The Power of Positive Self-Talk
When Kindness Leads to Greatness
The idea of speaking kindly to yourself isn’t anything new, but it’s worth revisiting now and again to remind us of how we complete training and racing successfully.
Endurance events are pretty unique and they get more unique the longer they go on. Most amateur athletes will essentially be against themselves and their own weight of expectation – developed through training and their perception of what makes an event a success.
As a result, the way we talk to ourselves during a race is very important.
What is self-talk?
Self-talk is defined as ‘what people say to themselves either silently in their head or aloud, automatically or strategically, to stimulate, direct, react, and evaluate events and actions’ (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Latinjak, & Theodorakis, 2014).
What are the effects of positive self-talk?
Research has shown self-talk to be an effective tool to enhance performance through rewiring the brain – effectively replacing potential negative talk with positive talk. A group of recreational cyclists who improved their cycling time to exhaustion by 18% when they were coached to use positive self-talk (Blanchfield, Hardy, de Morree, Staiano, & Marcora, 2014).
Put into practice, it could be as simple as replacing “my legs are really hurting” with “you’re almost there”.
There are a lot more intricacies of this which I won’t go into, however the results of positive self-talk have generally been shown to improve endurance performance.
How do you implement positive self-talk?
There are many tactics of retraining your internal monologue with positives over negatives and creating mantras to race by. This usually creates awareness around the strength of positivity and using our internal chatter to our advantage.
My personal theory on positive self-talk: it’s more than just the race
I think it all starts with training. Anxiety, expectation and potential negativity builds up from here and is waiting as soon as we enter the training block or start the race.
If we look at the purpose of the training as a means to an end, i.e. hitting your personal best, then we create a bar at which we feel we have to meet. We allow no place for our bar to move, therefore the pressure builds. It doesn’t allow for life events, illness or things beyond our control to be accounted for.
If we take the training seriously, which we should, but accept that it’s the best we can do ‘in that moment’ – then we automatically create a positive situation around exercise and the results become a by-product.
This positive self-talk for me doesn’t apply to a single race or training session, it’s the approach, kindness and awareness of one’s self during the whole journey.
Final thoughts
The next time you go into a training session and don’t hit the perfect pace, or if you replace a hard run with a shake out because half way into the warm up you feel terrible, don’t be hard on yourself – instead, be kind and reflect kindly. Carry the positives and any numerical misfires become possibilities and not limitations.
Fun - HONESTY - Simplicity - Smash Life - Mental Toughness - Hard Work
.jpg)
NEW TIMINGS, DAYS & CLASSES! PLEASE CHECK MINDBODY FOR THE SCHEDULE AND CLASS DETAILS!
ENGINE
We are putting into practice the pacing strategies we learned in the last two weeks' EMOM style. This week, we will ski, Bike, and row.
GYMNASTICS
Hanging from the bar and getting upside down is what is happening in gymnastics this week. We will be breaking down the bar muscle-up and focusing on the movement technique; then, we will move to some handstand walks again, breaking down the movement and spending some time walking on our hands!
HYROX
For all levels: learning to recover on the run after a hard station. Hyrox Strength work into short runs.
MOBILITY
This week we continue with hip mobility moving into ankle mobility & foot stability drills, with shoulder mobility finisher.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with some deadlift doubles and some heavy single-leg work and finish off with a “Rump Pump”. Wednesday, we will progress in loading the Close Grip Bench Press and work through a little t-shirt filler to end the session.
WEIGHTLIFTING
This week, the focus is on Clean and Jerks, where we will be hitting some clusters and then Clean Doubles into 1 Jerk!
Track Tuesday
We begin set 1 of our over/under block. This is all about threshold!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1 hour
Wednesday Ride
We return to outdoor intervals this week! Some strength work into Vo2 max, 90min session!
