“Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I’m sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that’s keeping you from the finals?” - Lance Armstrong in “Dodgeball“

By now most of us know the incredible story of Lance Armstrong, the Texas native that came back from cancer to win 7 consecutive Tour de France titles from 1999-2005. He has inspired many and is now busy trying to conquer his next challenge, the sport of running. He ran his first marathon in 2006 finishing in 2:59:36 (if you’re not sure, this is really good). He recently completed this year’s Boston Marathon in 2:50:58. Elite runners, watch your backs.

The story is amazing because it seems so supernatural and unreal. When staring at the list of Armstrong’s achievements the natural question is how? How does a man go from his deathbed to winning one the toughest sporting events in the world 1,2,3….7 times in a row! How does one maintain that much consistency? Lance has told us, “It’s Not About the Bike,” and I would agree — I think the majority of the answer to “how” lies in Lance Armstrong’s mental toughness.

Mental toughness is talked about a lot, but understood by very few. It is the ability to will oneself through less than ideal situations and conditions whether that be battling cancer or simply waking up early to go workout. Mental toughness can come from many sources such as:

• overcoming a difficult childhood
• a deep faith in God
• battling an addiction or disease
• undergoing military training
• consistent physical exertion

I know several people that I would consider mentally tough from WWII veterans to outdoor adventurers to Christian missionaries, but my friend Beau Suder is the first that comes to mind.

Beau has been an incredibly close friend for some time now so I’ve gotten to see his “inner workings,” a bit more than most folks. In high school Beau was an amazing athlete. Was it because he was 6′2” 220lbs with a 50-inch vertical? No, it was because he worked harder and pushed himself more than anyone else on the field. I have several stories I could tell, but I’ll keep this short.

Beau ended up playing football for the Air Force Academy, but struggled with a nagging shoulder injury. One night, while playing UNLV, he made a big hit on a guy and came trotting to the sideline holding his arm which was completely limp - he had dislocated his shoulder. I was on the sidelines and cringed thinking he would be out for the game if not longer. The next thing I saw was him talking to the trainer and the trainer popping his shoulder back in right there on the sidelines. One play later, Beau was trotting back onto the field to play the rest of the game! This is mental toughness, ignoring pain and performing under less than ideal circumstances.

As I began thinking about how one builds mental toughness I realized that while there are many ways it comes about, for the majority of people, consistent and intense physical exertion is the most accessible and common way to build mental toughness. You can’t help if you grew up in a posh suburban environment with loving parents or have never battled cancer, and the majority of people will never undergo the type of training that comes standard in the military, but everyone can go on a long run or work out until their bodies are screaming to stop. With that in mind, here are some keys to building mental toughness that anyone can follow:

1. Show Up - “Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on? ” - Lance Armstrong

What separates a guy like Lance from 99% of the world is the fact that he showed up everyday, when it was raining, when it was hot, when he was sore, when he was tired….he showed up everyday. JUST SHOW UP! What happens after you show up is where the real fun begins, but most people can’t even make it to that point. If it’s working out, tell a friend you’ll meet them at a certain time so you will be less likely to back out. If it’s battling an addiction, make yourself go to a recovery group every time it meets.

2. Hurt Vs. Injured - “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” - Lance Armstrong.

My high school football coach, John Deti, used to always ask players that limped to the sidelines during a game, are you hurt or injured? This may seem trite to some, but he was keying in on a fundamental issue. Soreness, stiffness, bruises…these are just parts of any game or any physically demanding activity, but they should not keep one from continuing. Injuries on the other hand, like muscle tears, broken bones, etc. are a different thing entirely and should be taken care of. One of the best ways to develop mental toughness is extreme physical exertion…if there is no discomfort , you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. This is different from causing injury which hinders you rather than helping.

3. Unfamiliar and Unexpected Are Your Friends - Part of building mental toughness involves being comfortable performing in stressful situations. One of the best ways to develop this trait is by consistently doing things you have never done or trying things a different way. Fear of the unknown keeps many from ever developing mental toughness, but by consistently placing yourself in unfamiliar situations you can learn to deal with stress and fear. Some good ones that I’ve tried include rock climbing, attending the Air Force Academy, swimming (what is recreation for most used to stress me out since I was a terrible swimmer until recently) and mountain biking. You don’t have to do something crazy, just something that you don’t normally do and something that puts a little fear in your heart.

4. What’s Your Motivation - Whenever you find yourself in a tough position you will need something you can focus on to provide motivation. I don’t know exactly what Lance focused on during the hill climbs of the Tour de France, but I’m sure it included a mixture of other cancer patients he had met along the way, yellow jackets and a finish line. Lately, for me it has been my daughter and my desire to have her look at her father’s life someday and say, “Wow, he really pushed himself and accomplished some great things.” I want her to be as proud of me as I am of her. Whatever it is, everyone has to find something to focus on for motivation. If you allow your mind to focus on your pain or your laziness you will have a hard time pushing through any adversity.

