Regular Workout Routine Also Strengthens Our Minds
#1 Train our mind to stay focused on the right path instead of shortcuts
It is a well-known and scientifically proven fact that regular exercise is essential to maintain good health. The pressures of our modern life tend to prevent us from getting regular exercise. I mean anything from running, lifting weights, Yoga, or calisthenics that we do to maintain physical health counts as exercise. Just like building our body, the fundamental aspects of self-discipline: self-control, and willpower can be trained like muscle. The more you train them, the stronger they become.
How does Exercise strengthen our mind
Fundamentally, exercise requires us to move our body or get into the correct position while working against resistance. The rules that govern these positions and movements are called form. This process also applies to training our minds. Moreover, over several years of regular workout routines, I have discovered that we don’t need additional time to train our minds, as we can do a physical and mental workout simultaneously.
1. Train our mind to stay focused on the right path instead of shortcuts
We all have a natural drive to feed our ego by skipping ahead. These may push us to do all sorts of strange contortions to lift heavier weights. The most important aspect of physical exercise is maintaining form. The right thing to do is to reduce intensity or pause when the form breaks. This requires self-awareness, humility, and acceptance that we cannot do as much as we thought. Practicing this builds our minds to dominate and control our egos.
2. Regular exercise teaches us how to train
Deliberate training and repetition are fundamental to personal growth and preparing ourselves for the future. It prevents us from being pushed around by the forces of life. The following describes the irony of life succinctly.
Life gives you the test first and the lesson afterward. — Oscar Wilde
Regular physical exercise teaches us how to train ourselves to master anything by presenting us with typical difficulties to overcome. These include persevering through deliberate and controlled action, keeping track of the results, using our creativity to overcome saturation of progress through a pivot, and maintaining consistency by going to the gym even if you don’t feel like it. It is a fight with your mind and not just physical resistance.
3. Training on how to deal with pain and discomfort
Regular exercise trains our minds to embrace discomfort and keep moving forward. Most pain, psychological or physical, is not harmful to us. Nevertheless, it does add resistance to action. For example, waking up early may make us groggy initially, but it is harmless in most situations. On the other hand, it does make me push the snooze button repeatedly. Pushing ourselves during exercise trains our minds to ignore and overcome innocuous discomfort and even look forward to it. It gives us a sense of accomplishment and confidence when we overcome our weaknesses.
4. Becoming self-aware of good and bad pain.
Working out is a controlled way of pushing your physical limits. The goal is to consistently push ourselves without getting injured. This requires persevering through discomfort and differentiating between good and bad pain. For example, running regularly with burning calves may not be doing any harm to you. On the other hand, if you feel a throbbing pain in your jaws and teeth when running, no matter how mild, it could be a sign of an impending heart problem. Regular exercise gives us a mental practice of self-awareness and maintaining rationality despite all the discomfort.
5. The balance of exertion and rest is necessary for growth
Building our physical health requires following training with rest and recovery. Rest is when our muscles and cardiovascular system become stronger. Sleep is when our understanding and data from our short-term memory get integrated into long-term memory. Growth is a balance between training and recovery. Our desire to see results from our exercise effort drives us to learn how to balance our contradictory needs that arise in various aspects of life, especially leadership [1].
To lead properly, a leader must be balanced. — Jocko Willink
6. Teaches us to fail forward and get back up
For example, I am prone to spraining my ankle, especially on an uneven running surface. Therefore, I decided to run on the beach. Of course, Murphy paid a visit during the initial half mile, whereby I stepped on a hole in the sand and sprained my ankle. It was painful initially, making me limp for some time. Despite this, I continued with my run after a small break. Despite the uncertainty of spraining my ankle again or having a ligament tear that would put me down for several weeks, I continued running for four more miles, being extra cautious about holes and the pain in the ankle. Taking the risk and overcoming fear earned me some self-confidence in my ability to handle uncertainty and keep moving forward.
7. Pushing our physical limits trains our minds to deal with uncertainty
Pushing ourselves beyond what we thought we could achieve trains our minds to keep progressing during uncertain times. As soon as we get closer or cross our anticipated mental limits, overcoming and addressing our fears triggered by limiting beliefs becomes essential. We can train our minds by creating such situations through our workout routines.
For example, I am prone to spraining my ankle, especially on an uneven running surface. Therefore, I decided to run on the beach. Of course, Murphy paid a visit during the initial half mile, whereby I stepped on a hole in the sand and sprained my ankle. It was painful initially, making me limp for some time. Despite this, I continued with my run after a small break. Despite the uncertainty of spraining my ankle again or having a ligament tear that would put me down for several weeks, I continued running for four more miles, being extra cautious about holes and the pain in the ankle. Taking the risk and overcoming fear earned me some self-confidence in my ability to handle uncertainty and keep moving forward.
Final Thoughts
I have been working out regularly for a while. This has immensely improved my physical health. I only realized the parallels between training your mind for life’s challenges and working out recently. Now, I give myself physical tasks to challenge and experiment with my mindset, in addition to reaping the physical rewards. This practice does not take any extra time and improves my willpower and self-control.
References
[1] Willink, J. (2020). Leadership strategy and tactics: Field Manual. St. Martin’s Press.
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