How many have noticed this week that cold is relative. What was cold in December about 35 degrees now feels like a heat wave after a few weeks of 10-15 degrees. Just an observation on the ability of the human body to acclimate and "get tougher".

Check out more articles on the topics of mental toughness and tactical fitness at https://www.stewsmithfitness.com

This LIVE QA intro is about the Top Ten Ways (I think) that you can build mental toughness. Check it out - ask questions after the intro. Check out https://www.stewsmithfitness.com for more information found in article, books, ebook, coaching, and membership pages.

Setting high standards is a commendable goal, but you are not going to win everything. You will have good days and bad days. Perfectionism can exacerbate feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome. Instead of striving for unattainable ideals, aim for excellence. This means accepting that mistakes (and failing) are part of the process. Setting high, ever-progressing, and achievable standards creates a more sustainable path that allows for growth. Break your goals into smaller, actionable steps, and celebrate every achievement. This practice reinforces a sense of accomplishment and combats self-doubt. It is not uncommon to see highly talented people attempt challenging programs like SEAL training and medical school and attend demanding learning institutions and not be able to handle the inevitable failures and setbacks BECAUSE they have never experienced failure before nor had to work hard to excel at anything.

Some of my favorite quotes on failing:

• "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." - John Wooden
• "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - R.F. Kennedy
• "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Edison
• "The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure." - John C. Maxwell
• "Failure is success in progress." - Albert Einstein

We Are Human and Make Mistakes - Be Kind To Yourself and Don't Dwell on It

When facing tough times, forgiveness is key. It’s easy to be critical of yourself when things don’t go as planned, but self-compassion is an antidote to failure. Understand that everyone makes mistakes; it’s part of being human. Recognizing what you can learn from your experiences is a way to reframe past failures so you do not dwell and waste one thought on the negative. Acknowledge your disappointment, and permit yourself to move forward - now smarter to continue the process. Personally, reading Edison's quote on failing does it for me. Finding ways that do not work is a success - not a failure. This keeps your self-confidence high, and you see the fuel to keep on going again.

The very definition of mental toughness (in my opinion) is:
Finding the fuel when the tank is empty.

See more articles at https://www.stewsmithfitness.com

While it is a little more complicated than the title may imply, fueling with the right food (not caffeine), sleeping better, and exercising are the three activities that will give you the energy to exercise and be more productive throughout the day. The next time you say you don’t have the energy to exercise, try these helpful physical and mental tips to get something done:

Do It, Especially When You Do Not Feel Like It—You will rarely wake up first thing in the morning and be 100% ready to do anything. If you rely on your motivation to get up and do something, STOP. None of us are motivated to do things consistently all the time. There may be 1-2 days per week that you are excited to exercise in the morning. On other days, you must push yourself and ignore the inner voice saying to stay in bed. To do things consistently, we must build habits through discipline, even when we do not feel like it. This is a needed practice to combine your mindset and physical action to make this a habit. But the good news is each time you do this, you will realize that you feel better than if you stay in bed, and you get a little tougher along the way. With this practice, you will build mental toughness and discipline one scoop at a time, making this process easier.

Instead of Caffeine – Eat a Piece of Fruit – If you want real fuel, eat real food. Bananas, apples, oranges, or grapes are all GO-TO snacks that help to FUEL you. Caffeine elevates your heart rate and blocks the “feeling” of being tired. While caffeine can help with alertness, it does not provide energy (unless sugar is in your caffeine). You can add protein and fat to your pre-workout meal for more calories, but finding what works best for your digestive system and activity performance may require some experimentation. Do you need those “pre-workout” drinks loaded with caffeine? No – just add water and some real food. I recently gave up caffeine and replaced my energy needs with fruit.

Sleep Better—Want to Sleep Better? Exercise! This is a cruel natural process regarding being energized to exercise. You may need to sleep better. However, sleeping better may also require exercise or some physical activity. Though a good night’s sleep relies on more than just exercise, being physically tired or working off the stresses of the day will help you sleep better. Read the related article on caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol – the three horsemen to interrupting your sleep. And how to create a restful place to fall asleep with the Restorative Sleep article.

Another way to mentally and physically get you over the hump is to give the warmup of your workout 10 minutes. While fuel and sleep are your primary resources to produce energy to exercise,
Here are some basic exercises to get you moving when you don't feel like it. These do not need to be a complete workout but a small segment of your time during work breaks.

Break Through with Your Warmup – Try your scheduled warmup that you would do for your workout. Maybe it is 10 minutes of cardio and some stretching, or a quick jog/walk mixed with calisthenics and stretches like I prefer, depending on the muscle groups worked that day. For instance, the leg day warmup is the squat half pyramid, and it takes about 5-7 minutes to complete. Start with 1 squat, jog/walk 50-100m, then do 2 squats, jog/walk 50-100m, keep going up the pyramid until you feel warmed up, and stop at level 10. You can do the same thing with pushups, dips, or pullups on upper body days. This has often been just enough to get you through the rest of the workout.