Start time: 05:59am
Session Length: 1 hour
Location: BOTS - https://goo.gl/maps/6AwtJXW8nA45Cy9H8
The Coffee Run
A fartlek session into some 8min blocks this week. A tough run that will deliver some big stimulus!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session length: 1 hour
Location: Common Grounds, Jumeirah Beach Track
Saturday Brick
Start time: 5:29 am
Our tri season opener! Get in touch with tw@innerfight.com to find out the plan.
.jpg)
Monday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Tempo
This week we will be holding that 7/10 feeling for 8 min blocks with a 3 mins recovery.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Sports City
Session: Track Tuesday
800m of over/unders is on the menu today. This is your chance to run fast with the wider InnerFight Endurance Community and Coaches.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Intervals
Today we will cycle through 1 min on/off intervals. Keep the 1 min off nice and easy!
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Kite Beach
Session: The Coffee Run
After some strides we will have some longer tempo blocks for you here.
.jpg)
We are kicking off the week with some technique work on the Hang Power Snatch before diving into a triplet of Wall Balls, Rowing and Burpees. Tuesday is focused on our strict pulling strength and some heavy Jerks in the skill and the workout. Wednesday will be a tough leg day with the Zercher squat and a heavy Dumbbell workout. Thursday, we have some TTB skill work and then an ascending and descending AMRAP to get through. Friday, we finish the week with some heavy Deadlifts into a savage workout with the barbell!
Monday:
Strength:
A) Snatch Grip DL + Hang Snatch Pull + Hang Muscle Snatch
B) Hang Power Snatch
Conditioning:
In a 12-minute window 3 rounds
21 wall balls
15 cal row
9 burpee over the rower
Max cal row in the remaining time
Tuesday:
Strength:
A) Strict Pull Ups
B Push Jerk & % of Pull-Ups from Part A
Conditioning:
3 min amrap
3 STOH ( 60/45)
10 pull-ups
15 box jump
rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Strength:
Zercher Squats
Conditioning:
22 mins AMRAP
16 suitcase reverse lunge (2x50/35)
50 DU
8 dual DB Front Squat
Park Run
Thursday:
Strength:
A) TTB
B) Incline DB Bench Press & % of TTB from Part A
Conditioning:
9 min Amrap
3 push-ups on DBS
3 Alt renegade rows (2x50/35)
3 cal ski
(+ 3 reps on each movement each round)
Rest 3 mins
For time: AMRAP in reverse
Friday:
Strength:
A) Deadlift
Conditioning:
Therapyyyyyyy, we carry over the barbell into a savage workout! One you do not want to miss!
The idea of speaking kindly to yourself isn’t anything new, but it’s worth revisiting now and again to remind us of how we complete training and racing successfully.
Endurance events are pretty unique and they get more unique the longer they go on. Most amateur athletes will essentially be against themselves and their own weight of expectation – developed through training and their perception of what makes an event a success.
As a result, the way we talk to ourselves during a race is very important.
What is self-talk?
Self-talk is defined as ‘what people say to themselves either silently in their head or aloud, automatically or strategically, to stimulate, direct, react, and evaluate events and actions’ (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Latinjak, & Theodorakis, 2014).
What are the effects of positive self-talk?
Research has shown self-talk to be an effective tool to enhance performance through rewiring the brain – effectively replacing potential negative talk with positive talk. A group of recreational cyclists who improved their cycling time to exhaustion by 18% when they were coached to use positive self-talk (Blanchfield, Hardy, de Morree, Staiano, & Marcora, 2014).
Put into practice, it could be as simple as replacing “my legs are really hurting” with “you’re almost there”.
There are a lot more intricacies of this which I won’t go into, however the results of positive self-talk have generally been shown to improve endurance performance.
How do you implement positive self-talk?
There are many tactics of retraining your internal monologue with positives over negatives and creating mantras to race by. This usually creates awareness around the strength of positivity and using our internal chatter to our advantage.
My personal theory on positive self-talk: it’s more than just the race
I think it all starts with training. Anxiety, expectation and potential negativity builds up from here and is waiting as soon as we enter the training block or start the race.
