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Comment by yuningalexliu | Hacker News Reader

In light of this article, wonder what type of psychological training could be used to complement the typical physical training to improve athletic performance?

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Maybe something that copies military basic training. It has been decades, but I can still hear my drill instructor yelling, "You aren't tired until I tell you you're tired!" He was right.

> I can still hear my drill instructor yelling, "You aren't tired until I tell you you're tired!" He was right.

I wonder why Rhabdo[1] isn't more prevalent in basic than it is.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

>90% of fatigue in basic (based on a scientific study I just made up in my head) is mentally induced because recruits have a belief of their limits that's short of reality. Part of the drill instructor's responsibility is to demonstrate these limits are just mental by pushing recruits beyond them. Of course, that still leaves the <10% of times when the limits are real and someone gets hurt, but that's just collateral damage, I guess.

I wonder if it's really 10%. The instructor most likely doesn't actually know the person's limits. They're setting a baseline and hoping everyone has good enough genetics to meet that baseline. The rest are injured/kicked out/may have actually been filtered out earlier. Remember that the military turns down many people, and that often includes a lot of people who have hidden medical issues or just bad genetics.

"Your body is lying to you!" is the nicer and actually correct thing to say :).

I think cadence marching/running is pretty helpful too. You just focus on left foot, right foot, and the words.

I hate cardio with a vengeance, and the most effective way I've found of getting past that was to make use of meditation techniques: Fix my mind on my breathing, and keep it there. Not allow myself to pay attention to anything else. First time I did that, I ran twice as long as what I'd one previously. It works great for activities you can do "automatically", whether the reason you want to stop normally is because they're physically demanding, or boring (like cleaning the house).

Another approach is to set a goal, but keep moving the goal posts.

"Tricking yourself" that way can be surprisingly easy - I first consciously tried that (though I'm sure we've all done it without thinking about it) after thinking about how easily we trick ourselves into continuing pleasurable activities that way, or procrastinating ("only 10 more minutes, then I'll start working"); it works quite well for me as a means to continuing exercise or work too.

What'd be incredibly intimidating as a goal at the outset suddenly seems a lot more achievable if you set a more modest goal to start with.

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