Stew Smith and Jeff Nichols the coaching of gut checks. Defining gut checks and understanding how to incorporate them into your training so that they are actually useful activities is a challenge.

Check out more programming at Stew Smith Fitness - https://www.stewsmithfitness.com and
with Jeff Nichols at https://www.performancefirstus.com

Most people, even scientists studying physiology and psychology, are puzzled by the mind-body connection. While we can classify and function areas of the brain, developing them determines toughness, attitude and why you want to do something challenging to achieve. The areas of the brain we understand well are thinking and feeling, but thoroughly understanding the "doing" part of the brain is complex.

For this topic, I went down a rabbit hole in psychology and physiology studies. While these are useful in naming the chemical processes that occur when people succeed at accomplishing tough things, the debate about what makes you tougher as an individual is a diverse list of options that work for others before you.

The rabbit hole traveled for this article taught me about the CAC model: Cognition, Affection and Conation. This trilogy of the mind has been studied for decades and primarily involves creating marketing strategies to urge customers to buy products and services. What makes us buy something after seeing an advertisement? In a basic nutshell, it's getting a person to think (cognition) that they need something, feel (affection/sensation) they want something, and pull the trigger and make the purchase (conation). What gets us to do something, especially when our thinking and feeling parts of the brain tell us the opposite?

Get Used to Making Things Uncomfortable

As a coach, my special operations prep workouts are scheduled first thing at 6 a.m. Many participants drive an hour to attend. We also work out outside year-round when the temperatures can vary from the low 20s to the high 90s. I have found that the time and temperature of the workout affect the sensory part of the brain and require an override of the part telling us that it is too cold, and you are so comfortable in bed; why are you doing this to yourself? Then, as a coach, prescribing a workout that requires competition and a high level of intensity takes this process of getting tougher to the next level. There are days when the temperature, time and intensity combine perfectly to make someone dig deep and build toughness. This allows the brain to converse with each section and find an answer to the question: Why are you doing this? Having a solid why must be part of the process. What is Your 'Why'?

Applying this process to special ops selection performance requires you to push yourself to a point where it becomes mentally and physically challenging. There needs to be a time when you do not feel like working out, but you do anyway. There needs to be a time when you are running or rucking and want to stop, but you finish what you started. There needs to be a standard that you must reach, and then you must understand that exceeding the standard is the standard. This is all about your attitude.

The more you prepare, the better you are conditioned to handle the physical challenges, which helps you gain self-confidence. This attitude permeates everything you do as your confidence improves your cognition with experiences and lessons learned. You can start to understand
that there is no impossibility factor to achieving a special ops dream. The sensory (feel) part of the brain has begun to adapt to what was once extreme levels of discomfort and pain. You are now acclimated to doing hard things in challenging conditions. Because you are progressively preparing yourself for your future goals, you are willing to go above and beyond others' perceived limitations to attain them.

Check out other videos of combat swimmer stroke, workouts, and other spec ops related training. See http://www.stewsmithfitness.com for more information about military, law enforcement, special ops, fire fighting training programs.

See latest article - https://www.stewsmithfitness.com/blogs/news/dont-do-these-things-with-your-css-technique-and-training

INTRO to LIVE QA - Look at all the health and wellness benefits you may be neglecting by not exercising your legs:

Burn More Calories - You burn more calories whenever you decide not to skip a leg day. Because of the larger muscle groups working (legs, glutes, and back), you use more energy to train in the given time of your training session. Working hard is tough—maybe that is why people skip leg days. You are turning your body into a calorie-burning machine by simply doing leg day. Recovering from Leg Day takes extra time, and you burn more calories for a longer period of rebuilding after a leg workout.

Build Strong Foundation - Consistently working on your legs allows you to build a rock-solid foundation. Strong legs contribute to powerful hips, resilient knees, and sturdy ankles—essential elements that play a critical role in nearly every movement you make. Whether you’re sprinting to catch the bus or simply getting up from your desk, the strength of your legs supports all your daily activities.

Improves Balance and Stability—Moreover, improving your leg strength significantly enhances your balance and stability, especially if you mix in single-leg balance exercises. When you walk on uneven terrain without issue or trip but catch yourself from falling, that stability comes from powerful legs. This benefit alone can reduce your risk of falls and injuries, especially as you age. You'll feel more agile and secure as you take on physical challenges.

Get Bigger— Lifting weights with your legs increases human growth hormone production and testosterone. However, this does not mean you will look like a bodybuilder just because you do squats. Gaining weight also depends on your food intake, but you will build stronger muscles and connective tissue and lose fat when you lift. Building muscle (not losing muscle) is something we all need to do and maintain as we age.

