When people think of elite performance, they often imagine muscle, speed, strength.
But a session at the 2025 Trainers' Summit in Munich made one thing clear: focus itself is being trained like a physical skill.
A session titled 'Cognitive Conditioning: The Next Frontier in Human Performance' explored how physical training can be designed explicitly to improve attention, emotional control, decision-making and stress resilience.
Why this matters for performance
Modern sport doesn’t just demand physical capacity. Athletes also need rapid thinking, calm under pressure and razor-sharp focus. Increasingly, cognitive fatigue and mental drift are now recognised performance risks - just like any physical injury or breakdown.
Training programs that integrate mental skills within physical movement are now emerging as game-changers.
What coaches and scientists are doing
Dr. Tessa Koschel from NSCA Germany explains the idea of 'cognitive conditioning sets'.
"We are designing sets of exercise where the body works and the brain works — we’re training muscle and mental control together," she said.
"The neurochemical state induced by physical exertion creates a window for better focus and learning."
So what does this mean in practice?
1. workouts where athletes must solve decision-making tasks while fatigued
2. drills that mix strength or speed work with memory/attention challenges
3. sessions where focus, not just load, is the variable
Takeaway: what you can use today
You don’t need a summit or coach certification to start training your focus. Try this mini routine:
1. After your warm-up:
add two to three sets of a complex movement such as a loaded carry or agility ladder, paired with a mental task, such as recalling five words or reacting to lights.
2. Mid-session:
insert a 30-second 'decision collapse' drill - fatigue your body, then ask your brain a question or make a rapid choice, like which hand to press, or which direction to go.
3. Cool-down:
a two-minute breath-control or visualisation exercise to bring focus back.
Because focus training is no longer just mental skills or psychology. It’s embedded in movement.
If you only train your body, you’re leaving the mental side untrained. If you train both, you build a full-spectrum athlete - or simply a sharper, more reliable version of yourself.
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