Your Brain Can Quit Before Your Muscles Do

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Thanks

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to There Is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, There is a Method to the Madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412.

The 150-Pound Confidence Crash

SPEAKER_00 0:46

I was working with somebody this morning. And I know that sounds very judgmental. You think, well, aren't all the clients great? Sure. But you know what? I'm going to explain what I mean before I get into the topic. When I say they're a great client, like they're motivated, they have a goal, they pursue their goal. They show up unless there's an absolute emergency. And in this person's case, like even then they're trying to go at a different time. They work hard. They are compliant, which means they follow instructions. They are adherent, which again means that they don't miss. Those are all qualities of a great client. So this is a great client. We often have like interesting conversations too. So this morning he was supposed to do about 10 reps at 150 pounds on the machine incline press. So I'm being very specific with the numbers for a reason. And uh we had slightly changed the workout format for him a little bit from what he's accustomed to. So it was slightly different and maybe in a slight different order. But he's warmed up, he's ready to go. And uh his target was 10 reps at 150 pounds, naturally with good form, because that's what we want. And I believe he did three. I thought he might have done four, but he thinks he did three. And then basically just gave out. And he couldn't do another repetition. Now I was a little bit surprised, and I think he was surprised. And he's a go-getter, as I said, so he doesn't like to quote fail, even though you know that's not really failing. I mean, if you're giving your best in an exercise session, you're not failing. But he's a little bit extrinsically motivated, so I think he looked at it as a fail because Coach Robb said he should and could get 10 reps, and he did three or four, depending on whose count was right. So he looked at me in a little bit of disarray and he says, Is that heavier than normal? And I said, No. And I said, you know, in fact, you blankety blank, although it doesn't really matter who it is, because this is nothing but a positive story anyway, but you know, who knows? I'll just say blankety blank, have done 245 pounds for two reps before, and you've commonly done this weight for this amount of reps before. And he goes, huh. For some reason, I don't know. I saw 150 and I got a little freaked out, and I thought maybe it was heavier. He said, No, it wasn't. So he looks at me in common form with him and he says, Do you mind if I try again? I'm like, no, let's go. So he did seven more repetitions with relative ease. I mean, the last rep was probably all he could do, but the point is, was he wasn't cheating to get it. It didn't look like it was undue fatigue or stress or anything. And keep in mind he only did three or four the first time. And it was this conversation, it sounds like it was long, but it really wasn't. Maybe 10 or 15 seconds. And then he was able to get seven more with these, which is very counterintuitive if he really hit fatigue or failure, right? The difference was his brain, what he believed he can do and not do. And then we had a conversation about that because he's in that line of work, and he's like, you know, every time this happens, I'm kind of shocked and surprised that the brain is that powerful. And I said, it absolutely is. It absolutely is. And you know, I've said this before in this podcast that um some of the people I talk to regularly that are into health and fitness, like they don't love when I talk about some of the psychological variables to exercise and training, but it is everything, like it is huge. So since they are my friends, I say, well, you know what? Too bad, because the problem with exercise, adherence, and compliance, and also being the best we can be, is rarely because people don't know what they're supposed to do. And it is mostly because people are not doing for whatever reason they're supposed to do, so it's a psychological decision. So the brain is extremely powerful when it comes to all of this stuff.

Affirmations And Self-Talk Effects

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Along the same lines, there's a lot to affirmations, and I want to get into that as well. You know, when you tell yourself I'm strong, um, I'm able to do this, you know, whatever, but positive affirmations, whatever they might be, and they don't always have to be about exercise or training or fitness or whatever, but just positive affirmations. Like, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to lift this weight. All right. That's kind of combining an affirmation and also kind of some cognitive therapy as far as like explaining to somebody why we should erase the doubt from their brain. But a lot of times people will often kind of poo-poo positive affirmations. Yet the research is really clear that one side of the brain doesn't know which side the brain is talking to. Or let me say that again. That sounded like a little bushism. Sorry, everybody, if you uh get politically offended, but you know, that was a joke about 10 years ago, maybe 15. But anyway, that was said improperly. Let me restate that. One side of the brain is not sure that it's you that's actually talking to it, so it's going to come from somebody else, or it's going to come from you. And the brain that receives it really can't tell the difference. And I know a lot of people don't believe that, but there is truth to it. Like they know that. So affirmations matter. So, in other words, if I tell you, hey, I think you're strong, or you tell yourself, hey, I think I'm strong, that receptive center doesn't know really the difference. So we do have to be very careful about how we speak to ourselves. But let's go back to that first component of psychology, which is belief and making sure that we really, really challenge something that we might see as false.

