Have you ever heard a news story of some incredible feat of human endurance and wondered how on earth the person managed to survive?

It is actually a phenomenon of human instincts that means that your brain will tell you that you can’t go any further long before you’re anywhere near your actual physical limit.  

Use the power

In life-threatening situations, your body will be able to dig deep and produce energy to enable you to continue on and on, and to do whatever you need to do, to survive.  In these circumstances, the brain taps hidden depths that it usually keeps in reserve.  In everyday life these reserves often remain unavailable.

This means that you are likely to stop pushing yourself way sooner than you need to – the body’s computer says no. The brain’s instinct is to protect the body, and to conserve some reserve energy and capacity in case fight or flight might be needed.  In actual fact, you will need to overcome this ancient instinct and push yourself beyond what you think is your limit in order to achieve the best results.  You actually have a lot more in reserve than you think, and if you tap into this extra capacity, you will improve significantly.

So, for example, if you’re doing an exercise, such as abs crunches and you’re ready to quit, in actual fact your brain is probably telling you that you’re done too soon.  If you focus, you can dig deep and push some extra reps which will make all the difference to your progress.  Of course you need to listen to your body and don’t overdo it, but with practice you can utilise this hidden reserve for gain.

With practice, you can develop the skill of finding this extra capacity and move closer to your real limit, so you can produce results you never dreamed possible in super quick time.