If we look at the purpose of the training as a means to an end, i.e. hitting your personal best, then we create a bar at which we feel we have to meet. We allow no place for our bar to move, therefore the pressure builds. It doesn’t allow for life events, illness or things beyond our control to be accounted for.
If we take the training seriously, which we should, but accept that it’s the best we can do ‘in that moment’ – then we automatically create a positive situation around exercise and the results become a by-product.
This positive self-talk for me doesn’t apply to a single race or training session, it’s the approach, kindness and awareness of one’s self during the whole journey.
Final thoughts
The next time you go into a training session and don’t hit the perfect pace, or if you replace a hard run with a shake out because half way into the warm up you feel terrible, don’t be hard on yourself – instead, be kind and reflect kindly. Carry the positives and any numerical misfires become possibilities and not limitations.
Fun - HONESTY - Simplicity - Smash Life - Mental Toughness - Hard Work
Track Tuesday
We begin set 1 of our over/under block. This is all about threshold!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1 hour
Wednesday Ride
We return to outdoor intervals this week! Some strength work into Vo2 max, 90min session!
Start time: 05:59am
Session Length: 1 hour
Location: BOTS - https://goo.gl/maps/6AwtJXW8nA45Cy9H8
The Coffee Run
A fartlek session into some 8min blocks this week. A tough run that will deliver some big stimulus!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session length: 1 hour
Location: Common Grounds, Jumeirah Beach Track
Saturday Brick
Start time: 5:29 am
Our tri season opener! Get in touch with tw@innerfight.com to find out the plan.
Monday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Tempo
This week we will be holding that 7/10 feeling for 8 min blocks with a 3 mins recovery.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Sports City
Session: Track Tuesday
800m of over/unders is on the menu today. This is your chance to run fast with the wider InnerFight Endurance Community and Coaches.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Intervals
Today we will cycle through 1 min on/off intervals. Keep the 1 min off nice and easy!
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Kite Beach
Session: The Coffee Run
After some strides we will have some longer tempo blocks for you here.
We are kicking off the week with some technique work on the Hang Power Snatch before diving into a triplet of Wall Balls, Rowing and Burpees. Tuesday is focused on our strict pulling strength and some heavy Jerks in the skill and the workout. Wednesday will be a tough leg day with the Zercher squat and a heavy Dumbbell workout. Thursday, we have some TTB skill work and then an ascending and descending AMRAP to get through. Friday, we finish the week with some heavy Deadlifts into a savage workout with the barbell!
Monday:
Strength:
A) Snatch Grip DL + Hang Snatch Pull + Hang Muscle Snatch
B) Hang Power Snatch
Conditioning:
In a 12-minute window 3 rounds
21 wall balls
15 cal row
9 burpee over the rower
Max cal row in the remaining time
Tuesday:
Strength:
A) Strict Pull Ups
B Push Jerk & % of Pull-Ups from Part A
Conditioning:
3 min amrap
3 STOH ( 60/45)
10 pull-ups
15 box jump
rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Strength:
Zercher Squats
Conditioning:
22 mins AMRAP
16 suitcase reverse lunge (2x50/35)
50 DU
8 dual DB Front Squat
Park Run
Thursday:
Strength:
A) TTB
B) Incline DB Bench Press & % of TTB from Part A
Conditioning:
9 min Amrap
3 push-ups on DBS
3 Alt renegade rows (2x50/35)
3 cal ski
(+ 3 reps on each movement each round)
Rest 3 mins
For time: AMRAP in reverse
Friday:
Strength:
A) Deadlift
Conditioning:
Therapyyyyyyy, we carry over the barbell into a savage workout! One you do not want to miss!
NEW TIMINGS, DAYS & CLASSES! PLEASE CHECK MINDBODY FOR THE SCHEDULE AND CLASS DETAILS!
ENGINE
We are putting into practice the pacing strategies we learned in the last two weeks' EMOM style. This week, we will ski, Bike, and row.
