Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Written by Alexander Hutchinson
Narrated by Robert G. Slade
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ""Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits."" —Adam Grant
Limits are an illusion: a revolutionary book that reveals the secrets of accessing your hidden extra potential
Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell
The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field—from a 100-meter sprint to a 100-mile ultramarathon, from summiting Everest to acing final exams or completing any difficult project. 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 pushing a little farther.
Editor's Note
Dig deeper and go farther…
What part of the body determines if an athlete can dig deeper, go farther, push harder, or climb higher? An elite distance runner strives to find out, exploring the cutting-edge science of human endurance. His findings might surprise you.
Alexander Hutchinson
Alex Hutchinson, Ph.D., is a columnist for Outside magazine and was a long-time columnist for Runner's World. A National Magazine Award winner, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker online, pens the weekly ""Jockology"" column in the Toronto Globe and Mail, and writes for the New York Times. FiveThirtyEight recently named him one of their ""favorite running science geeks."" He was a two-time finalist in the 1,500 meters at the Canadian Olympic Trials, and represented Canada internationally in track, cross-country, road racing, and mountain running competitions. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge, and has worked as a researcher for the U.S. National Security Agency. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
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Reviews for Endure
237 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love the mix of psychology, nutritional science, and physiology. Would def read this again.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting, just very scientific. Sometimes got lost in the science terms
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very scientific and databased with anecdotal stories to add color.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The details covered into the science behind the various methods to boost endurance and human performance are fascinating.
The narrator is excellent, the author, humble and curious. A wonderful combination. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book about mental perception and all the research that goes into athletes who push the limits.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow, comprehensive book of endurance training. A bible for exercise enthusiasts everywhere.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“Over the past decade, I’ve traveled to labs in Europe, South Africa, Australia, and across North America, and spoken to hundreds of scientists, coaches, and athletes who share my obsession with decoding the mysteries of endurance. I started out with the hunch that the brain would play a bigger role than generally acknowledged. That turned out to be true, but not in the simple it’s-all-in-your head manner of self-help books. Instead, brain and body are fundamentally intertwined, and to understand what defines your limits under any particular set of circumstances, you have to consider them both together. That’s what the scientists described in the following pages have been doing, and the surprising results of their research suggest to me that, when it comes to pushing our limits, we’re just getting started.”
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. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I got hold of this book because race walkers, including Canadian Evan Dunfee and Australian Jared Tallent, participated in a nutrition experiment, which was carb-free. This a good book on research into human performance, particularly sports. What food should se eat?, How do we train, intervals, routine? What are the limits of exertion and are they stretchable? What is the oxygen consumption. What does the brain think? What are our attitudes?