It's All In Your Head...or Not

I have a program on my phone that measures my walking/running/cycling speed and mph as well as distance travelled. While it's not of special importance to me now that I am not actively racing, it is interesting that I get messages like," That was a great workout. You have earned a shower!" My wife often gets messages that imply she's faster when walking with friends. I think these are all a bit much, but recent research seems to indicate that fatigue might be as much in the mind as it is in the muscle tissue.
Recently released in Medicine in Sports and Exercise, research measured he importance of  consistent and systematic self-talk in avoiding fatigue. Participants in two groups were asked to pedal a stationary bike at 80% of their max until completely exhausted while all the pertinent body functions were monitored. Having established baselines for each participant, researchers then taught half od the group how to use positive self-talk when they felt like fatigue was overtaking them. Phrases like "feeling good" or "doing well" became part of the self-talk routine while participants were reaching a point of stopping. results showed that the positive self-talk actually increased all participants' ability to push beyond past physical limits, adding more fuel to the fire that says fatigue is not merely muscular: the brain has a lot to do with it. I agree.
The brain is what keeps most people on the couch, too.