GYMNASTICS
Hanging from the bar and getting upside down is what is happening in gymnastics this week. We will be breaking down the bar muscle-up and focusing on the movement technique; then, we will move to some handstand walks again, breaking down the movement and spending some time walking on our hands!
HYROX
For all levels: learning to recover on the run after a hard station. Hyrox Strength work into short runs.
MOBILITY
This week we continue with hip mobility moving into ankle mobility & foot stability drills, with shoulder mobility finisher.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with some deadlift doubles and some heavy single-leg work and finish off with a “Rump Pump”. Wednesday, we will progress in loading the Close Grip Bench Press and work through a little t-shirt filler to end the session.
WEIGHTLIFTING
This week, the focus is on Clean and Jerks, where we will be hitting some clusters and then Clean Doubles into 1 Jerk!
The idea of speaking kindly to yourself isn’t anything new, but it’s worth revisiting now and again to remind us of how we complete training and racing successfully.
Endurance events are pretty unique and they get more unique the longer they go on. Most amateur athletes will essentially be against themselves and their own weight of expectation – developed through training and their perception of what makes an event a success.
As a result, the way we talk to ourselves during a race is very important.
What is self-talk?
Self-talk is defined as ‘what people say to themselves either silently in their head or aloud, automatically or strategically, to stimulate, direct, react, and evaluate events and actions’ (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Latinjak, & Theodorakis, 2014).
What are the effects of positive self-talk?
Research has shown self-talk to be an effective tool to enhance performance through rewiring the brain – effectively replacing potential negative talk with positive talk. A group of recreational cyclists who improved their cycling time to exhaustion by 18% when they were coached to use positive self-talk (Blanchfield, Hardy, de Morree, Staiano, & Marcora, 2014).
Put into practice, it could be as simple as replacing “my legs are really hurting” with “you’re almost there”.
There are a lot more intricacies of this which I won’t go into, however the results of positive self-talk have generally been shown to improve endurance performance.
How do you implement positive self-talk?
There are many tactics of retraining your internal monologue with positives over negatives and creating mantras to race by. This usually creates awareness around the strength of positivity and using our internal chatter to our advantage.
My personal theory on positive self-talk: it’s more than just the race
I think it all starts with training. Anxiety, expectation and potential negativity builds up from here and is waiting as soon as we enter the training block or start the race.
If we look at the purpose of the training as a means to an end, i.e. hitting your personal best, then we create a bar at which we feel we have to meet. We allow no place for our bar to move, therefore the pressure builds. It doesn’t allow for life events, illness or things beyond our control to be accounted for.
If we take the training seriously, which we should, but accept that it’s the best we can do ‘in that moment’ – then we automatically create a positive situation around exercise and the results become a by-product.
This positive self-talk for me doesn’t apply to a single race or training session, it’s the approach, kindness and awareness of one’s self during the whole journey.
Final thoughts
The next time you go into a training session and don’t hit the perfect pace, or if you replace a hard run with a shake out because half way into the warm up you feel terrible, don’t be hard on yourself – instead, be kind and reflect kindly. Carry the positives and any numerical misfires become possibilities and not limitations.
Fun - HONESTY - Simplicity - Smash Life - Mental Toughness - Hard Work
Monday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Tempo
This week we will be holding that 7/10 feeling for 8 min blocks with a 3 mins recovery.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Sports City
Session: Track Tuesday
800m of over/unders is on the menu today. This is your chance to run fast with the wider InnerFight Endurance Community and Coaches.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: Ladies Only Intervals
Today we will cycle through 1 min on/off intervals. Keep the 1 min off nice and easy!
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Kite Beach
Session: The Coffee Run
After some strides we will have some longer tempo blocks for you here.
We are kicking off the week with some technique work on the Hang Power Snatch before diving into a triplet of Wall Balls, Rowing and Burpees. Tuesday is focused on our strict pulling strength and some heavy Jerks in the skill and the workout. Wednesday will be a tough leg day with the Zercher squat and a heavy Dumbbell workout. Thursday, we have some TTB skill work and then an ascending and descending AMRAP to get through. Friday, we finish the week with some heavy Deadlifts into a savage workout with the barbell!