Research On Belief And Strength

SPEAKER_00 8:23

There was many studies done. There had been many studies done in strength and conditioning on the power of belief. One famous study had different control groups and different experimental groups. One group, this was done with the bench press, so a strength training study done to show that what you believe going into it matters and impacts your performance. So one group had the one group was normal, meaning they were bench pressing the same amount of weight that they were told they were bench pressing. So they were kind of like the control group. So, in other words, if they were told, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but let's just say 200 pounds, if they were told it was 200 pounds on the bar, it was 200 pounds. There was another group that was told that the weight was actually lighter than it was, but it actually was let's just say 200 pounds. So there was a group that was lied to ethically, right? They knew going into it there was going to be some games, but they were told it was 200 pounds. In reality, it was maybe 20 pounds, and I don't remember the exact number of pounds down or pounds up that it was, but they were given a different number than it actually was, and it was actually the 200, but they told it was lighter. Let's say it was 180 pounds, and then finally there was a group that they told was 200 pounds, but it was actually say 220 pounds, so it was heavier than what they were told. All right. Now, the interesting thing is, and then they were all rotated around. This study lasted a couple different weeks, and basically they were all doing roughly the same weight, and then one group was doing slightly lighter, some one group was doing slightly heavier, but they were lied to. All right. The interesting impact of this study found that those that were told they were lifting weights heavier than they were, even though they weren't, or I should say heavier than they're used to, even though they weren't underperformed. Those that were told they were lifting lighter weights than they actually were, but they really were weights they were accustomed to or heavier, actually overperformed. Isn't that crazy? And the studies have been replicated in this over and over and over, which means basically confidence begets better performance, and better performance begets confidence. Like it's a loop that goes hand and hand. Okay, so the bottom line is if a person thinks something is heavier than they're able to do, they will underperform. Now, why? Well, there's a lot of theories. I mean, but basically it's just the quit theory, like they quit before they even start because they've told themselves they can't do it. So at the first little bit of resistance, they essentially stop trying. And then the people who overperform when the loads are actually heavier, but they're told they're lighter, it's basically the same concept. They believe they can do it. So when they start pushing a little bit harder, when they feel the resistance, they have this thinking of, you know what, I've done this before. Maybe I'm just a little tired, I shouldn't quit, and they push through it. And so I didn't have to do a double-blind study here at my gym this morning to prove this. I was able to do it with my client because it was the same concept. He just forgot how much weight he's using on the chest press. I mean, you know, that's my job to pay attention to the weights a lot. Not everybody pays attention to it. So he might have been thinking it was a different exercise. That's very possible. But when he thought it was over his head, he naturally just kind of quit. Not because he's a quitter. Remember, I've started out this whole podcast talking about what a gamer he is, what a hard worker he is. So it's a natural inclination to sort of quit when we think we can't do something. The brain is so powerful and important, and our way of thinking matters so much, and a positive attitude will definitely carry you a long way. Now I'm going to give you a similar story and show you sort of the inside of coaching. When

