If you haven't seen this video: Human Body: Pushing the Limits on the Discovery Channel...you should. Very interesting commentary on the Human Eye and Human Strength potential. Great special effects, cross-cuts of the human body etc. Most of the body's emergency potential is driven by an intricate dance of Mind and Body and millions of years of evolution and is only released in deadly situations. As all kids are (yes, I am still a kid) and athletes of all kinds we are fascinated with unleashing this stored potential during our normal athletic everyday. "Hulking Out" as it were. I have found in my years of training that many factors can have profound effects on performance and amping up to meet challenges. Music, diet, training, but the best tool to find deep reserves is the mind--for me anyway. It is gathering will like a super pill in the mind and then "willing" yourself to the task: ie. dead lifting 500lbs. Power Cleaning 315lbs. running a 4.5 40 yard dash, lifting the Atlas stone, sparring in Martial Arts, etc. Fury and rage are not enough, you need focus, and discipline and a "big pair" as we like to say. The big pair is really just will. The will triggers the brain to unleash body potential on command as it does instinctually in a life-or-death situation. Just getting in the saddle is part of the equation, stepping under the weight as we say for a squat; stepping under 500 pounds, putting it on your back and stepping away from the safety of the rack. But then upon feeling that grat mass pressing you, trying to force you into oblivion, you have to focus your fear and adrenaline into will and squat down, knowing the weight could easily blow your knee caps off--and then press the weight back up. Awesome. Liberating. The Atlas Stone requires slapping "tacky” on your hands and arms: a glue like substance: and bending down in an impossible position and then lifting a massive round cement and rebar stone off the ground. The process is not only muscle and mental intensive but tears the skin off of your arms and stomach and legs. Big Pair exercise. Will. Maybe focused insanity too, but it truly makes you feel alive. The will to put yourself in a situation that normally the body only wants to happen a few times in your life...it stores magnitudes of energy for just such emergencies. But that is just the body trying to survive--Genes trying to protect themselves in order to procreate and spread. Your Body-Mind. But we are more than the Body-Mind. We exist separate from that creature and yet are a part of it as well. We are the driver of the car, and
this driver likes the excitement of what I can push my body-mind to do. Okay, go have a sam'mich and consider what makes you feel alive. Consider if you are living to your fullest. If your car is driven by a desire to see all the sights...or you are just a passenger on someone else’s ride.
Lou Ferrigno was the original Hulk...he was deaf and a world champion bodybuilder and TV Star...Serious Will. (Yes Jones, I know what Arnold did to him in the Arnold movie: Pumping Iron. Arnold's a bit of an arse.)