Monday:
Strength:
A) Snatch Grip DL + Hang Snatch Pull + Hang Muscle Snatch
B) Hang Power Snatch
Conditioning:
In a 12-minute window 3 rounds
21 wall balls
15 cal row
9 burpee over the rower
Max cal row in the remaining time
Tuesday:
Strength:
A) Strict Pull Ups
B Push Jerk & % of Pull-Ups from Part A
Conditioning:
3 min amrap
3 STOH ( 60/45)
10 pull-ups
15 box jump
rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Strength:
Zercher Squats
Conditioning:
22 mins AMRAP
16 suitcase reverse lunge (2x50/35)
50 DU
8 dual DB Front Squat
Park Run
Thursday:
Strength:
A) TTB
B) Incline DB Bench Press & % of TTB from Part A
Conditioning:
9 min Amrap
3 push-ups on DBS
3 Alt renegade rows (2x50/35)
3 cal ski
(+ 3 reps on each movement each round)
Rest 3 mins
For time: AMRAP in reverse
Friday:
Strength:
A) Deadlift
Conditioning:
Therapyyyyyyy, we carry over the barbell into a savage workout! One you do not want to miss!
NEW TIMINGS, DAYS & CLASSES! PLEASE CHECK MINDBODY FOR THE SCHEDULE AND CLASS DETAILS!
ENGINE
We are putting into practice the pacing strategies we learned in the last two weeks' EMOM style. This week, we will ski, Bike, and row.
GYMNASTICS
Hanging from the bar and getting upside down is what is happening in gymnastics this week. We will be breaking down the bar muscle-up and focusing on the movement technique; then, we will move to some handstand walks again, breaking down the movement and spending some time walking on our hands!
HYROX
For all levels: learning to recover on the run after a hard station. Hyrox Strength work into short runs.
MOBILITY
This week we continue with hip mobility moving into ankle mobility & foot stability drills, with shoulder mobility finisher.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with some deadlift doubles and some heavy single-leg work and finish off with a “Rump Pump”. Wednesday, we will progress in loading the Close Grip Bench Press and work through a little t-shirt filler to end the session.
WEIGHTLIFTING
This week, the focus is on Clean and Jerks, where we will be hitting some clusters and then Clean Doubles into 1 Jerk!
Track Tuesday
We begin set 1 of our over/under block. This is all about threshold!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1 hour
Wednesday Ride
We return to outdoor intervals this week! Some strength work into Vo2 max, 90min session!
Start time: 05:59am
Session Length: 1 hour
Location: BOTS - https://goo.gl/maps/6AwtJXW8nA45Cy9H8
The Coffee Run
A fartlek session into some 8min blocks this week. A tough run that will deliver some big stimulus!
Start time: 05:59 am
Session length: 1 hour
Location: Common Grounds, Jumeirah Beach Track
Saturday Brick
Start time: 5:29 am
Our tri season opener! Get in touch with tw@innerfight.com to find out the plan.
The idea of speaking kindly to yourself isn’t anything new, but it’s worth revisiting now and again to remind us of how we complete training and racing successfully.
Endurance events are pretty unique and they get more unique the longer they go on. Most amateur athletes will essentially be against themselves and their own weight of expectation – developed through training and their perception of what makes an event a success.
As a result, the way we talk to ourselves during a race is very important.
What is self-talk?
Self-talk is defined as ‘what people say to themselves either silently in their head or aloud, automatically or strategically, to stimulate, direct, react, and evaluate events and actions’ (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Latinjak, & Theodorakis, 2014).
What are the effects of positive self-talk?
Research has shown self-talk to be an effective tool to enhance performance through rewiring the brain – effectively replacing potential negative talk with positive talk. A group of recreational cyclists who improved their cycling time to exhaustion by 18% when they were coached to use positive self-talk (Blanchfield, Hardy, de Morree, Staiano, & Marcora, 2014).
