What Doesn’t Kill Us………

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

The human body is incredibly adaptive. We cheat, shortcut, conserve and circumvent anything that is not obviously in our best interest. We are always keeping enough in the tank to flee from the sabretooth tiger and will happily default to ‘screensaver’ metabolism just in case the next meal is elusive. Throwback to the days of the hunter gatherer.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had to run from a sabretooth tiger recently; Uber eats, drive-throughs and abundant all-you-can-eat buffets, make hunting and gathering solely a mental exercise.

If we have done it before, our complex brain kicks into gear to find an easier, quicker, and more efficient pathway to success. It is my contention that we are too smart for our own goods and the challenge is to beat ourselves at our own game.

Living by habit robs us of our potential. When you walk in the door to the gym, put your gear in the same locker, lace up the same sneakers, go to the same machine, set it to the same program, for the same amount of time, and do the same work out, you cannot expect to make a difference. You are merely (hopefully) maintaining the status quo, as your body cries “we’ve got this!”

If your highly motivated and talented trainer gave you a phenomenal workout, but you are still doing the same one with the same weights, as the day you were introduced to them, you are merely maintaining the status quo (if that).

How do we challenge the status quo and stimulate improvements and ‘gains’? We need to make efforts to live a radical life. We need to push ourselves into a space and time where we are uncomfortable. Anytime we break into a sprint, walk into a 120° sauna, plunge into a cryo-chamber or heaven forbid we don’t eat (and actually feel the rumblings of hunger) our body says “what the heck!” Your grey matter frantically tries to decipher what it needs to do to combat being uncomfortable and pushed into stress. How could our glorious status quo get upset?!!

THAT is when change happens. We don’t die easily, but the body kicks into gear to fortify and protect against ever being threatened in such a way again. Aha progress. That is what I’m talking about!

Therefore, I challenge you to lose your breath frequently, go into a fasted state and bypass the eternal fueling of the metabolic fire, lift things (repeatedly) that are just too heavy, aim for bigger, better, higher, longer, faster. It won’t kill you. It just might make you stronger, healthier, more resilient. And the endorphin rush from escaping the sabretooth is the best feeling there is.

And it may be the answer to the quest for eternal youth. Gasp!!