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Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

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Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

By: Alex Hutchinson
Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
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About this listen

‘This book is AMAZING!’ – MALCOLM GLADWELL

‘If you want to gain insight into the mind of great athletes, adventurers, and peak performers then prepare to be enthralled by Alex Hutchinson’s Endure.’ – BEAR GRYLLS

How high or far or fast can humans go? And what about individual potential: what defines a person’s limits? From running a two-hour marathon to summiting Mount Everest, we’re fascinated by the extremes of human endurance, constantly testing both our physical and psychological limits.

In Endure Alex Hutchinson, Ph.D., reveals why our individual limits may be determined as much by our head and heart, as by our muscles. He presents an overview of science’s search for understanding human fatigue, from crude experiments with electricity and frogs’ 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 signals—whether heat, or cold, or muscles screaming with lactic acid—and reveals that we can train to improve brain response.

An elite distance runner himself, Hutchinson takes us to the forefront of the new sports psychology – brain electrode jolts, computer-based training, subliminal messaging – and presents startling new discoveries enhancing the performance of athletes today, showing us how anyone can utilize these tactics to bolster their own performance – and get the most out of their bodies.

©2018 Alex Hutchinson (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Personal Success Psychology Running & Jogging Sports Psychology Cycling Human Brain Physical Exercise Outdoor
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Critic reviews

‘This book is AMAZING!’ — MALCOLM GLADWELL

‘If you want to gain insight into the mind of great athletes, adventurers, and peak performers then prepare to be enthralled by Alex Hutchinson’s Endure.’ –BEAR GRYLLS

‘Anyone who has ever felt exhausted, whether from heat or cold or altitude or pain or simply a loss of will, is going to find their own experience in this book.” — DAVID EPSTEIN, author of The Sports Gene

An essential read for every endurance athlete.” — AMBY BURFOOT, 1968 Boston Marathon winner and editor of Runner's World Complete Book of Running

‘This is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to better to understand how our minds influence our ultimate performances.’ — TIM NOAKES, emeritus professor of exercise science at the University of Cape Town

‘An intelligent, exhaustively researched study.’ – The Times

What listeners say about Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

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very balanced view

the book was presented very well with pros and cons for different opinions/findings well balanced

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Exploring the brain and body contributors to physical endurance

An interesting review of what we know so far about the factors contributing to human physical performance, and what we still don’t know.
I found it interesting how much training, pushing and deceiving the brain contributes to results.

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Essential reading for and endurance enthusiasts!

Interesting throughout and certainly provokes a new way of thinking when it comes to your own endurance training and perceptions of your limits.

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Really Interesting

This book gives real insight into the difference between elite endurance athletes and ordinary folk.

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A Good Listen

I really enjoyed it, the author got me interested enough in the subject and some of the studies that I've looked into them a little more myself.

I was also involved enough to care about some of the personalities described and referenced.

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A little less icing, a little more cake but nevertheless a tasty treat.

How many books out there with the predictable message that it’s all in your head are there, do you reckon? This one’s a little repetitive at times, but the author has done his homework, doesn’t overly dumb the subject down and therefore the book punches above its weight class.

The book is tilted heavily toward the endurance side of things and Hutchinson occasionally goes a little starry eyed over the mysteries and glories of running, which more than once causes him to trip over his tongue in either polemic fashion on things he disapproves of and gushes on a bit about things he fetishizes. But through most of the book, the man maintains a level head.

I would have liked the coverage of research on a wider range of activities and sports and possibly a deeper look in the opposite direction and a mention every now and then of Dunning-Kroger effect.

The reader, though clear and competent is not very good with emotional subtlety and perhaps should stick to car manual narratives.

All in all, I would recommend this book to those interested in transcending their beginnings and limitations in sport, physical challenges and elsewhere. It is not necessarily a how-to manual, but furnishes some interesting insights and leaves the motivated reader with some starting points.

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Excellent book

Very thought provoking for any keen athlete... if you can get passed the mispronouncing of Eliot ‘kipchoog’

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The book is great but…

The narrator could not even pronounce “Kipchoge” correctly. Even “Rudisha” was a struggle for him. Butchering east african names throughout the narration kind of took a bite out of the spectacular book written by Alex Hutchinson. Would be better with a different narrator.

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immediately wanted to read it again!

I loved this book, a balanced mix of the history, science, and techniques needed to endure!

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Superb summary of the field

Alex provides a fascinating and seriously useful summary of the various strands of scientific studies on the topic of endurance - and he weaves (for me) just the right amount of stories of feats of endurance (or conversely tragedies) to bring it all to life. Great book.

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1 person found this helpful