From the National Magazine Award-winning Runnerșs World columnist, frequent New Yorker online contributor, and Cambridge-trained physicist: a fascinating and definitive exploration of the extraordinary science of human endurance and the secrets of human performance, for fans of The Sports Gene, Born to Run, and Grit.
From running a two-hour marathon to summiting Mount Everest, weșre fascinated by the extremes of human endurance, constantly testing both our physical and psychological limits.
How high or far or fast can humans go? And what about individual potential: what defines a personșs limits?
For years, physiology determined the answer: heart size, lung capacity, and muscle strength. But over the past decade, a wave of dramatic findings in the cutting-edge science of endurance has completely overturned our understanding of human limitation. Endure widely disseminates these findings for the first time: Itșs the brain that dictates how far we can goȔwhich means we can always push ourselves further.
Hutchinson presents an overview of scienceșs search for understanding human fatigue, from crude experiments with electricity and frogsș legs to sophisticated brain imaging technology. Going beyond the traditional mechanical view of human limits, he instead argues that a key element in endurance is how the brain responds to distress signalsȔwhether heat, or cold, or muscles screaming with lactic acidȔand reveals that we can train to improve brain response.
An elite distance runner himself, Hutchinson takes us to the forefront of the new sports psychologyȔbrain electrode jolts, computer-based training, subliminal messagingȔand presents startling new discoveries enhancing the performance of athletes today and shows how anyone can utilize these tactics to bolster their own performanceȔand get the most out of their bodies.
