People have pre-conceived notions of what physical feats they can or cannot do, which are reinforced through time and habit. As a result, the majority of people never actually reach the limits of what their bodies are capable of. For example, someone who runs 5k daily but usually gets tired by the last kilometer may consider running 10k to be out of the realm of possibility. Navy SEALs, however, are put through intense training to mold them into proper soldiers. Part of this training comes from heavy emphasis on the idea of “mind over matter”: that is, people’s minds give up well before their bodies would. The SEALs have a “40% rule”: the human body can do an extra 40% on top of whatever the mind believes it can do. So for the average 5k runner, if he decided to push through his mind’s perceived limits, he could potentially keep going for an extra 2k.
Key Points:
- 1Many of us live rather comfortable, bubble-wrapped lives, and our threshold for discomfort or difficulty is very low.
- 2Magically, I ended up running 10.6km. It took me approximately 58mins. I didn’t enjoy much of it; particularly the 5th-8th km, but I did it.
- 3When I ran the 5k race in Ottawa a number of years ago, I became even more steadfast in the belief that I simply couldn’t run 10k.
I was recently listening to a podcast that was discussing the notion of the 40% rule, popularized by US Navy SEALs, which states that at the point that your mind believes you are done your body still has the capacity to do 40% more.
Read the full article at: https://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2016/10/31/pushing-past-your-physical-limits-how-the-navy-seals-40-rule-can-help-you-do-more-than-you-thought-possible/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plos%2Fblogs%2Fobesitypanacea+%28Blogs+-+Obesity+Panacea%29
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