'Mental toughness': Sports psychologist on how to beat the heat

The high temperatures broiling West Michigan is a challenge for lots of us, but one sports psychologist says we can beat the heat.

"There's gonna be a danger here," says Dr. Eddie O'Connor, a clinical sport and performance psychologist. "Respect it, but then prepare for it, you have to hold yourself accountable and responsible."

Dr. O'Connor says people who want to keep working out in this heat have to take steps to keep themselves protected from the risks high temperatures bring.

"We need to listen to our anxieties and say, "What is it trying to warn us and so when we have the heat and we're nervous about how we're going to feel in it. We have every right because the heat can absolutely be dangerous, but it doesn't mean that dangerous something to avoid as athletes we already know this."

"The things that you should be doing certainly are the hydrating, like, we know that we're going to sweat. So I think that'd be a universal aspect of it is be sure that you're taking in the water even if you don't feel like you need it because you want to you if you do it when you're dehydrated, it's already too late."

While there is a danger in exercising in these kind of conditions, Dr. O'Connor says if we want to improve our performance, using hot temperatures during our work outs can be a boost.

""hen the weather is really tough and adverse, you really want to use it as a time in your training to say how am I going to focus on it?" said Dr. O'Connor. "How do I refocus on it when the rest of the world or your competitors are complaining and distracted about the weather? You want to be able to let go of that because there's nothing that you can do about it. Which doesn't mean it's not supposed to bother you are going to be uncomfortable, but how do you embrace that and say this is going to be part of the race? And then what is my plan to deal with it?"

"Open yourself up and be willing to feel the discomfort, the sweat, the fatigue, in service of the goal that you have. That's really the most critical part of the mental toughness for heat."

That mental toughness is what Dr. O'Connor says is needed regardless of what kind of obstacles we face in our physical training.

"If I really want to do well in this race, I'm going to be willing to sweat to hurt to feel pain to if I want to go faster than I've ever gone. I'm willing to feel more pain than I've ever felt. So it's really working on that attitude in your mind day by day with each of the workouts, where you're changing your relationship with whether it be the physical pain, the heat the cold, and you're seeing that it's serving you in some way."

"This isn't a way of taking something negative and making it a positive, it can stay negative, but it has value," says Dr. O'Connor. "When this heat comes out, and it's harder, you in your heart want to say, this is an opportunity for me to do hard things. And by doing hard things, I'm gonna become stronger and grow and get faster."

Dealing with adversity is something Dr. O'Connor says we have to do in all aspects of our lives, including our jobs.

"You made a choice to be in this situation, and you have some performance that you have to do. And the more we can tie into that we get to do that, the more we're willing to deal with the adversity of all that goes through."

One area Dr. O'Connor says heat is no good is when we are resting. When it is hot our sleeping cycle can be disrupted. Dr. O'Connor says research shows the optimum temperature for sleeping is 67 degrees.

"[That] seems to be a little cold for a lot of people is when people actually sleep their best," says O'Connor. "So it's just a warning that as the heat goes on here, if you're like, 'Oh, I don't want to be cranking the AC,' 'You got to save the money,' or whatever else it is, you know, this might be the time where you kind of say, 'Wait, let me lean into it, be sure that I'm getting good night's rest, keeping my bedroom cool.'"

While we do live in Michigan and deal with the weather changing every five minutes, Dr. O'Connor says it's time for the complaints to stop.

"I invite everybody no matter what to stop complaining. Like, it cracks me up in Michigan, how we complain about the cold and like you really got to move if you don't like this, like this is going to happen every year."

"Just remember how much we were complaining about the winter, just like three months ago. The idea of complaining in sport or otherwise, it's such a distraction from what we need to do. And you're complaining about something that we don't have any control over."

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