đź“š A&B #161

Kobe Bryant, Ali Abdaal, Michael Phelps, and more.

September 30, 2023

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đź‘‹ Hey everyone,

Here are a few cool posts you may have missed:

đź“š Book Summary:

This week's book is “Strong Minds” by Noel Brick.

This book reveals the mindset and mental strategies used by elite athletes and how you can apply sports psychology to succeed in business and life. If you enjoy books about peak performance, mindset, or sports, this book is for you.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

đź“–

1) The Next Time You Feel Pain, Smile

Eliud Kipchoge is regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time. He has run 5 of the 7 fastest marathons in history.

If you watch a video of him running a marathon, you’ll notice he often smiles. Why?

He uses smiling as a tactic to help him relax and work through discomfort.

“I don’t run with my legs, I run with my heart and mind,” he told journalists. “When you smile and you’re happy, you can trigger the mind to feel your legs.”

And science backs this up. A study in the journal “Psychology of Sport and Exercise” tested the effects of smiling or frowning while running.

The study found that runners who smiled used less oxygen, ran more economically, and had a lower perceived rate of exertion than those who frowned and those in the control group.

So the next time you’re feeling tired during a workout, just smile and keep going.

đź“–

2) Practice What-If Scenarios

Great athletes tend to practice their craft every day, but the greatest athletes take it one step further and make sure to practice what-if scenarios.

For instance, Bob Bowman (who was Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps’s coach), would create challenges for Phelps during training and less important competitions to practice these what-if scenarios.

At one event, Bowman stepped on and cracked Phelp’s swimming goggles before a race. Phelps didn’t notice his goggles were broken until he dived into the pool and they suddenly began to fill with water.

But Phelps didn’t let this malfunction stop him. Instead, he dealt with this annoyance by counting his strokes–a strategy Bowman and Phelps had developed in training to know exactly how many strokes it took to complete a length of the pool.

Stepping on Phelps’s goggles might seem like a pointless exercise, but Bowman believed athletes needed to be prepared to deal with any “what-if” scenario they might encounter in more important competitions.

And exactly this scenario played out during one of the biggest races of Phelps’s career–the 200-meter butterfly final at the 2008 Olympics.

In the middle of the race, Phelps’s goggles developed a leak and began to fill with water. As a result, he couldn’t see out of his goggles. He was essentially swimming in the dark.

Rather than panic, Phelps remained calm. He began counting his strokes, knowing that it would take 21 strokes to swim one length. The result?

He won the gold medal and broke a world record.

đź“–

3) Hype Yourself Up

Science shows that positive self-talk can help build belief, self-confidence, and channel our focus.

A study at the Bangor University in Wales took 24 individuals and had them cycle for as long as possible at 80% of their peak power. This is an intense physical effort that most people might maintain for about 10 minutes before having to stop.

During the first trial, all 24 participants went through the exercise without any specific instructions.

Two weeks later, before the second trial took place, 12 participants received a 30-minute workshop on how to use motivational self-talk.

For example, they were taught to repeat phrases like “You’re doing well”, “Feeling good”, and “Push through this.”

The other 12 participants didn’t receive any workshop or advice.

The result?

The self-talk group improved their time by an impressive 18% on average, lasting almost 2 minutes longer in the second trial than their first. Meanwhile, the no-self-talk group performed slightly worse–averaging 12 seconds less than they had in their first trial.

In the second part of the study, researchers took a group of 50 runners who received self-talk training versus a group of 50 runners who hadn’t received the training.

A similar result was found. The self-talk group had better finish times than runners who didn’t have any self-talk strategies.

These findings suggest that these small phrases that we say to ourselves during challenging moments can make a big difference in how we perform.

âś… Actionable Advice:

1) The next time you’re doing a tough workout, remember to smile and keep going.

2) Practice crazy what-if scenarios:

  • If you’re a swimmer, practice swimming with no goggles.

  • If you’re a football player, practice throwing a Hail Mary pass.

  • If you’re a basketball player, practice hitting a game-winning shot with two seconds on the clock.

3) Come up with a few positive self-talk phrases to repeat to yourself when things get tough:

đź“– Reading Lesson:

đź’Ž Weekly Gem:

I started taking creatine a few months ago after listening to a Huberman podcast about all of its benefits (increased strength, faster recovery, boosted cognition, and more).

However, the powder it came in was bland and didn’t dissolve well in water. Then one day I stumbled upon Create. They make creatine gummies that taste good, are convenient to take, and are effective.

I’ve been loving them and have noticed an improvement in my physical performance. If you’re trying to build muscle or get in better shape, check them out.

I appreciate your support, I'll see you next week!

Read on,

Alex W.

(Disclaimer: Nothing I ever write is financial, medical, or legal advice. Please don’t sue me I’m just sharing what’s worked for me.)

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