Put into practice, it could be as simple as replacing “my legs are really hurting” with “you’re almost there”.
There are a lot more intricacies of this which I won’t go into, however the results of positive self-talk have generally been shown to improve endurance performance.
How do you implement positive self-talk?
There are many tactics of retraining your internal monologue with positives over negatives and creating mantras to race by. This usually creates awareness around the strength of positivity and using our internal chatter to our advantage.
My personal theory on positive self-talk: it’s more than just the race
I think it all starts with training. Anxiety, expectation and potential negativity builds up from here and is waiting as soon as we enter the training block or start the race.
If we look at the purpose of the training as a means to an end, i.e. hitting your personal best, then we create a bar at which we feel we have to meet. We allow no place for our bar to move, therefore the pressure builds. It doesn’t allow for life events, illness or things beyond our control to be accounted for.
If we take the training seriously, which we should, but accept that it’s the best we can do ‘in that moment’ – then we automatically create a positive situation around exercise and the results become a by-product.
This positive self-talk for me doesn’t apply to a single race or training session, it’s the approach, kindness and awareness of one’s self during the whole journey.
Final thoughts
The next time you go into a training session and don’t hit the perfect pace, or if you replace a hard run with a shake out because half way into the warm up you feel terrible, don’t be hard on yourself – instead, be kind and reflect kindly. Carry the positives and any numerical misfires become possibilities and not limitations.
Fun - HONESTY - Simplicity - Smash Life - Mental Toughness - Hard Work
The idea of speaking kindly to yourself isn’t anything new, but it’s worth revisiting now and again to remind us of how we complete training and racing successfully.
Endurance events are pretty unique and they get more unique the longer they go on. Most amateur athletes will essentially be against themselves and their own weight of expectation – developed through training and their perception of what makes an event a success.
As a result, the way we talk to ourselves during a race is very important.
What is self-talk?
Self-talk is defined as ‘what people say to themselves either silently in their head or aloud, automatically or strategically, to stimulate, direct, react, and evaluate events and actions’ (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Latinjak, & Theodorakis, 2014).
What are the effects of positive self-talk?
Research has shown self-talk to be an effective tool to enhance performance through rewiring the brain – effectively replacing potential negative talk with positive talk. A group of recreational cyclists who improved their cycling time to exhaustion by 18% when they were coached to use positive self-talk (Blanchfield, Hardy, de Morree, Staiano, & Marcora, 2014).
Put into practice, it could be as simple as replacing “my legs are really hurting” with “you’re almost there”.
There are a lot more intricacies of this which I won’t go into, however the results of positive self-talk have generally been shown to improve endurance performance.
How do you implement positive self-talk?
There are many tactics of retraining your internal monologue with positives over negatives and creating mantras to race by. This usually creates awareness around the strength of positivity and using our internal chatter to our advantage.
My personal theory on positive self-talk: it’s more than just the race
I think it all starts with training. Anxiety, expectation and potential negativity builds up from here and is waiting as soon as we enter the training block or start the race.
If we look at the purpose of the training as a means to an end, i.e. hitting your personal best, then we create a bar at which we feel we have to meet. We allow no place for our bar to move, therefore the pressure builds. It doesn’t allow for life events, illness or things beyond our control to be accounted for.
If we take the training seriously, which we should, but accept that it’s the best we can do ‘in that moment’ – then we automatically create a positive situation around exercise and the results become a by-product.
This positive self-talk for me doesn’t apply to a single race or training session, it’s the approach, kindness and awareness of one’s self during the whole journey.
Final thoughts
The next time you go into a training session and don’t hit the perfect pace, or if you replace a hard run with a shake out because half way into the warm up you feel terrible, don’t be hard on yourself – instead, be kind and reflect kindly. Carry the positives and any numerical misfires become possibilities and not limitations.
Fun - HONESTY - Simplicity - Smash Life - Mental Toughness - Hard Work
One-Hour Workout: Revving Your Swim Engine
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
