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

  • By: Alex Hutchinson
  • Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
  • Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (484 ratings)
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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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Summary

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, PhD, reveals why our individual limits may be determined as much by our heads and hearts 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

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)

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

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • LC
  • 01-07-19

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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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really Interesting

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

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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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    5 out of 5 stars
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Good stuff

I found this very interesting and not too heavy on the science behind it all

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fascinating information.

fascinating scientifically backed information but reading style very unnatural and annoying. Plenty of practical advice offered

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Read

Loved this book. A very informative look at endurance sports, and the research to help with performance.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superb book

Excellent book with so much to offer athletes good and bad. In many ways it cuts through the myth and provides a great summary of modern performance and its science.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

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

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