are only doing the exercise for four minutes, so a weight close to 20 RM is what you are looking for. If you can barely do five pull-ups, you do not want to use the protocol for doing pull-ups. If you easily knock 100 pull-ups, on the other hand, you might want to do pull-ups with 10 or 20 extra pounds in a rucksack or on a belt.

Another way to increase intensity is to increase the pace. When the Tabata protocol is applied to running the pace should be a sprint pace. Other than increasing the intensity this way for running, cycling, or rowing, try using it with body weight exercises like body weight squats or even the good old-fashioned push-up. Body weight squats and push-ups do not give you the full body workout that burpees, eight count bodybuilders, or even dive-bomber push-ups give, but if you are looking to mix it up and you are in it for the cardio benefits they are good substitutes. Push-ups would be best if you have been doing a lot of legwork and you need a rest, but you want the cardio benefits of Tabatas also. Squats are good if you have been doing upper body and need a rest from that.

Upper body exercises actually increase VO2 MAX better than lower body exercises. This seemed counter-intuitive to me because they are smaller muscle groups, but because of their smaller size and relative strength, especially when you are doing using your body weight, they are moving weight closer to capacity. Most people can leg press a couple hundred pounds but only press somewhere just over 100. So the weight is closer to your 20 RM when you are doing upper body work.

There is one other caution. When you do upper body work because it is closer to your 20 RM be careful of overtraining. High repetitions can cause tendonitis and fatigue can lead to rotator cuff injuries and muscle tears. Some of the same cautions come with lower body work, but if the weight is between 35 and 40 RM, it is less of an issue because the lower body was built to withstand more stress. It can be an issue if you are working with a weight closer to the 20 RM mark. If it were a continuous exercise over 20 minutes, the same caution would apply. Do not increase more than 10% per week and if you want to do Tabatas everyday alternate upper body work with lower body only days.

Though upper body work may cause more increase in VO2 MAX, working larger muscle groups like the lumbar back, buttocks, quadriceps, and hamstrings give better fat burning potential. Males who do explosive lifts with a close to maximal weight release testosterone into their systems. Testosterone helps in the formation of new muscle increasing calories burned. Ladies do no worry about becoming mannish because of Tabatas, you do not have testosterone producers. You are safe.

EPOC is Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Most bodybuilding magazines say that EPOC can last as long as 24 hours. This is debatable and figures closer to one or two hours are a more conservative estimate. Either way calories burned because of EPOC do not make up for the difference between cardio work and low intensity training only accounting for 20 or 30 more calories burned over the initial work. This is where Tabatas shine. Continuous state exercise reduces testosterone in males and inhibits estrogen in females. It also causes a catabolic reaction reducing muscle mass. More muscle mass means the body will burn more calories at rest. The body adapts to and becomes more efficient quicker to continuous state exercise. Good news if you desire to live off of less than 1500 calories a day but bad news if you wish to eat normally. In contrast Tabatas have the best of both worlds. They do not reduce muscle mass, testosterone or estrogen, or have the low calorie values of pure low intensity weight training. Tabata’s protocol can in crease testosterone production in males if done correctly, have EPOC if done with enough weight, and the high initial calorie count of cardio work. Overall Tabatas are the best cardio work you can do.

Fitness

This is another archive blog post from 2008. This one was the 13th of May.

I am deep into the first week of my strength endurance cycle. There are a few things that make a strength endurance cycle a strength endurance cycle and not a pure endurance cycle. The first is using weights and the second is that the workouts are not continuous like running, cycling, or swimming. Workouts usually consist of either sets or intervals. In an interval workout, there is some kind of active rest performed between "sets" or intervals of a resistance workout. A strength endurance workout done in sets has complete rest or light activity, like walking, between sets. Running and cycling have interval workouts, but instead of doing another exercise during the active rest interval of the workout the intensity of the exercise is reduced to a comfortable level. Swimming intervals are a little different because there is full rest involved, as there is when sprint training in running. Though water provides resistance swimming is not considered a resistance workout. The lines blur when you start adding weighted vests and pull buoys. To keep things simple body weight and weight lifting exercises are done with sub-maximal weight can be considered strength endurance workouts.

