Mental strength training from Inside Out Athlete bridges the gap between mind and body for better performance and — more importantly — better health.
If you’re reading this, one thing’s for sure: you’re far more than just a bag of bones. Your body’s on display, but your brain makes it all possible from behind the scenes. There’s no making anything happen on the outside if everything on the inside’s not on board with the plan. In fact, there’d be no plan at all.
For athletes whose bodies take center stage, or even pay the bills, it’s easy to forget that both parts have to work in tandem. Just because the body puts on the show doesn’t mean that the mind can simply sit pretty. And if an athlete does decide to go that route, focusing entirely on the external, there’s very little chance they’ll ever reach their full potential.
There’s a cap on what physical training can produce by itself. There’s only so much that the body can handle, and that limit varies from person to person. Crossing that barrier leads straight down the road to overtraining, energy deficiency, and the exact opposite of what you’re aiming for: poorer performance than you started out with in the first place. While frustrating, that’s something we should ultimately be grateful for; the body knows its limits and protects itself from permanent damage by shutting down everything it regards as “extra”… no matter your opinion on the matter.
Not only that, but athletes who funnel all their energy into physical training never get the chance to deploy one of their greatest strengths: individuality. Yeah, no two competitors look or move the exact same (especially as body diversity in sports is finally on the rise). But there comes a point when everyone’s been through the same rigamarole. For every degree of physical difference between one athlete and the next, there’s only more where that came from on the mental side. Tapping into their brainwaves helps athletes find their unique edge within a stacked field.
A new speciality has arrived on the scene to help athletes get in better touch with their brains. I say new, but sports psychology has been around for decades. Rather, it’s the public eye that’s finally opening up to the idea. With the barrage of mental health issues arising in the wake of the COVID crisis, people are finally starting to understand that the mind deserves just as much respect as the body.
Lucie, sports psychology consultant with Inside Out Athlete, takes a holistic approach to mental strength training for that very reason. Just like the consequences of overtraining don’t disappear the second an athlete wraps up a training session, neither do the benefits of learning new mental skills. The end goal might be to improve performance, but that’s far from the only outcome. Optimal athletic performance requires motivation, focus, confidence, and resilience… but so do the ins and outs of daily life. It all feeds into the same river.
Lucie primarily works with outdoor athletes, who don’t get as much professional attention as those in more traditional sports. Climbers, runners, bikers, and skiers often find themselves out on their own when it comes to athletic development. That go-it-alone mindset is a product of both the independent nature of these sports and the general lack of available support.
But she’s gone that route herself, and it’s only led to unnecessary struggles and missed opportunities. There’s a reason that most athletes in organized sports don’t coach themselves in any capacity — they’re in too deep to get a healthy perspective.
A combination of education and experience puts Lucie in a position of expertise here. She’s felt the pain of pushing her body past its limits in a desperate effort to stand out, and the limitations of boiling her identity down to just one label. For better or for worse, the repercussions have completely changed her athletic trajectory. These days, she knows how to take back her power by spreading out the load. Now it’s your turn. Reach out to learn more about the mental strength training process and how a closer relationship between body and mind can raise the ceiling on your potential.
