If you want to handle stress better and develop more discipline, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is one of the best activities one can do for developing mental fortitude – Mental fortitude being the basic activity of remaining resilient, focused, and composed when facing adversity, stress, or high-pressure situations. Essentially, you’re building mental toughness. HIIT develops neural connections in your brain that impact your responses beyond just exercise. These connections increase your ability to control “you” and your reactions in any stressful situation you encounter. The ability to control your mind is greatly benefited through high intensity training. Here’s why:
High intensity training is a constant battle within yourself. When you’re in a grueling sprint workout, it’s constant pain. You feel like your legs can barely push off the track. Your lungs burn like they’re about to shrivel up and fall off. Every limb on your body feels heavy. Lifting your arms becomes a focused, dedicated effort. It feels like panic sometimes. It is creating a situation where you’re pushing your body to exhaustion, and that’s a great thing not just physically but mentally.
To get to that point in a HIIT workout, you have to defeat your mind repeatedly. What happens in high intensity sprint workouts is actually a collection of mini-battles. Your body is telling you to, “!Stop!” It is an alarm bell ringing with every step. It can feel like fear sometimes. It is a siren that oscillates in your mind and every time it comes around it yells, “Stop!” again, and you need to say, “No,” every time. You have to keep moving while hearing that siren screaming, and you have to decide to keep pushing every time that feeling spikes. It is that pattern over and over.
It is a hundred little fights where your brain tells you this is hard and painful and it doesn’t want to do it anymore, and you have to stick with your decision and keep pushing, knowing it’s good for you. Every step is a battle of your will. Once you win one battle, another one comes. What you are doing on a physiological level is training your willpower to consistently be stronger than any outside painful stimuli. You are training your brain to be able to withstand any sort of discomfort and pain by strengthening neural patterns that fire off “strength” every time your brain fires off “fear”. You create an automatic reaction of, “Keep going,” every time you feel, “Give up.” You are cultivating tenacity.
It’s the same theory of why mindfulness breathing meditation allows you to be more emotionally self-aware. Even though focusing on your breath isn’t directly focusing on your emotions, you’re developing the self-awareness to focus on what is happening automatically within you. That ties to emotions. Focusing on automatic actions like breathing naturally strengthens that raw ability to be able to focus on automatic reactions like emotions.
Sprinting and HIIT workouts do the same thing with developing tenacity and mental toughness. It makes it easier for your brain to decide to keep going when it’s uncomfortable. You learn to be calm and continue with the task at hand when your body is feeling panic. Whether you’re stressed, tired, annoyed, confused, or any other afflictive emotion, sprinting trains your automatic reactions to lean towards “continue” instead of “stop.” The more you practice continuing in physically high-stress situations, the easier it is to continue in other high-stress situations.
Another thing I do to practice this is have conversations in front of a mirror in a cold shower. If there’s a conversation you’re dreading, stand in front of your shower mirror when you’re already going through it in your head, and turn the water to cold. Practice keeping your body language relaxed and your face pleasant and neutral while you say what you’re nervous to say. Make sure you look calm in the mirror while the freezing water is pouring over your body to ensure your face isn’t showing any panic emotions.
The goal is to practice looking calm while you imagine having this difficult conversation. Say the words out loud and keep your face and body calm. Our facial expressions are a two-way street: Your emotions impact your facial expressions, but your facial expressions can also impact your emotions. By practicing looking calm in high-stress situations, you become calmer. Try doing this for thirty seconds, then forty-five, then a full minute. This is training your body to remain calm and continue on when it’s feeling high levels of stress, just like sprinting.
So, if you want to improve how you respond to stressful situations and be more disciplined when your goals get difficult, try HIIT or sprinting to cultivate that mental toughness. Whether you’re already in shape or trying to get healthier, throw a workout in there once a week with the goal of it hurting. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be sprints, burpees, an elliptical bike, or any other movement that you know will exhaust you. Whatever it is, set a timer for five minutes and promise yourself you’ll make it hurt. When that voice inside starts yelling at you to stop, know that every step you take after that is increasing your mental fortitude, developing your grit, and making you more dedicated in every aspect of your life.