The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness
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The only reason this kind of article is useful at all is that virtually everyone who trains a sport fails to train hard enough. In other words, after you remove all the fancy language and rah-rah spirit, you are left with "You should probably try harder". And that's probably good advice.
My two cents.
I'm unconvinced that the SEAL in question suddenly realized one day there was a "secret" to not quitting; it's just how he's hardwired.
http://www.outsideonline.com/1986361/running-empty
Sometimes you get to the point where the harder you attempt to push through fatigue, the more likely you are to do long-term harm. Unfortunately it's difficult figuring out when you've reached that point.
Yes, there are plenty of young extremely healthy men at these events, but they're the minority. The majority of participants are over 30 years old, in good but not great or extreme condition, and tend to be 10-30% female.
These events are hard. Hours of PT, carrying of heavy objects for hours at a time, all while wearing a backpack that weighs at minimum 25#.
Success rate is about 94%. Yes, there is some principle of self-selection at work whereupon if you're dumb enough to sign up for such a thing you're predisposed to survival, but the biggest reason that participants finish is because we are all capable of so much more than we think.
That's the point of the article, IMO. Don't try harder, just don't fucking quit. Hell, try less if that's what it takes to not quit.
Edit: accidentally hit enter too soon. I wanted to say something about "not training hard enough" not being the issue with most athletes I see, rather they're training too hard with poorly designed programming.
Yeah, this was a huge lesson for me. I was used to being good at the things I spent time on. So when I'd try doing sporty things, I'd overestimate my current level and underestimate how much work it takes to improve. Training would be awful and discouraging and I'd quit.
Less ambitious training was the key for me to learn to not give up. At this point I've done a couple of triathlons and I don't know how many distance runs. I never would have gotten there without a big dose of humility and being realistic.
There is lots to recommend "don't give up". But it also has to be tempered with "Stop if it hurts". You'll get fit/strong/endurancy-faster if you can keep training tomorrow than if you have to spend three weeks icing your wrists and gobbling down NSAIDs.
EDIT: Leaving this up for posterity because why not. After re-reading your comment, I'm not convinced that we disagree. It's just that the whole thing becomes extremely nuanced once you start talking about things like: "I'm stopping doing e.g. chinups today so that I can do more tomorrow. I'm not giving up on my goal, I'm just altering the timeframe". Here it's not clear how you should interpret the "Don't give up" mantra.
I've also heard it put this way: "If it hurts, it means you're doing it right. If you're in pain, stop."
I should have been more clear in my response that when I say "don't fucking quit" that "...just because you're uncomfortable" is implied. The 100 chinups from the article is a pretty bad example, candidly, of something to be powering through, especially, if you're not already in decent condition and have that sense of hurt vs injury. The degree of discomfort could become so high that it masks the injury signals from the structure of the shoulder.
Curious, what you imply by that. I have read about the skin (mostly the face) of runners not so great, because of exposure to so much weather. Did you imply something along these lines or something else?
It's probably a somewhat obsolete usage of #, especially in a twitter world, but it isn't really obscure (the key is often called the "pound sign" when it isn't called a hash).
When I was actively weightlifting, I learned to keep pushing myself. I'd keep a journal and force myself to work harder every time. It's all too easy to just say "I'm tired, I did a lot last week, my goals are being met." It's harder to say all these things but still add even just 2 lbs to the bar or squeeze out one more rep than last time.
Over time, you get used to constantly trying harder and the mental effort decreases while the physical effort increases.
On the other hand, you need to know when to quit. You need to understand when your body is saying "if you do this, I won't just be sore; I'll be seriously hurt." Learning to differentiate being exhausted, having sore muscles and breathing so hard your lungs are on fire from that stab of pain from a nerve that says "STOP NOW" is crucial.
I was lucky: the few times I ignored that voice telling me to stop I was able to walk away with no more than a few bruises or a pulled muscle.