Coaching Confidence For Race Goals

SPEAKER_00 13:33

I was working with um, when I was working with more endurance athletes about 15, 20 years ago, it was a common gig for me. I worked with a lot of the different uh athletes using physiology to try to help them be their best. And I was working with someone who was a pretty darn elite endurance athlete back then. She was a phenomenal runner, cyclist triathlete. I mean, she was really, really, really good, one of the better ones in the area. Probably the best in Velushi County for a while there. And uh she had, again, those those traits I mentioned earlier of a great client athlete, like uh very adherent, very compliant, followed instructions, um, did whatever I asked, you know, never quit. Um, just had all those qualities, which again, going in, I think really, really helps. And um, like a lot of people, just had a little bit of self-doubt. Not a lot, but you know, fairly confident person, but had a little bit of self-doubt when it comes to her endurance stuff, her travhlon stuff. And so, you know, a good coach is going to help an athlete overcome that. And so that would be what I would do a lot because they're very compliant. They were going to absolutely do the work that I wanted them to do. And um, you know, I knew that going in. And so I would give challenging goals and workouts. And then I started giving challenging goals for races. And I can remember a few times thinking to myself, you know what? I don't know if they can achieve this certain time. I believe it was a couple running races I did this with, and which is a little more objective, like you have a little bit more control over setting a goal where trahlons, you know, so iffy because a swim could be short, it could be long, the bike could be different, you know, all these things. So you can fine-tune a goal a little easier with running. So I can remember thinking, you know, I don't know if they can reach this. Like if they reach it, it's going to be a stretch. Like it was gonna it could be close, but it was gonna be a stretch. Like it wasn't impossible, but I knew it would be a stretch. But I didn't let that on. I just told them, you know what? I absolutely know you could run this time. Like, I know you can run this time. They're like, Oh, I don't know. I said, No, I know you can run this time. So they ran the race and they hit the time. And then I did it maybe a couple months later, or you know, within that. I just remember there being more than one instance where I did this. And then, like, maybe a year later or so, like after they were sort of starting to wind down some of their training, I let them in on my secret. I said, you know, I wasn't a hundred percent sure that you could do either. Like, even if you were close and didn't make it, you reached your goal and it was awesome. But I was gonna stretch you as far as I could. So I wasn't sure, you know, and they kind of laughed. But I remember like around that time, they were saying, you know, Rob, it Rob knows what he's doing and he pushes me and he helps me get better. So if he tells me I can do this, then I can do it. And so I kind of built in them mind confidence so they had confidence. So how we respond, how our performance goes really, really matters beforehand how we are thinking about it. You know, we're not always going to feel great, we're not always going to be our best physically, mentally, spiritually, whatever. But our attitude is really going to impact how we perform. And then how we perform is going to impact how we

Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Motivation

SPEAKER_00 17:24

feel. Now, some people are more extrinsically motivated than others, and all the studies I've done in sports psychology, and I've done a lot because my first degree was in psychology, has shown me that you really can't make an extrinsically motivated person too intrinsically motivated. You can get them more intrinsically motivated, but you're not going to totally shift their character over. So we don't spend a lot of time trying to get somebody more intrinsic or trying to get somebody more extrinsic. So instead, we kind of work with what we have. But the more extrinsically motivated someone is, the worse they're going to feel if they don't perform well in their workouts. And it's kind of a double-edged sword because like they go into it maybe a little bit negative, and then being a little bit negative will impact their performance, and then they're going to feel bad about their performance. So it's, you know, it's not great that the extrinsically motivated people are more impacted by their performance, and then the mood or the attitude is going to impact that more. Like it would be more ideal if it was the other way around, but it's not. Whereas an intrinsically motivated person isn't going to be as negatively impacted by their performance because they're going to say something more along the lines of, well, I didn't hit my numbers, but I know ultimately my body doesn't know the difference, and I felt like I worked hard and I gave it my all, and you know, yada yada yada, they're not going to be as impacted. Now, definitely the mindset can still affect their workouts too. So the bottom line is whether we're intrinsic or extrinsic, whether we exercise all the time sometimes, or whether we're thinking about our sports, our mindset is absolutely going to matter.

Realistic Positivity And Ditching “Can’t”