Stronger Bones and Better Posture—The benefits of leg day extend far beyond the gym. Stronger bones lead to a healthier life with longevity, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and other bone-related issues. A straight, confident posture can enhance your overall presence, personally and professionally, making you feel more secure and confident about your future health.

Strong Muscles = Strong Joints and Less Pain - Let’s not forget the connection between solid bones, muscles, and healthy joints. By fortifying your legs, you’re actively reducing joint pain and crafting a resilient body that can withstand the tests of time.

The only days you should skip a scheduled leg day are when you are sick, injured, or sore. Also, 1-2 solid leg days per week are a must. On the other days of the week, you can work your legs by walking, jogging, swimming with fins, rucking, biking, rowing, and carrying things from one place to another. Each exercise will keep your legs active, ensuring you cultivate the strength base necessary for all aspects of life

This book focuses solely on our most recent Fall transition phase. The transition from high-repetition calisthenics to a high-mileage running phase is a reverse progression. Mileage and reps are reduced throughout the weeks as you focus on shorter and faster runs and heavier repetitions of calisthenics using some weights, sandbags, weight vests, TRX, and other tools to make calisthenics more difficult.

Running Miles: THIS WORKOUT Program (FALL): Running Starts at 25 miles per week and regresses to 20 miles per week in the first six weeks with a focus on running speed (6-7 min mile pace). We maintain a 20-25 miles per week running base for 6 weeks, then drop again toward the end of the cycle to be in the 15-20 miles per week for the lifting cycle that starts toward the Winter months. Running can be adjusted 5-10 miles per week (up/down) as needed for abilities with optional nonimpact cardio given each day.

The Winter months will drop the miles to the 10-15 miles per week zone purely as a cardio base maintenance. You can do these runs at goal pace intervals or steady state aerobic base maintenance. The goal in these months is to build strength, durability, and put on some mass if needed.

Rucking Miles – If you need more rucking miles, replace some of the running miles with more rucking. There will be opportunities to do 8-10 mile rucks if you prefer or split in half with run / ruck.

Lifts and Calisthenics Mix - We call the Fall transitions the 50-50 Split as the balance between calisthenics and cardio and the added lifts per week develop into about a 50% split. Then the progression into heavier lifting and less total mileage will peak during the following Winter Lift Cycle.

Fall: October – Nov – December: Sometimes, we will start the Fall Transition a few weeks or even a month early as it depends on how we are feeling with our high level of calisthenics and cardio from the peak Summer Cycle. The Fall Transition is like the 50-50 Spring phase just in reverse. We lift more /​drop the high reps – increase weight for strength /​ power. Running volume tapers into sprints / short runs and more non-​​impact cool down cardio after lift workouts. Consider Rucking and more swimming with scuba fins in the winter climates for cardio workouts. Obviously, if going Army or USMC – add rucking. If going Navy SEAL / SWCC / Diver, add in more swimming and swimming with fins. Both activities are great post-leg day lift workout cardio options. If you do not need to swim, replace some of the swim workouts with a ruck, extra run, or easy non-impact cardio session if you need to take it easy on the joints for a day. The Fall 50-50 cycle is fun and the decrease in mileage / increase in speed will yield results in the weight room as well.

https://www.stewsmithfitness.com/blogs/news/fall-transition-seasonal-tactical-fitness-periodization-series

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/6164612443013120

Stew Smith (https://www.stewsmithfitness.com) and Jeff Nichols (https://www.performancefirstus.com) discuss what being fatigue resistance is and how to build it. Check out the wide spectrum of ways to build it and how to feed it throughout all the phases of tactical fitness and special ops selection prep.

#1 – FUEL / HYDRATION - ALL THE TIME

PERIODICALLY - 1-2 TIMES A WEEK:

#2 – Hills, beach, stair stepper, weighted (rucks, sleds)– that makes running harder

#3 – Higher volume lifting, calisthenics, weighted calisthenics…after runs or rucks

#4 – Mix in leg PT with running or swimming. Mix in upper body PT with running or swimming.

#5 – Cooldown run or bike after workouts (lifts / intervals / load bearing etc) OR flip IT.

#6 – Take DE-LOAD weeks – reduce miles, reps, weight 30-75%. Increase movement, flexibility/mobility.

#7 – Constantly pursue RECOVERY. This type of training requires more recovery (food, water, electrolytes, sleep, breathing, relaxing, aka de-stressing the CNS).

# 8 – Don’t forget rest days / mobility days…

When you feel like the tank is empty and it will be at some point of your training. Finding the fuel when the tank is empty is something else. How bad you want it and your discipline to continue training leads to a mental toughness that will get you though when tired.