Gonna start out with a Kill That 5K.
When you do the Light, the Cadre ask "does anyone have any medical conditions we should know about". Speak up, or at least talk to the Cadre before the event so he's briefed on the likelihood of incidence as well as treatment. Also, some of the Cadre were/are 18Ds, e.g. medics, and depending upon the severity of your condition you may wish to seek out an event run by one of them.
I don't know what you're doing for training, maybe you have that well in hand, but I highly recommend looking into the programming done by Rob Shaul at http://strongswiftdurable.com. They respond quickly to emails and are great about recommending plans based on your goals and current capabilities.
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.
Running 100s at 260 pounds - and continuing through kidney damage and broken foot bones isn't tough - it's just stupid.
Why do I think this?
David Goggins ran a 50 mile ultra a little over a month after the San Diego 100: http://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=David&... (Scroll down to 2006).
David is undoubtedly a very tough (and gifted) endurance athlete. No doubt about that - just look at his results.
But I also think overblowing these stories is dangerous. No one should ever think that they should battle serious kidney damage (and risk death) in order to finish a completely optional foot race.
I agree. But I have to ask you this question (since I see that you are quite accomplished in this area from your webpage). Isn't there a strong mental component to people who do these types of things? (I don't have that currently although I have exercised nearly every day for the past 18 or so years..) My point is if someone goes down a certain path which they believe will make them happy (or fit) aren't they compelled to keep up with what they have started for almost mental health purposes? I am reminded of when I used to run everyday even when it was snowing or raining heavily (I used to tape bags around my feet). I no longer do that and looking back I think it was a bit crazy when I did (although it felt great and as if I had accomplished something by enduring harsh (to me) conditions).
Through habit and positive reinforcement, the psychological drive to run, train and race grows wildly in some people - and it can grow dangerously large.
As a result, people run their way to injury and other serious long-term health repercussions. See the article someone posted above, for notable examples. The mind is so powerful - it can override everything, to the complete detriment of the body.
And even if most of the injuries and health problems aren't life threatening - it's truly sad because by overdoing it, you can still kill your ability to run, the thing you love to do.
I think to be successful in the long-term - meaning, staying mostly injury-free, improving performance over time, and performing at your peak in your races - is to be absolutely exceptional at governing that psychological drive.
He says "“I asked him to come live with my family and I for a month…". I wonder the impact of having this stranger live with them to learn these arbitrary secrets (and to what end exactly we aren't talking about trying to stop smoking or learn to walk when you are crippled, right?) on his family and how they felt about it.
For a SEAL, someone regularly called on to do the impossible, the 40% rule makes perfect sense. For most of us, doing 100 pull ups instead of 40 is mostly missing the point. Spending 2 hours in the gym instead of 30 minutes for me is actually counter-productive. It's not how many pull ups you do on a given day, it's how many times in a given year you do pull ups.
2 hours doing what in the gym? The balance of activities is the critical part, IME.
For example - I recently went on a bike ride with friends where we climbed an unknown (to me) hill. I slowed down a bit to a pace I could maintain long term. I was one of the first to the top. :-)
I'd kind of like to have 2 minutes of my life refunded to me. And the pint of blood I just lost from stabbing myself in the eyeballs when I realized that some people actually take this spam-subscription bait seriously.
It works when it should. As a teenager from a poor family in India, I would generally go on 5 hour sleep- My waking live was spent going to college, studying for long hours in the library and doing late night studies at home.
I used to sleep between 3 AM and 9 AM in the morning.
I didn't even like I was doing anything great at all. It felt more like 'opportunity'. Because frankly my other friends from a similar background where having it way worse, most had quit studies and were doing small time jobs to support their families.