5. Constantly Challenge Yourself - What most people fail to understand is that mental toughness is something that has to be practiced and developed over time. The key to this is placing yourself in challenging situations…constantly doing things that are hard. This is a fundamental principle of military training. Sure, push-ups and sit-ups help develop you physically, but after a couple hundred of them it becomes much more of a mental game than a physical one. The military uses physical training and yelling because it creates a stressful environment that breeds mental toughness and forces one to deal with intense discomfort and anxiety, the fact that it gets you in shape is a side benefit.

6. Surround Yourself with Lance’s and Beau’s - As with most things in life, you will become who you spend time with. So, if you want to get more mentally tough, spend time with people that already are. It’s contagious. I always love working out with Beau because just when I’ve had it and am ready to leave the gym he is just starting…he pushes me by his example. Lately I’ve been pouring myself into training for a marathon. Being as I’ve never run one I have tried to meet and talk to others that have in hopes of gleaning some insight and motivation from them. Whether you are training for a marathon or not, surrounding yourself with other mentally tough people is a sure way to become mentally tough yourself.

Mental toughness isn’t about being macho or cocky, it’s about coping with stress, anxiety and pain. It’s about running another lap when your throat is burning, doing 20 more push-ups after your arms start to shake and doing the things others aren’t willing to do.

This trait is beneficial not just for the Navy SEAL, but for the 9-5 average Joe as well. When one looks at people like Lance, the Ironman triathalete, or the Vietnam POW it is easy to say, “I could never make it through something like that or be as strong as them.” The fact is, they too had to develop their mental toughness just like everyone else, day after day after day. Simple, but not easy.

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Since writing my post on the Lost Art of the Push-Up last month I’ve gotten a lot of feedback indicating a great interest in physical fitness. Keeping in theme with classic exercises that don’t require thousands of dollars of equipment or gym memberships I want to present 3 exercises that will give you an incredible workout and get you in great shape if done consistently.

1) push-up

2) pull-up

3) sit-up

These three exercises comprise the workout trifecta or the “Holy Trinity of fitness,” as reader Dave pointed out. They are a bit old-school, but they’ve stood the test of time and are still used today, with great success, by the U.S. military.

Here is a quick summary of the how’s of each exercise and what muscles they work.

Push-Up

1) Lie Face down on the floor with your legs together. Put your palms on the ground just more than shoulder width apart.

2) Look out ahead of you, not down. Look out ahead of you and focus on something to keep your head from bobbing up and down during the exercise.

3) While pushing yourself up keep your back as straight as possible. Imagine a board running down your back from your head to your toes. Don’t stick your butt in the air and don’t go the opposite direction looking like a seal with your back arched. Keeping your back straight is key in working out your whole body.

4) As you reach the top, take a breath and then start down. Lower yourself until your arms are bent at a 90 degree angle, but don’t let yourself rest on the floor. Lots of people let their chest touch the floor, but this is a weak way of doing push-ups and your cheating yourself if you do this.

5) Repeat until you can no longer push yourself up. Going to failure is extremely uncomfortable, but nothing else will give you a more accurate indication of where you are physically

Muscles Worked:

• Chest
• Triceps
• Shoulders

Pull-Up

1) Find a Hanging Surface. Most people prefer a metal bar of some sort, but any surface that will allow you to hang down at arm’s length will work. You can purchase doorway pull-up bar at most sporting goods stores or online.

2) Hang Palms Facing Away. This is the difference between a pull-up and a chin-up. With a chin-up your palms are facing you and you work different muscles, mainly biceps. For a pull-up you palms should be facing away from you. This is a bit harder, but it works your back a lot more. Position your hands a bit wider than shoulder width. You can vary this as width to work different muscles, but this is a good starting place.

3) Cross Your Feet. By crossing your feet you keep your legs from thrashing around and also help keep them bent a little bit. Legs have no place in this exercise, so keep ‘em crossed and still.

4) Pull Yourself Up. Seems simple enough, but if you’ve never done pull-ups, chances are you may only be able to do 1 or 2, if any. No problem, you’ll get there (more on getting started below). While pulling yourself up remain controlled. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar.

5) Lead With Your Chest. Imagine pointing your sternum right at the pull-up bar, this will help ensure proper body position and keep you from injuring shoulders. Looking up during the pull-up will help this happen more naturally.

6) Lower Yourself Down. Don’t let yourself just fall down, be controlled. By controlling yourself on the way down you are working your muscles throughout the whole exercise and preventing injuries that can occur from slamming your body weight down on joints and muscles

Help, I Can’t Even Do One - Most people can’t do a pull-up right out of the gate so don’t feel bad. Here are some ways to get started:

• Ask someone to help. If you have a workout partner have them hold your sides and push you as you go up. Make sure they pushing you up…I’ve had “partners” spot me and push me forward which didn’t work out so well.
• Use the Lat pull-down machine. By increasing your weight on this machine you will be building the muscles necessary for pull-ups.
• Use a resistance band. These can help you on the way up…this is good if you don’t have a partner

Muscles Worked:

• Back
• Arms
• Shoulders

Here’s an awesome post on pull-ups from StrongLifts.com

Sit-Up

1) Anchor Your Feet. Whether you have someone hold down on your feet or you slip them under something sturdy like a couch or a sit-up bar at the gym the important thing is to anchor your feet.

