Mental genetics. Whenever you talk about working out, the idea of genetics always come up, and anybody with rudimentary knowledge of any type of physical activity knows that genetics play a huge part in your ability to do physical things. I am 5’9” and 170 pounds, I have small hands and thin bones, I am probably not walking on a football field and dominating against anybody, no matter how hard I work on speed, strength, and agility if I was to go up against any average division 1 football player. One thing that we don’t talk about much is mental genetics. If our physicality is based on genetics why wouldn’t our mental capacity be based on genetics, I think we all agree that our IQ his highly based on genetics, but what about our ability to push through pain, or be positive in the face of adversity, to stay cool under pressure. I think all of these things, while can be honed through “practice” are highly based on our genetics. However there is a caveat to this, like physical exercise, you can harden your mind as well through practice.
I know that I really have to work on not getting negative when things don’t go my way, and I have thought many times, I wonder how much of that is just my genetics. I work on it, I have put myself in uncomfortable or demanding situations voluntary many times in my life and this experience allows me to find pitfalls in my thinking and try to change so this can be worked on in order to become better in these situations. I also think about the ability to push through physical adversity, I know for a fact that peoples thresholds with pain tolerance vary widely, you can see it in certain people. I also know from personal experience that you can learn to push your body when it is extremely uncomfortable, and increase your ability to endure physically uncomfortable situations, it’s the saying “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” It does raise the question though, how much of it is nature vs. nurture, some people grow up in terrible circumstances and this makes them vary mentally strong, others never get the chance and they fold under the pressure.
Regardless of which it is for any of us, I think learning how to be resilient both physically and mentally is an attribute. In a day and age where we are rewarded to be mentally weak and blaming our issues on our environment, I say choose another path of learning to deal with your own problems and being open and honest with yourself about your ability to handle your own shit. Everybody goes through things, but mental toughness is a good thing.
Here is a workout that is a bit of a mental grind (remember to warm up properly)
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Back squats at a light weight (I used 135)
:20 second plank between squats sets
Rest 3:00
20-16-12-8-4
Dumbbell lunges ( I used 40 lbs DB’s)
Decline sit ups
Rest 2:00
100 air squats
CJ Industries 