Utilising Expectations to achieve your best health

My Score: 

Coverage: Mental Training 

Summary: Some powerful mind play here that expands on Alia Crum's TED talk, worth it if you want more detail. Has some overlap with the confident mind and think these 2 books combined make for a powerful mental training combo. 

Review:

This book, as you might expect, is about Expectations and the impact that can have with the mind body link. Think to the work I have discussed from Alia Crum, this is basically a book explaining that work in more detail along with practical examples of how to use it. Of course part of the benefit of this book is that in understanding the expectation effect you can benefit more from the expectation effect because you that is, at least in part what the mind body connection relies on. 

Now, as I understand it, you can't of course make your mind do stuff to your body that it isn't capable of doing but the books outlines experiments / cases where the brain has been tricked into releasing opioids or the case of a girls whose brain, due to migraines, tricked her into going blind and then therapy allowed her to regain her eye sight. 

Chapter 5 is entitled, Faster, Stronger, Fitter. It begins by discussing the case of sports men and women who have received a performance benefit from receiving a placebo, the belief that you have taken something can improves your performance will increase your performance. 

Quotes from the likes of Roger Bannister "It is the brain which determines how hard the exercise systems can be pushed" or Eliud Kipchoge "I always say I don’t run by my legs, but I run by heart and my mind," ... "What makes a person run more is their mind. If your mind is calm, and well concentrated, then the whole body is controlled."

It is the minds expectation effect of the body that determines how fast you can run. "By adopting the right mindset, even the most devoted couch potato can enjoy more gain, and less pain, from their workouts." The book also references studies that showed that physical performance was impacted by mental tasks, so resting your brain before and during an event could also be important but it proves there is an element of mind body linkage. At this point I was reminded of the Central Governor theory by Tim Noakes (which came up a few pages later). 

"The brain’s estimates of what we can achieve are generally very conservative, and that makes evolutionary sense: unless we are facing a life-or-death threat, it’s generally better to play it safe to avoid potential damage."

I liked the expansion on the work done by Crum, around how cleaners thinking of cleaning as exercise ended up fitter than their counterparts that hadn't had the same reframing. Certainly something I utilise through walking or rucking and believe this helps with my running. This all leads you to being more positive about your own fitness. 

There is also a brief discussion on visualisation but I recommend the confident mind for a more in depth look at that though the science here helps to cement the expectation that it will work. I won't go into anymore detail on the book but it covers lots of interesting science and use cases for how we can manipulate the expectation effect to achieve our best. 

My Takeaways: 

• Performance benefits can be derived from placebo, as per the example of the Tour De France, the same benefits could be achieved from runners taking supplements that they have researched and may well work but just their belief that they work could be enough for some percentage of that improvement. I also think that can apply to maximising the benefits from dietary changes, training schedules and recovery techniques. 
• Can we use affirmations around exhaustion / exercise to change our perceptions? "our expectations of our physical abilities may override certain genetic dispositions for exercise"
• Can we manipulate the central governor to let us push a little harder? I mean they argue that this model of exhaustion places it under the brains control. e.g. Having lucky running items - "An understanding of the brain’s potential to control physical performance is enough to bring about a boost. So feel free to use any aids that work well for you. Whether it’s a favourite drink, fancy sportswear or motivational music, it’s the change in mindset that will bring the benefits."
• Maybe don't use mentally taxing maths to distract you from the pain of running?
• To have a focus on the benefits on the exercises you are doing, same applies after exercise, to maximise the benefit focus on the fact that aches and pains mean your body is adapting. 
• When you are getting out of breathe focus on the fact it means you are running fast and performing to your best.
• Thinking of household activities like cleaning / vacuuming can lead to the expectation that you will receive a benefit from it, so think of everything that could be exercise as exercise. 
• Use visualisation, not just for peak performance but to keep yourself in tune when you are injured of facing an enforced break.