Managing emotional fatigue for physical performance

It won't come as a surprise to anyone reading this that emotional stress and a general day at work can leave a person struggling to find the energy and willpower to hit the gym after work. A new study looks at why this is so and how to overcome it, and finds establishing patterns in willpower and work out schedules are keys to getting yourself moving despite energy vampires. This short article in Psyche Central is interesting (excerpt below). The study itself was conducted through McMaster University and is published in journal Psychology and Health.

“There are strategies to help people rejuvenate after their self-regulation is depleted,” says study author Martin Ginis.

“Listening to music can help, and we also found that if you make specific plans to exercise—in other words, making a commitment to go for a walk at 7 p.m. every evening—then that had a high rate of success.”

She says that by constantly challenging yourself to resist a piece of chocolate cake, or to force yourself to study an extra half-hour each night, then you can actually increase your self-regulatory capacity.

“Willpower is like a muscle: it needs to be challenged to build itself,” she says.

The study is published in the journal Psychology and Health.

Similarly, an article on mental fatigue impairing physical performance is online from the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Conversely, I've just been reading a chapter on coaching and attitude in Tommy Kono's new book Championship Weightlifting, and he presents several anecdotes about people who were troubled who started working out and ended up the better for it. In other words, Tommy didn't go into the psychological part of how emotionally fatigued/stressed folks got themselves to move the weight, but told of how much better they were once they did.

Volumes can be and have been written on such issues, and how to manage your motivation, energy and discipline despite stress. This may be the juggernaut behind the legendary success of Nike's slogan. Anyone have any techniques or insights to share on how you manage yourself?