2) Arms Crossed Over Chest. Many people put their hands behind their heads, but this can result in an injury. The best technique is keeping your arms crossed over your chest. Not only is it safer, it forces you to use your abs rather than momentum from jerking your head up with your arms.

3) Touch Legs with Elbows. Go up until your elbows touch your thigh. Flex your abs as you reach the top and give a wink to the person holding your feet just to show them that you’re a fitness god.

4) Go Down Until Your Shoulders Touch the Ground. Don’t bounce yourself, but make sure that you go back down all the way. By having your shoulders touch the ground you are making sure to get the full range of the exercise. Don’t, however, let yourself rest between sit-ups…touching the ground is not the same as laying on the ground.

Muscles Worked:

• Abdominals
• Obliques
• Hip Flexors

These three exercises are by no means the only exercises one should do to get themselves in top physical shape, but they provide a very solid base from which to start building. Obviously one would be wise to do some sort of cardio exercise like running or bicycling and weight training if possible. What makes these three exercises so great is the wide range of muscles they cover and the fact that they can be done almost anywhere.

Finally, for kids these exercises are wonderful. Weight lifting can be hazardous to a young person’s development, but these exercises can provide great muscle development in a safe way. Start doing this workout trifecta on a regular basis and see for yourself how good they are.

Do you think these are the top three exercises? Why or why not?

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As some of you may know I began training for a marathon almost two months ago. The process has been very rewarding so far; I feel great, more energy, more relaxed, and with each run its easier and easier to get into a rhythm. Sundays are my long run days with Tuesdays and Thursdays as my short run days (Tuesdays sometimes become imaginary running days). Since I didn’t get my long run in yesterday I had to do it tonight…it was by far the best run I’ve had and by far the most motivated I have been to push my limits…my motivation, fear of my wife.

The run started off as it usually does, changing into my running shorts and shoes, charging my iPod, fine tuning my playlist, out the door, iPod on, earphones in…and off down the asphalt path to glory. The only exception, I started a bit late…as the sun was starting to go down. Last Sunday I had run 6 miles so my initial plan was to get at least 6 and 7 if I felt good.

Sure enough, about 3 miles in I was feeling it. The Killers, “When You Were Young” was jamming through my headphones and I felt light so I decided to take a detour and add an extra mile. The sun was going down about this time…the headlights were becoming more intense creating my own little version of Coldplay’s “Fix You” music video. I completed the detour and popped back out onto my familiar route. By this time I was about halfway through my run, at the furthest point geographically from my house. Suddenly, it hit me, my wife and I had scheduled dinner with friends….at 7pm….it had to be about 6:30 or 6:45….CRAP!!!

I scrambled to remember when I had left the house…I remembered looking at the clock in the kitchen just before I stepped out the door and I was nearly certain it was around 6 when I left. I was doing mental calculations trying to determine my distance covered, average mile time, etc. My pace became much faster. This wasn’t the first time in the past few weeks something like this had slipped my mind. Marelize had been incredibly patient, but I knew this wasn’t going to be fun…she had told me just before I stepped out the door not to go on a long run…at the time I thought she just didn’t want me running in the dark, now it made a bit more sense.

Mile 5: Pitch black, headlights racing by much too close on the narrow country road, sweating, windy…then the little devil hopped up on my shoulder. What was I going to say about this. I could see her now…her stance, her eyes…the look of disappointment. It was unbearable. For a normal woman it may not have been so bad, but my wife had a little extra bargaining chip on the table, she’s currently 8 months pregnant. Thus, the excuses began to flow like wicked poetry. I stopped to help an old lady with car troubles, a pack of wild dogs chased me into an alley where I had to fend them off with a stick, I twisted my ankle and had to walk home….

Mile 6: At this point I was nearing a dead-out sprint. I’d almost settled on one of those quasi-truths, “I took a wrong turn.” In fact I had…the turn where I kept going further away from home at mile 3 instead of turning back around. I could feel my heart pounding through my sternum and could hear my breathing muffled over the sound of my music….Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” how appropriate. I began praying that God would give my wife a spirit of mercy and forgiveness.

Finally, after what seemed like 2 hours at a 6:30-mile pace I made it home. I had skipped my usual 1/2 mile cooldown walk and ran straight into the garage, preparing myself to look as exhausted and flustered as possible (this wasn’t all to hard to act out). Bursting through the door I glanced at the clock….6:20! Are you serious!?! I didn’t get it…evidently I had left about 5:30 instead of 6. Marelize cracked up as I explained the story to her. The rest of the night went well and I looked back at the incident thinking only one thing…it was the best run of my life. I’m a firm believer that physical training is 90% mental, the body will do almost anything the mind wants, the trick is finding the right motivation.