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Health & Fitness. Sports & Recreations. Nonfiction. HTML: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �?� Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell Limits are an illusion: discover the revolutionary account of the science and psychology of endurance, revealing the secrets of reaching the hidden extra potential within us all. "A voyage to the outer reaches of human capacity." �??David Epstein, author of Range "Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits." �??Adam Grant The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field. But what if we all can go farther, push harder, and achieve more than we think we're capable of? Blending cutting-edge science and gripping storytelling in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell�??who contributes the book's foreword�??award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-altering research over the past decade suggests the seemingly physical barriers you encounter as set as much by your brain as by your body. This means the mind is the new frontier of endurance�??and that the horizons of performance are much more elastic than we once thought. But, of course, it's not "all in your head." For each of the physical limits that Hutchinson explores�??pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel�??he carefully disentangles the delicate interplay of mind and body by telling the riveting stories of men and women who've pushed their own limits in extraordinary ways. The longtime "Sweat Science" columnist for Outside and Runner's World, Hutchinson, a former national-team long-distance runner and Cambridge-trained physicist, was one of only two reporters granted access to Nike's top-secret training project to break the two-hour marathon barrier, an extreme quest he traces throughout the book. But the lessons he draws from shadowing elite athletes and from traveling to high-tech labs around the world are surprisingly universal. Endurance, Hutchinson writes, is "the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop"�??and we're always capable of pus… (more)
User reviews
Journalist, physicist, and runner (as a member of the Canadian national team) Alex Hutchinson relates the history and latest scientific research regarding the limits of human performance. He is particularly interested in whether our limits are imposed by mental or physical factors. Woven in between the sports physiology is a narrative set around Eliud Kipchoge’s attempt to run a marathon in under two hours. He likens this milestone to Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile.
This is a book for people who are avidly interested in endurance sports physiology and psychology. It contains fascinating anecdotes related to other sports such as cycling, mountain climbing, arctic exploration, basketball, breath-holding diving, triathlons, and ultramarathoning. The author creatively blends together these engrossing true stories with scientific data on world-class athletes. It seems the majority of people can improve through training the body, but once a person reaches world-class levels, the mind becomes an even bigger part of the performance.
The information is imparted in an easily accessible fashion, though it will appeal most to those specifically interested in sports performance. There is no simple answer to the question of what limits us – body or brain – but Hutchinson thoroughly explores the subject in a way that kept my interest from beginning to end.
This book
The writing is clear and has a distinctive style of curiosity and skepticism. The author presents research results without cherry-picking, often showing conflicting conclusions, and trying to make some sense "with the reader". The number of details provided is as admirable as excruciating. Surely the author did his homework but I think more effort could go into the editing, cutting all the facts that do not support his message. Numerous digressions and shifts between threads require the reader to keep multiple pieces of information in mind to follow the author connecting the dots, but in the end a lot of dots remain disconnected and seem to be added just to show off.
If you are an avid sports fan, especially running or cycling (extra points for the appreciation of the history of record breaking), you might enjoy this book more than I did and add one star to my rating. Otherwise, it is a fascinating but not really ground-breaking read.