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So, what are they doing that the rest of us aren’t?
Cognitive scientists have put forth the theory that much of what we accomplish in reality begins with an unwavering thought to carry out that action, and this school of thought has sunk deep into the realm of exercise and sport.
If you’ve ever left it all at the gym after a gruelling team effort then you know this all well to be true, even if you didn’t realize the psychology behind what you did; the theory of “strength in numbers”. This concept has been employed in coaching top athletes and has never excluded personal training for the sheer fact that training groups and training partners boost mental efforts to improve performance; the mental strength needed to break limits.
If you’ve never personally engaged this model of maximizing mental efforts in your own routine, I'm positive you have most certainly witnessed the magnificence and awe of such pure will-power in action in others: Behold, Nine-time Olympic gold medallist, Usain Bolt; Four-time consecutive Cross Fit Games Men’s Champion, Rich Froning; Our very own 2016 Summer Paralympics Gold medallist, Akeem Stewart... all individual
athletes that train year-round with teams consisting of other athletes, coaches and managers.
Champions...all champions... But what are champions exactly?
“You find out that life is just a game of inches...the margin for error is so small... one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it... one half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us...we fight for that inch...We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the difference between WINNING and LOSING, between LIVING and DYING.”~ Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday.
Champions are made in the mind first. The pain, the blood, the tears...they all come, but that’s about the only physical difference after getting the first and last rep done...It’s the mind that gets us through the physical journey and every confession behind a transformed body, every claim of a champion, every assertion of a winner would lie in the spirit of “playing through the pain”... that’s how we get the result...that’s the mind willing muscle for greatness.