SPEAKER_00 19:21

We don't need to lie to ourselves. Like, that's not what I'm talking about. You know, the people that say things like, You got this, you got this. I mean, what does that really mean? Like, that's not gonna work. But instead, it would be like, Well, you know you can do this because you've done this before. Or you know you can lift this weight because you've done it before. So, you know, don't get into the I can't do this mindset. You know that you can. Or phrases like, well, I know what no matter what happens, I'm going to be able to handle this because I have enough fitness to do so. So if you take somebody who's a little bit overwhelmed by doing an endurance event that might be a little bit longer than they're used to, like maybe they've done a bunch of 5Ks and they've never done a 10K. Well, it would kind of be lying to themselves or lying to them if you're their coach to say, well, it's just double a 5K, you're going to be absolutely fine and you're going to do this when you don't know. You suspect that they're going to be fine, but you don't know for sure. But instead, if you said, Well, I know your fitness level is great. And so I do know that if you start to feel a little bit overwhelmed, if you feel like you've not paced correctly and you're starting to burn out or whatever, I know that you can absolutely just slow down a little bit and finish it and get through it. Like that's positive thinking without lying to yourself. But going into things with a positive attitude is so important. And again, it's not that toxic positivity stuff, because that stuff like really gets on my nerves, you know, the you got this or you know, the million and one praises people are given because of, you know, for whatever reason on social media or something. No, you know, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like objectively getting the person or yourself in the right mind frame of what you're there to do. Like I have um, I mean, I have a lot of clients, you know, I could be talking about clients all day long. I just try to use recent stories of some different clients where stuff like this comes up in different contexts. So I've already given you, you know, the stories of the weight, um, trying to get the weight, and I've given you stories of the endurance athlete. You know, sometimes people with positive mindsets will come in and say, you know, I've really been under the weather the last couple weeks, and I know they have like they missed or they were sick, and they say, but. You know what? I know I'm gonna get through it. I know I'm gonna feel better. And I'm just gonna do what I can today. Like, that is a really positive attitude, attitude. It's not like giving in to the sickness. It's not like, you know, not showing up because you can't be your best. Like, that's negative stuff when you get into that mindset. It's really, you know, well, I know I'm going to be fine. And I also know I'm not going to feel my absolute best today. But I also know this is a step in the right direction of my recovery and getting back to the gym and getting going again. Like that this has happened like this week with a person, you know, and I saw them in the beginning of the week and that was their mindset. Saw them today, and their mindset was even better because they're starting to feel better. I mean, that is a huge mindset to have. And then what I found is the people that always have like negative mindsets, you know, they're always like defeating themselves before they start. You know, there's a lot of I can't, or it's too hard, or you know, stuff like that. I mean, they almost always prove themselves right. You know, um, looking up on my board here, there's there's this quote that says, those that think they can and those that think they can't are both correct. And, you know, whoever originally stated that, I'm not quite sure. But there is so much truth to it. I mean, you can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think, especially to the negative end. Like if you're telling yourself you can't do something and something's too hard, I mean, you might as well stop right there. I mean, you're just not going to be able to do it. And if you say to yourself, oh, I'm absolutely going to crush this thing, and I'm going to, I know for sure I'm going to do this thing I've never done before. Well, that's also its own level of arrogance. And the reality is you go into it going, there's no reason why I can't do this, and I know that I'm fit enough. And I also know it's not going to break my heart if I fall a little short of that and I'm going to give my best. Like, there's the happy medium with positive thinking. There is true positive thinking, realistic thinking, like I talked about in the bench press examples. Like, well, you've done this before, so you know you can do it, you know, and then there is the defeatist attitude. You know, um, I'll I'll finish with saying that like one of the words us trainers hate is can't. We say it's the four-letter word that starts with the C, and people's minds usually go in an even nastier direction, but it's can't. I mean, that's a really bad word. I mean, oftentimes it's won't, not can't. But when you tell somebody, hey, do five pull-ups, and they look at you and say, I can't. It's like, well, I know you can do a couple, and then you can take a break and do another one, that's three, and then you could take another one and do four. But when their first words are can't, I mean, they're defeated before they even start. And I mean, I don't know where that stuff begins. My guess is it would begin in childhood or whatever, but there comes a point if you want to be your best physically, and probably in every other area your life, you need to kind of get can't out of your vocabulary. I mean, we've said for years, Waltz won't. You can stop eating after, you know, dinner, but you won't because it's, you know, pleasurable to do so. So it starts with really watching what we say to ourselves. It's, I mean, we spend all day with ourselves, and yet, you know, we worry about what other people say to us, but we we give little credit to what we say to ourselves. So I really want everybody to try to jump on the positive mindset. And uh I believe it's absolutely critical. So next time you want to say I can't, instead just say, no, there's no reason on earth that I can't do this and do my best. That is in my control.

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SPEAKER_00 26:03

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