MIND GAMES

& Pain Tolerance

August 18, 2009
By: Julie McCallum,
Senior Staff

Recently, I was doing coverage on a local 5K run.

I was interviewing someone who participated in the race. I asked about the new route change this year. As he was explaining the new route, and his experience, he mentioned, that when he reached the last quarter of the course, how it was then, that the 'MIND GAMES ' started.

Now if you are a runner who participates in such a competition, you might understand. I could totally relate to this!! I Liked that expression! I had explained to another person listening to the conversation what this meant and gave an example of my own experiences in these "mind games."

I usually shoot for a certain time to beat, the whole time I am training for a race, but during the race at some point, I don't even care about time and just will be happy to finish. I also laughed when he said, he thought about taking an exit right out of the route and just going home, laff

When you over-exert yourself, and push your body's capability to it's limits, it does very much become a mind struggle, and the 'mind games' seem to start taking over your thoughts.

I run as a part of my weekly work-out and trust me... I don't push myself to 'that point' as I would in training for a race, where the 'mind games' start. I most of the time enjoy it, in the outdoors and the nature of the run and listen to the music on my ipod, but not to say that it isn't still 'tough'. In general, most people during a work-out say, lifting weights, your mind is gonna tell you to quit way before your body reaches its max capability.

I would assume these 'mind games' might be the same for other one-on-one sports, or any other physical demanding sport. A good example might be boxing. Research has shown that boxing is rated as one of the highest degree of difficulty in one-on-one sports, imagine trying to perform when your body is getting beat on.

What about mind games not just in sports related issues, but here's a tough one -- waking up extra early in the morning to get an early morning work-out in. I find it hard enough to wake up to jump in the shower let alone work-out when your body and muscles are not warmed up and not even being awake yourself.

How about the pain tolerance of having a baby, & going through labor. I haven't experienced this myself, but believe me, I alone had the mind games playing in my head, what I thought about my brother in-law (at the time) when my sister was going through labor, LOL. Okay I won't get into that and I probably could go on with other experiences, but I better not. smile ... Got Any?

Did I mention, a women's pain tolerance is 3 times higher then a man's, or something like that.

Okay, I'm going to bed now, because I'm sure tomorrow morning . . . when my alarm goes off . . . it's going to be a struggle, as the 'mind games' make me hit 'snooze' three times.