Pain barrier?

bohsboy

ANyone else have this problem, have started back in the gym after an absence of 3 years, I'm about a stone overweight, 29 years old, but since I've started back I just cant push thru that slight physical test barrier of 15 mins or so on a treadmill or bike.

When it gets tough I just jump off, I know its defo psychological as in the past I'd just grit the teeth and plough thru.

I've noticed this aswell when I play football or any competitive sports lately, if its getting tough I really lack the mental power to compete and im happy languishing.....

Any tips on strengthening the mind and concentration and pushing thru that barrier to compete?

Thanks

Pherekydes

I can never get past 15 mins on a gym bike either, but on a road bike I can do 2 hrs! I think it's to do with the fact that you CAN get off. When you're out on the road you don't have much of an option but to keep going until you get home.

Try setting the countdown timer on the equipment. Set it quite easy to begin with, then increase it by 1 or 2 mins each visit. I started off doing 5 mins rowing and 5 mins stepping and was eventually up to 30mins rowing and 40 mins stepping, in the same night!!

You can also program them for distance if you prefer. Remember, start easy and add on.

qwertyup

It is also to do with the fact that gym bikes are a complete bastardisation of a bike.

A real bike should be bought and adjusted such that it is a close fit for your body. A gym bike has precious little by way of possible adjustment, save for the seat height.

Plus they always seem to have seriously wide saddles, which is pretty dumb given that for any serious cycling the narrower the saddle the better (within reason, obviously).

EDIT: To actually address your original question, as opposed to ranting about gym exercise bikes, what I find helpful is firstly to set a time on the machine, so that you should at least feel a pang of guilt if you bail early.

Secondly, only allow yourself to towel off sweat on every odd minute (ie at 1:00, 3:00, etc). Similarly, only allow yourself a drink on every even minute (ie at 2:00, 4:00, etc). The effect of this is to focus your mind on the next minute of exercise, and the "reward" that its passing is accompanied by. In doing this you usually stop thinking about how long you've gone for, or how long is left, and simply exercise agressively on a minute by minute basis.

I'm sure there are better ways to get around the problem, but that is what I find works.

Stark

Yeah those bikes are pretty horrible. And you're right about the psychological aspect, you have to train mind as well as body. One thing I've noticed is I used to train with an MP3 player. My MP3 player is broken at the moment, and I found it harder to train for a while but now I'm used to it again. In fact it's theorized that interval training works so well is because it conditions your brain into accepting that running faster is okay. Otherwise your brain will signal fatigue to your muscles when you go a certain speed. I've noticed if I'm listening to a really good tune on my MP3 player I can run twice as fast.

Gillo

I used to find that distracting myself worked well, I used to recite poetry, or calculus in my head. The basic idea is that your mind is preoccupied so that you don't notice the pain.

tk123

you could try listenting to music or put your towel over the display on the machine or look out the window and count the cars going by(depends on your gym location thou)...Failing that have you tried say a spinning class? I'm them same as you - sometimes I'll just jump off and then kick myself because I know I could have gone longer. If you go to a class you can't stop when you feel like it so you have to keep going and like qwertyup is saying you work towards the reward of wiping off the sweat or having a drink between songs...