Stilwell Mental and Physical Endurance

How to reach your physical and mental peak
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-909160-32-3
Verlag: Amber Books Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

Reihe: Elite Forces Handbook

Most of us know that we are not exercising our minds and bodies as much as we should. The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance uses techniques developed by special forces units to train their recruits to show how we can improve our mental and physical fitness. The book is a detailed examination of what it takes to become as fit as a special forces soldier, taking a holistic view of the body and mind. It is equally important to focus on diet, rest patterns and mental discipline as it is to concentrate on physical exercises. Using simple steps, the book shows the reader how they can build up their endurance over a matter of weeks and months, and how their quality of life will benefit. Like elite soldiers, top athletes need the spur of competition to achieve their greatest successes, and The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance demonstrates how you can gain the psychological edge over your opponent. Whether you are competing in unarmed combat sports, running a marathon or just looking to get ahead, the book has helpful and practical advice for you. Using photographs and artworks, The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance shows how special forces units such as the SAS and Delta Force stretch themselves mentally and physically, giving the reader the opportunity to train as they do in easy-to-follow steps to reach their peak of mental and physical strength.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stilwell, Alexander

Leseproben

The popularity of extreme sports – sport extrem in French – demonstrates the fundamental human need to face challenges and overcome them, even if it is necessary for some people to build those challenges themselves. Introduction ‘You are what you think’ is a well-known phrase but, like many familiar phrases, it deserves closer scrutiny. While the mind controls the physical body in a direct way through the will, the mind itself is divided into the conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious stores influences that may have been picked up since childhood, and these influences can affect an individual’s conscious assessment of their ability to overcome obstacles. Somebody who has had a history of being ‘put down’ whenever they open their mouth, for example, may have developed an irrational fear of speaking in public. To quote Henry Ford: ‘Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’ll be right.’ Facing Fears In his book Call it Courage, Armstrong Sperry tells the story of a Polynesian boy called Mafatu, who was afraid of the sea. Mafatu means ‘Stout Heart’ in Polynesian and his name, added to the fact that his island was surrounded by the element he most feared, presented Mafatu with a significant problem. Either he had to accept the name of ‘Coward’, which he was increasingly called behind his back, and never engage with the source of his fear, or he had to do something about it. Luckily for him, he chose to confront his fear and set out to sea in a small canoe with a couple of pets. By facing his fear and overcoming the challenge, Mafatu was able to return to his island having lived up to his name. It should be noted that the boy was not named ‘Coward’ or ‘Weakling’ at birth. He was given a name that implies high expectations and a certain inherent dignity. The name, however, is also owed to the achievements of his predecessors. Mafatu comes from a long line of ‘stout hearts’. It is not, however, enough to ‘inherit’ courage; he has to prove it to others, and also to himself. In other words, being born of a line of brave people does not exonerate him from having to face fear himself. Courageous people, therefore, are not people who have an absence of fear, but they are people who have learned to overcome fear. The experience of overcoming fear in certain circumstances gives them confidence when faced with a similar set of circumstances, although they may still experience the sensation of fear. Fear of the unknown is natural, but many people populate this unknown with imaginary scenes that are unlikely ever to take place, thus increasing their irrational fear. Note Guardini’s words again: ‘living means advancing into this unknown region’. In other words, if, like Mafatu, you listen to your fears and do not advance into the unknown region, you are not really living, and you are not living up to either the expectations of others or the expectations conferred upon you by your own dignity as a human being. The Polynesian boy Mafatu faces the waves. Courage is in proportion to the fear that some challenge arouses in a particular person. Many fears are understandable; others are somewhat irrational. By overcoming the fear, however, courage and confidence are born. Physical and Mental Endurance Having taken courage into your hands and advanced into the unknown region, whether it be the sea or some other area of challenge, it is not much good to simply get your toes wet and skip out again. The next stage involves staying with it and seeing it through. For Mafatu, like the explorers on the Kon-Tiki expedition, he had to encounter storms, dangerous sea animals and other rigours, and endure the journey until it was complete. The journey and all of its challenges helped to build his character and help him to prove that ‘Tough times never last, tough people do!’ (Robert Schuller) Many lasting stories of courage imply endurance and tenacity as part of the deal – it is not just a question of turning up and being there, you have to last the course. Usually you only last the course if your mental fitness is not only equal, but also superior to your physical fitness. Those people who surpass even this level of achievement, however, have something else: they have the spiritual or subconscious foundations to take them beyond what conscious mental reasoning or grit would deem possible. From those who belong to this hall of fame, everyone will have their favourites. There are the masters of the sea, the intrepid explorers who set out from Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth century to discover the unknown world in which they lived; there are the men and women who have circumnavigated the globe in yachts or other craft, such as Robin Knox Johnston and Emma Richards; and those who have attempted extraordinary journeys to prove a theory, such as Thor Heyerdahl and the men of the Kon-Tiki and Ra expeditions. There are the masters of the land: men and women who have set off on incredible journeys, such as Marco Polo, or who have scaled mountains with limited equipment or backup. Joining these people are the masters of the air, such as the early pioneers of air mail – Saint-Exupéry, for example. Masters of the Sea Ferdinand Magellan led the expedition that first circumnavigated the globe in 1519, his adventure roughly equivalent in those days to a modern journey to Mars. Hot-headed, belligerent and ruthless, Magellan possessed both the drive and determination to carry off such a staggering journey, but he was not a pleasant person. His pride and his thirst for glory made enemies of his own shipmates and of the natives who finally killed him. Although the expedition was successful, Magellan himself did not live to savour the victory. Captain James Cook was to circumnavigate the globe three times, and his discoveries led to a massive increase in Britain’s imperial possessions, including the island continent of Australia. He was also the first man to circumnavigate Antarctica. Like Magellan, Cook lost his life in a scuffle with natives, but his personality was very different to that of the Portuguese man. Cook was taciturn and selfcontrolled, almost a ‘grey man’. He was not the type of person you would want to cross, but he did not let his emotions get the better of him. Strangely enough, a rare fit of anger over the theft of a goat led to his untimely death. HAVE COURAGE Courage has been described as: ‘…the confidence required for living with a view to the future, for acting, building, assuming responsibilities, and forming ties. For, in spite of our precautions, the future is in each case the unknown. But living means advancing into this unknown region, which may lie before us like a chaos into which we must venture.’ Roman Guardini Robin Knox-Johnston was the first man to sail round the world single-handed, which he accomplished in 1969 when he won the Golden Globe Race against nine other contenders, none of whom finished. Knox-Johnston has been quoted as saying, ‘Whether you are an amateur or a professional, young or old, there are always new goals and challenges to aspire to in life.’ Knox-Johnston describes the scale of the challenge in his book A World of My Own: ‘no one knew if a boat could even survive at sea for [...] that distance without support. No one thought it would be easy, many thought it impossible, but therein lay its intrinsic challenge; real satisfaction comes from achieving something difficult.’ Knox-Johnston also writes about the other challenge that faces all men and women – personality: ‘It was a distinctive trait in my character that when faced with a problem or job in which I was not at once deeply interested, I would do all I could to avoid tackling it, even to taking on a more difficult, even dangerous task which did hold my interest.’ Robin Knox-Johnston was the first man to perform a single-handed circumnavigation of the globe by sea. He left Falmouth on 14 June 1968, rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969 and returned to Falmouth on 22 April 1969. Emma Richards was only 27 years old when she took part in the 2002–03 Around Alone solo yacht race. Starting in New York on 15 September 2002, she sailed more than 48,000km (30,000 miles) before crossing the finishing line on 4 May 2003, becoming the first British woman and youngest ever competitor to complete the challenge. Strangely enough, Emma Richards does not enjoy being alone, and she found solo sailing for such long periods souldestroying. She had to cope not only with being alone, but also with hurricanes and icebergs. She also had to hand-stitch a ripped Kevlar sail on the journey and could snatch only pockets of sleep of about 30 minutes’ duration. Emma Richards not only demonstrated remarkable stamina, determination and skill, but she also overcame anyone’s worst enemy – the self. Masters of the Land Wilfred Thesiger was one of the most famous explorers of Arabia. He made two epic journeys across the Rub ’al Khali, or Empty Quarter, 647,250 square kilometres (250,000 square miles) of desert, with dunes 160km (100 miles) long and 3280m (1000ft) high. This was a place where there was little more than sand, sun and the threat of death either from the environment or from hostile Bedouin. Thesiger was inspired by the hard life of the Arabs and sought to emulate their...