Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Hardcover – February 6, 2018

This book is very well-written and easy to read. The author interspersed gripping anecdotes with explanations of the latest scientific research into different aspects of the potential limits of human physical achievement. The author is very honest that this book is not prescriptive, there's no one tried & true solution or answer that will help people improve their performance, but there's still a wealth of knowledge in this book and a lot for any reader to chew on. Absolutely fascinating!

I've come to know Alex Hutchinson's writing through his fantastic articles in "Runner's World." He had some serious chops as a Canadian runner but he's equally (if not more) accomplished as a journalist. Hutchinson's interests tend toward the science-y, geeky side of running, and those interests are on full display in "Endure." It's likely I came into the book with a bias, being a distance runner and having heard "Endure" mentioned on various ultra-running podcasts. I assumed the focus would be on long-distance running, but Hutchinson touches on endurance sports of various types, including mountain climbing, cycling, free diving, marathoning, ultra-running, exploration, etc. A real strength of the book is that the author is able to tie these sports together, along with a wealth of scientific findings and summaries of clinical studies, so seamlessly. He moves effortlessly between Nike's 2-hour marathon project, Roger Bannister's 4-minute mile, record free diving attempts, Everest ascents, Antarctic treks, and "The Hour" (an all-out one-hour bike sprint that leaves its participants flailing in a pool of their own saddle sores, sweat, and tears). Hutchinson paints such a vivid picture of these efforts that you almost start to struggle for air along with the free diver or mountain climber. A lot of the book is arranged around these limits to human endurance, such as oxygen, heat, and fuel. The book springs to life when Hutchinson is describing mountain ascents or cycling races, but then just as quickly we're back in the lab for...another study. There were many studies summarized in this book, studies where athletes were poked, prodded, given pills and placebos, denied oxygen, given pure oxygen, denied carbs, given extra carbs, EKGs, and on and on. I tried to keep everything straight, but after awhile it was difficult to determine what I was supposed to take from all this, other than that people often push themselves to the brink of exhaustion but rarely does anyone die due to a "central governor" in the brain that starts shutting things down if we stray too far into dangerous territory. By the time Hutchinson got to the study about the cyclists shown a video of an Asian woman who forces herself to vomit and then eats it, I was ready to be done with studies. I think Hutchinson accomplished what he set out to do, which was to provide a survey of various extreme endurance achievements and explain the science behind them, and despite my own bias toward running I thought the stories about mountaineering, antarctic exploration, and cycling were fascinating. I just wish the author would've focused more on the details of these events, maybe focusing on four or five, describing them in-depth, and scaling back all the studies, which for me just blended together anyway. I also have a feeling these studies are going to make "Endure" seem really dated in about five or ten years. I ultimately came away thinking the book was interesting but not always a page-turner, and there's also not a huge amount you can easily take from it and apply to your own training/racing if that's your goal for "Endure."

If you are interested in the human body and its performance limits, which I am, this is a great read.

Took a chance on this and so glad I did. Very well written and researched. It reads like a story and I feel like I learned a lot. I only run casually but I feel this has changed me entire perspective on life and all forms of physical activity. Thanks to the author!

Informative and captivating. Nothing more nothing less, go buy. I need 11 more words this are just fillers. Right now

I really enjoyed this book by Alex. I know him from Outside magazine and heard him interviewed on a running podcast, discussing the topics covered in Endure. This is really well written and engaging, filled with stories about amazing feats of endurance and the science behind them.This book has a lot to offer those who aren't familiar with the mind-body connection and sports performance. Lots of tips and ideas to be gleaned from the pages.

The breadth of coverage is incredible: time spans from seconds to months; distances from zero or hundreds of yards to entire continents, and ranges of volitional control from nearly total (breath holding) to largely passive (surviving extreme altitude without supplemental oxygen).Part of what holds this extreme diversity together is the notion, introduced by Tim Noakes, of a "Central Governor," a self-defense mechanism that keeps us from harming ourselves. Some of the success of top athletes might be linked to an ability to ignore the urging to slow down and instead to keep going at full speed.The very long duration examples of endurance, such as pulling a sled across Antarctica, or an alpine-style month-long mountain ascent, are interesting as extremes but are obviously very different from a hundred meter dash, a marathon, or even a multi-day run. It's not so obvious that there's a "Central Governor" at work when the limits of survival are exceeded. Also one wonders what happened to the central governor while reading news stories of high school football players collapsing and sometimes dying during or soon after practice from heat stroke or overuse of muscles (rhabdomyolysis and compartment syndrome).The text is filled both with details of lab experiments and with stories of individuals pushing the known limits. Special attention is given to the two hour marathon along with other "barriers" which have been crossed, such as the four minute mile.The book as a whole is a handy compilation, made up in part from the author's web posts at OutsideOnline. It's great to have so much information in one handy package.

Excellent book for every sportsman to find extra motivation to suffer more in training and competitions

This book is very dense and it does sometimes have so much information that it's hard to remember it all. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it (at the gym no less) and learnt a lot about endurance.

Libro ottimo di approccio al mondo della resistenza. La fatica mentale, le grandi imprese di resilienza riportate come esempio sono di grande ispirazione. Ottimo libro per conoscere i limiti del nostro corpo e fino a dove esso può arrivare. Chissà!

Ótimo livro, de leitura fácil e com muitos dados técnicos, principalmente experimentos feitos aos longos dos anos na área de endurance. A leitura é perfeira para corredores e ciclistas. O livro elenca os principais fatores físicos que afetam o endurance, cita aspectos psicológicos e no fim fala sobre como treinar e tentar educar seu cérebro a ir mais longe ou mais rápido de forma “menos dolorida”. Li durante um ciclo de maratona e me ajudou muito e encarar de forma mais leve os treinos, impactando diretamente nos resultados que obtive.

Es un gran libro que habla sobre como el cuerpo y la mente pueden llevarnos a lograr cosas extraordinarias. Lo que me gustó es que divide el libro en diferentes capítulos que hablan de cosas específicas que nos afectan cómo atletas y qué parte juega el cuerpo y cuál la mente. Gran libro si buscas entender los distintos factores que pueden afectar tus desempeño deportivo.