ALTHOUGH FITNESS IS important, we are going to face some form and level of adversity that we will not be able to overcome just through our fitness, just because we have more energy. Our ability to still accomplish the mission will be dictated instead by our physical and mental toughness, and that of our teammates and team leaders. Therefore, regardless of the battlefields where we compete, the best teammates and best team leaders are both physically and mentally tough.

As previously discussed, based on Eric’s experiences, personal strengths and weaknesses, and the realities of functioning in an extremely harsh environment like Mount Everest, he believes that climbing it was 95% physical and 5% mental. To accomplish the mission, he had to be extremely physically fit and physically tough. The 5% mental is what would have killed him, but the great proportion of his success on Mount Everest (and throughout his life) he attributes to the former. Based on our own experiences, strengths and weaknesses, battlefields that we compete on, and the summits we attempt to attain in our own lives, these percentages are different for each of us.

Athletes, members of the military, and the first-responder community might require an even split between physical and mental toughness. Others who typically work in climate-controlled offices might have a much greater need for mental toughness than physical for successful mission accomplishment. Although many of us may need our mental toughness to a much greater extent while pursuing mission accomplishment in an air-conditioned office, there will still be times in our lives when physical toughness is required.

Our office battlefields may not experience the same harsh weather conditions that are commonplace on Mount Everest, but we will all have long days and sleepless nights. We will still have mountains to climb and missions to accomplish when we are extremely tired. Physical toughness will help us to do so. Further, whatever the battlefield, we are all on a lot of teams. Regardless of the location of our work or the weather conditions it experiences, as a parent we will have an opportunity to go sledding with our children on an extremely cold day or play basketball with them on an extremely hot one. Our children or grandchildren will ask us to go outside and play. The more physically tough we are, the more we (and therefore, our child or grandchild) will enjoy the experience.

Following is how we ensure it.

Grind

The science of strength and conditioning is much more advanced than it was thirty-five years ago when Eric first started working out. Athletes are now told to “get on an end line” during conditioning. They are then instructed on how many sprints they are to accomplish, what the interval standard is, and what the rest period will be. Worse, we swim, bike, lift weights, walk or go for a run and we then determine its length and our pace by how we happen to be feeling during it. This does still produce better fitness, but it does not address our physical toughness at all.

Instead, put athletes on an end line during conditioning and tell them, “Run as fast as possible until we blow the whistle and then rest until we blow the whistle again. Repeat until we say you are done.” That will make us fitter and tougher.

We don’t need to be college athletes or have a certified strength and conditioning coach training us. We can do this for ourselves. At some point in any workout, when it gets challenging, demand more. Instead of doing 3 sets of 5 reps, do 2 sets of 5 reps and on the third and final set do as many reps as you possibly can. If we aren’t lifting with a spotter who can help take the weight from our chest before the bar pins and crushes us to the bench, then we are not grinding.

Go to the gym with a workout plan in place. Then, add a 500-meter erg (row) as fast as possible between the heaviest sets of an exercise. Go for a walk with a distance and pace predetermined. When you get tired or arrive at the foot of a hill, make yourself run to the top of the hill. Think about what you don’t want to do and then do it. What you don’t want to do is what will make you tougher if you do it.

Grind.

The Upside of Deprivation

Water and food deprivation do not facilitate a great workout and we certainly do not condone, in any form, injuring or hurting any athlete (or yourself). However, while training, when you feel thirsty, try to do one more sprint or one more rep and then get that sip of water. This must be an individual effort. As a coach, if an athlete asks for water, there is only one answer: go and get it. If not, there are entirely too many bad things that can happen, and we don’t truly know the extent of how hard everyone is pushing or what is going on internally with others. As an individual, however, we do! We know whether getting water now is a luxury or if it is a necessity. Can we safely push ourselves to do just one more sprint or finish the entire conditioning drill before we will need water? Train with the understanding that you can’t tell the other team when to take a timeout just so you can get a sip of water.

We can deprive ourselves in other ways than just while working out. Pick a day and eat nothing for 24 hours. If you’re a heavy coffee drinker, stop drinking coffee for a week. Deprivation makes us tougher.

Train How and Where You Will Compete

There is no bad weather. Just soft people.

Exercise in challenging physical environments. Train in the cold, in the heat, in the rain, and in the snow. Initially, you may very well not lift as much or run as fast as you could had you been inside. You will certainly not be as comfortable, but you will have made yourself physically (and mentally) tougher! We almost all live in places that can be extremely hot or cold. We will experience those extreme temperatures, even if only to walk to and return from our car, or watch our children play in an athletic contest. Train in the heat or cold and it won’t feel as hot or cold when you are outside in it. Most people don’t. Instead, if they exercise, they do so only inside a climate-controlled gym.

This isn’t about becoming more fit. It is about becoming more physically tough. Remember, “there is no bad weather, just soft people.”