Interval training is good for losing excess body fat. Interval training is better than continuous exercise at increasing VO2 max and increasing metabolism even after the workout is over. Personally, I used to lose weight like crazy doing continuous exercises, but I quickly reached a point where my body adapted, and I stopped seeing the benefit from it. I tried increasing the intensity and it only worked for a month. I increased the length but soon the workout came into conflict with other things. I started interval and sprint training, cut my workout time by three quarters, and finally, I saw the results return. I got down to 215lb. from 235lb. without dieting, only interval training. I did it in a month and a half.

As a side note; I added to my get up squat jump. I mixed it with an eight-count bodybuilder. Start standing, bend down and put your hands on the deck, jump your feet back to push-up position, do a push-up, jump your feet to your hands, stand up, squat, jump, bend your knees and roll on to your back, sit-up, standup, squat, jump, and do it again. You can't really use weigh for this exercise unless you use a weight vest, but it is a great thing anyway.

Another Fitness blog

This was one of my first blogs on May 09, 2008

It is 0200, and I am so tired I can't sleep. I have been developing a new workout strategy. Periodizing workouts are common. It breaks up the monotony of doing the same thing over and over. It also lets you focus on multiple goals. I like doing short cycles (a little ADD). I admit that I probably change more often then I should. I love to do a month or two month periods. For me, it keeps my workouts interesting, and it is just long enough that progress can be made. The proper period according to most of what I have read is three months long.

I like to focus my periods on either strength or strength endurance. When in a strength cycle there should be a tendency to gain weight. You should not be fighting hunger pains when you are working on a 400lb. deadlift. Most people say you need the weight to help move the weight. I do not believe that that is precisely true. You do need the energy to move a weight though, and if you are eating well, taking in enough carbohydrates, and protein, then you will have energy.

On the other hand, strength endurance lends well to losing excess body fat. You can get very lean on a good strength endurance plan alone. You will plateau more quickly without diet, but you will lose some body fat.

Right now I am working a strength endurance cycle. Most of my workouts are full body. I like submaximal lifts for this. Kettlebells work great but so does the bar. Body weight exercises are great also. I love burpees, dive bombers, and get-up squat jumps. Get-up squat jumps are actually three exercises done sequentially. You lie on your back jump to your feet, squat, and jump. Then you lie back down. Fun? Try doing 20. Now try doing 3 sets of 10 with a 35lb. plate with a press when you jump. You don't need rest only 45 seconds. Now that is fun

About The Autodidactic Polymath

Well I envisioned this blog as being a mix self-improvement / fitness blog. I am a curious person and I like asking questions to find out what other people think about things, or if they think about them at all. I am an engineer in my training, so, I go around looking at things to see if we can make them better. That is why I added some puzzles and discussions to the blog. The discussions and puzzles are not meant to be solved they are to spark discussion. I look forward to hearing feedback and any English majors that care to help me improve my writing are welcome to comment. Thank you.

B.F. Biermaster

Engineering Puzzle of the Month

It seems that systems are becoming more and more complicated. The hybrid engine is the latest example. Though it looks simple to understand that the smaller internal combustion engine acts as a generator to charge batteries for an electric motor, the internal combustion engine is quite complicated in its self. Add to that the fact that the majority of the systems in a hybrid are managed by a more complicated computer with more layers of software and you have a quite complicated machine. It would take a true polymath to be able to work on all of the systems in a hybrid. In engineering the less complicated a system, the less there is to go wrong with the system. What would be the best way to reduce the complexity of automotive propulsion without going directly back to the internal combustion engine?

Philosophy Discussion of the Month

Industrialization requires many resources. Most of the resources that it requires are perishable but it is geopolitically infeasible for a country not to industrialize. The question is posed to industrialize do we throw away our long term future so that we can have short term stability? Will the sacrifice of our short term stability have an impact on the long term future? To clarify, if a country that has a concern for the long term future gives way to countries that don't by not industrializing will that not have a worse impact on the long term future?

History Puzzle of the Month

What would have happened if the American Revolution never succeeded?