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How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind over Muscle
Matt Fitzgerald
Top 10 Best Quotes
“One cannot improve as an endurance athlete except by changing one’s relationship with perception of effort.”
“people often choose to expect the worst of an upcoming experience in hopes of creating a more favorable contrast between their expectations and reality.”
“mainly by increasing tolerance for perceived effort and by reducing the amount of effort that is perceived at any given intensity of exercise.”
“What is the logic of punishing yourself each day, of striving to become better, more efficient, tougher?” He went on to answer his own question. “The value in it is what you learn about yourself. In this sort of situation all kinds of qualities come out—things that you may not have seen in yourself before.”
“To become the best athlete you can be, you need to become really good at coping with the characteristic forms of discomfort and stress that the endurance sports experience dishes out, beginning with perceived effort and extending to the many challenges that are secondary to it, such as fear of failure.”
“The truth of the matter is that the stronger or more capable the body is, the weaker or lazier the mind can afford to be.”
“The muscles can only perform to the degree that the mind is able to cope. Endurance sports are therefore a game of “mind over muscle.”
“The journey toward becoming a mentally fit athlete is very much a journey of personal development.”
“The best source of knowledge concerning the most effective methods of coping with the challenges of endurance sports is the example set by elite endurance athletes. The methods that the greatest athletes rely on to overcome the toughest and most common mental barriers to better performance are practically by definition the most effective coping methods for all athletes.”
“Studies on the phenomenon indicate that a person with a high tolerance for pain is likely to also have above-average capacity to cope with the stress of a job layoff or a cancer diagnosis, and this same person is more likely as well to have experienced a moderate amount of psychological trauma in his or her past. It would appear that a certain amount of misfortune is needed to toughen the mind against suffering and hardship, but excessive trauma leaves scar tissue.”
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Book Keywords:
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