“The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.”
- Seneca
All physical challenges are inherently mental.
In the recent Adam Sandler movie Hustle, when Spanish basketball prodigy Bo Cruz finds himself at the cusp of an opportunity to play in the NBA, he falters in the face of personal insults directed to his family on the court. Even after a month of grueling drills, skirmishes, and endurance workouts, an inability to regulate his emotional responses is what ultimately impacts his performance at pivotal moments.
The mental and the physical realms of peak performance aren’t independent either. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Physical training helps cultivate the grit and forbearance required to bear life’s worst emotional traumas. At the same time, being able to stop the constant identification with negative thoughts is crucial to performing at a high level in seminal situations.
Often it takes a David Goggins-like approach to actively seek physical challenges that stretch your perceived capabilities to develop that resilience and indifference to obstacles. Andrew Huberman terms this notion ‘limbic friction.’ Remaining calm in a high-adrenaline environment primes you to be composed in the midst of the worst of the day’s stressors.
Maybe it’s a vital presentation at work, or a date with someone you’ve been wanting to go out with. When your heart begins to race, you can rest in the knowledge of having been in this precise state of autonomic arousal several times in the past.
I recently had a conversation with a student who served in the Israeli military. He admits to the rigor of studying at one of the nation’s top universities, but maintains that it pales in comparison to the suffering he endured in the military. Everyday life almost feels easy when you’ve hiked mountains bearing insurmountable loads on your back or being sleep deprived for nights on end.
In a world that offers constant hits of dopamine at ease, the feeling of pushing beyond your perceived physical capabilities is rare. It is only when we run that last half-mile even when it seems impossible that the mind grows in its capacity to endure. Ultramarathoner Courtney Dauwalter describes this as exploring the pain cave, every workout being a means to expanding the range of physical and mental agony that the mind can bear. Physical training then takes the form of an exploratory practice, one that you go into with a sense of curiosity in unlocking the next level to the mind’s capacity to bear the otherwise unbearable.
Every prominent author, rapper, executive, and researcher has a physical practice. Sometimes it’s for de-stressing from the obligations of their craft. Sometimes it augments their creativity. In other cases it’s to continuously callous their minds and bodies to cultivate discipline and strength. Not to mention the benefits that exercise has for longevity, mood, flexibility, and focus.
Ludacris, for instance, deeply values living a healthy life all-around. Ryan Holiday engages in daily runs and lap swims to clarify his thought process and work through what he’s writing. Brett Oppenheim needs that huge chest to maintain his image as a real estate agent and Netflix star.
The point is that success in any creative or executive craft is closely linked to the degree to which one prioritizes their physical health.
It’s easy to justify a lack of exercise to increasing obligations, but do you really want to compromise on the most important lever to your emotional and physical health and longevity?