The Psychology of Progress

A while back, Paul Carter (of Lift-Run-Bang) wrote a really good article based upon the ideas of patience, self belief and progress.

This article has been in the back of my mind since I read it and I wanted to share my perspective on training, progress and the psychology of both.

Sports psychology is a bigger market than we think. After all, they say that the mind and the body create one. Psychology itself along with self help, gurus, fortune telling, all of that is a big market in our society. Why? Because people want instant gratification. I can be one of those people. Without re-inventing the training and self belief wheel (Paul did a great job covering those in his article), I want to instead talk about why the psychology behind making progress is so important.

A long, long time ago (1898, to be exact) a psychologist named Norman Triplett did a basic study of cyclists. He found that cyclists got better times when they were competing against other cyclists versus when they cycled alone. No surprise there, right? We know that competition is human nature and it improves performance overall. But why?

The drive to win likely stems from our caveman days when we would fight for food and shelter. To lose the fight was to die. Today, the consequences aren't nearly as dire, but losing doesn't feel good.

Training for a competition changes things. I recently learned this when I signed up for my first meet. Picking out a 5k will change how you train because it will change why you train. Picking out a bodybuilding contest will change your perspective on training. Your training will likely now be more about bringing up lagging parts, getting rid of as much water weight as possible, looking more full, etc.

We like to change our training strategies around when we have a competition fueling our progress because we don't want to lose. We want to be our best. We want to perform our best. For some, paychecks are directly related to how well they perform. For others, it's sponsorships and contracts that could be lost due to a lackluster performance.

So, you want your training to feel more meaningful? Pick out a competition and then train your ass off to win it. Nothing will fuel your training more than the thought of winning or losing after months of hard work and preparation.

And nothing lets you know you've made progress like setting a new PR at a meet, winning the gold instead of the bronze at a show, or beating your previous best time by 4 seconds.

Til then.

See you in THE DUNGEON