I had these kind of episodes in my life quite a few times. Generally something good comes out of it. And it has always felt like 'opportunity'. Stressful, tiring, taxing and demanding of course, but I feel blessed to be even given the opportunity to undergo the struggle.
but since i'm generally healthy, the trick is to decide to go until i absolutely can not move anymore, whether it's 2 minutes or another hour. once you've made that decision in your head (your mental "escape route" having been established), the rest is easy. when you have a professional watching your form and supervising you, this is perfectly safe. if i can still move the weight, i keep going. if i can't move the weight, then it's a good time to stop.
for me personally, it's much harder to wake up 3x a week at 0530 and go to the gym than to finish a physical task when you feel like giving up. that's where the 40% rule doesn't really help me much. once i'm there it's not that hard to finish.
btw, for those of you thinking of hiring a trainer, don't just walk into a gym and ask for one on staff, find a reputable barbell coach in your area and work with them on a long term training plan that suits your budget and goals, then pay it all up front because otherwise you're not going to get your ass out of bed at 6am.
It works well for working out alone because the goal is simple: do 20 reps with more weight than last time, even if it's just 1 lb more. You simply don't allow yourself to stop before failure. It's "20 or die." It was the most productive form of weightlifting I've ever done in terms of increasing strength and body mass.
Make sure you have a good, stable squat rack :-)
And squatting once a week will do even less than that.
One of the major reasons why steroids works is because it cuts down on the required rest time by a large margin.
What it can sense however, is a build up of CO2.
Normally CO2 buildup response is calibrated to be "early" in terms of oxygen, but the calibration can change (e.g. through hyperventilation) which can lead to blackouts and drowning since blood oxygen levels can drop below ones needed to keep brain "on" before CO2 buildup response even registers.
Ignoring the urge to breathe is definitely not a smart thing to do unsupervised unless one wants an early, watery grave.
Your response is misleading in that it implies "mental toughness" (utter bollocks) or a skill that some people have more than others. If Navy Seals (or anyone else) do this for real, you can bet your ass they do it under strict supervision, when training/competing (e.g. BUDS).
I got my open water scuba certification many years ago from a former Navy SEAL.
At the time, I was 4' 8" and weighed 85 pounds.
The Navy SEAL was about 5' 10", 200 pounds.
Every single dive we went on he used less than half the air that I used, and I used less air than the rest of the dive group (because I didn't need as much given my stature).
He explained that he used a meditative style breathing pattern and simply remained very calm underwater.
/anecdata
Drastic changes occur with aerobic training and hypoxic stress in the red blood cell count & blood volume, blood pressure, heart stroke volume & lower resting heartrate. He has more muscles, more energy stored in glycogen in those muscles, and swims faster. The person you learned from was likely not physiologically capable of long dives when he first started, no matter his mentality. And nobody is capable of using a "meditative breathing pattern" while they're exerting themselves at the limit of their aerobic capabilities; He was farther from them than you were. There are likely other long-term adaptations we don't know about, specific to diving.
However, part of what he taught us was that when diving, with our without SCUBA gear, one shouldn't anywhere near approach the limit of one's aerobic capabilities, for precisely the reason of conserving one's air supply (and, honestly to focus on the experience of the dive and the amazing ecosystem around you).
I got much better at reducing my use of air by the time I got my open water cert, but I still never got anywhere near to how little he used.
The earlier poster wasn't that he was inferior, but that he saw how training and pushing yourself beyond comfort can change you.
I don't know exactly how much, but it's an amount usable for high-tech imaging.
10 years ago I could swam 50 meters. At that time I was doing tai-chi, meditation etc...
'Proper study' is here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11352604
Before he founded Marquis Jets, the world’s biggest private jet company, Itzler was known as Jesse Jaymes, a white rapper with the hit single “Shake it Like a White Girl.”
Like, how I'd reframe the advice is to pull the "replace trying with awareness" trick from The Inner Game of Tennis. Take stock of what it feels like to do the "last" pull-up that you can, and then feel what it's like to do another afterwards.
As for 40%, keep in mind different people are different: some people have been beaten into this since they were kids so when they say they are finished they are way past 40%