How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

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Review ------ "To be a great athlete, you need more than natural ability; you need mental strength to keep going when your body wants to quit. In his new book, writer Matt Fitzgerald dives into the research behind these coping skills and highlights the top athletes who use them. Anyone, whether pro or everyday exercisers, can use these tactics to push further." - Men's Journal "Fitzgerald has been writing about the psychology of endurance performance for more than a decade now and is really one of the pioneers in terms of trying to take this body of research out of the laboratory and into the field for everyone to try. His latest book examines a series of notable races through the lens of Samuele Marcora's "psychobiological" theory of endurance. The races make it a fun read, and the psychology is thought-provoking." - Runner's World magazine "At the highest level of sport, it's often not physiology but psychology that separates the best from the rest. Matt goes well beyond just telling stories of great athletes (though he's really good at doing that, too) and delves deep into cutting-edge brain science to show us all how we can strengthen our own mental muscle." -- Huffington Post, Best and Fitness Books in 2015 "The mind is the next frontier for significant performance gains...Mental fitness, says Fitzgerald, means becoming your own sports psychologist and developing coping mechanisms to help you suffer better. Which, while not entierly satisfying, is a good start." -- Outside magazine "A book every that every endurance athlete should own...A page-turning read both for the narrative content and hard information...For all athletes drawn to pushing up against the red line to see what they've got." -- LAVA magazine "Fitzgerald has done an exemplary job in making physiology and psychology understandable with contemporary research framing a creative and entertaining book that makes the subject come alive through charismatic writing." - Canadian Running magazine "How Bad Do You Want It? really brings to life how important psychology is for endurance performance." -- Samuele Marcora, PhD "Harnessing the power of the setback is a powerful motivation. How Bad Do You Want It? recognizes the fact that we all have the power to adapt and be better than before." - Willie Stewart "Think of it as the mind-over-matter guide to racing. Fitzgerald's book dissects pivotal races and features top endurance athletes...illustrating how elite athletes rally their mental strength -- and amateur athletes can, too." - Austin-American Statesman "Imagine you could get into the mind of an elite athlete and use their skills to improve your sporting potential. That's the premise of Matt Fitzgerald's How Bad Do You Want It?" - Triathlon Magazine Canada "Fitzgerald's presentation digs into the very soul of his athletes to uncover innate traits and learned behaviors in ways that draw the reader right into the competition being described. This is a fantastic group of stories being told with literary skill far beyond most sports books... All the profiled athletes and all the masterful storytelling and all the research presented to back up the concepts he is illustrating become a cohesive effort by Fitzgerald to document the connections between the showcased sporting accomplishments and the mental fitness skills that propel those successes. Fitzgerald forms the foundation for constructing your own arsenal." -- Oregon Distance Runner "How Bad Do You Want It perfectly introduces the exciting new understanding emerging in the world of sports psychology and exercise physiology. Fitzgerald uses key examples from some of the world's most famous and celebrated athletes...to distill down highly scientific concepts and cutting edge theories into real world examples and situations that anyone can grasp. A superb book...If you want to succeed at your next race, to break through to a new PR, or reach a new level in your running, then I highly suggest this book. It will give you many of the latest tools and theories for doing just that, written in a way that allows you to apply them to your running, from the first to the last page." -- Colorado Runner "Fitzgerald is a skilled writer and the drama and excitement of the various races really jump off the pages. If you are feeling a bit unmotivated about running, this would be a great book to pick up, as you are likely to be inspired by all of the thrilling stories." -- Run Oregon "This fascinating book explains why perception of effort is so crucial to maximizing athletic performance. The mental toughness behind a dozen breakthrough endurance performances in cycling, running, triathlon, and rowing is analyzed through spectacular storytelling, first-person interviews, and powerful new psychobiological theory. Fitzgerald has a gift for making exercise science come alive with pulse-pounding stories of elite athletes engaged in the most pivotal races of their lives." - Saltmarsh Running From the Back Cover ------------------- "How Bad Do You Want It? will make you see your world as an endurance athlete in a new way. Fitzgerald’s research will help you become your own sports psychologist." - Joe Friel , leading endurance sports coach and author of the Training Bible series THE GREATEST ATHLETIC PERFORMANCES TAKE PLACE IN THE MIND, NOT THE BODY. How Bad Do You Want It? looks at epic moments in endurance sports to mine habits and tactics we can use to cultivate our own mental strength. Top athletes can seem godlike in their abilities. But no matter how skilled they are, talent takes them only so far. The hardest races demand that a champion rely as much on the mind as on the body, using it to confront the fears that we all face: fear of failure, suffering, or change, to name a few. In How Bad Do You Want It? renowned endurance sports journalist Matt Fitzgerald examines the “psychobiological” model of athletic performance, exploring how athletes are able to overcome physical limitations with mental might. In gripping accounts from triathlon, cycling, running, rowing, and swimming, Fitzgerald puts the reader inside breathtaking races, shedding new light on what science says about mental fortitude and how anyone can cultivate the mental strength to sur challenges—in sport and in life. Matt Fitzgerald is a journalist, coach, sports tionist, and author of more than 20 books, including the best-selling Racing Weight.