the human body

Ever wonder what an amazing piece of machinery the human body is? It’s a contradiction. I’m a mediocre runner. I like long distance running. My VO2 max 45 according to my really expensive fitness watch. My fitness age is 20, which according to it is the top 45% of my age and gender. The first stat is universal. I’m sure the second comes from the watch and it’s users according to a metric designed by Garmin. So while I’m a little better than half the garmin users, you should also keep in mind that people who buy this watch are probably really invested in fitness to pay this much for quality. I run about 48 miles a week. 8 miles five days a week, 4 miles on my two recovery days. That is more than 99% of all Garmin users. I say this not to, though I suppose anyone using this sentence automatically makes it seem like that’s exactly the opposite of what they’re doing, say it not to boast or be proud or anything. I say this to give a little bit of credence to the point I’m about to make. And I only have a little bit of time, as I’m sure you do. My dogs’ chicken is thawing, and then I have to boil it, and they have their showers today. My own shower, groceries, chocolate Nutella Toblerone cake. Plenty of stuff to do today. The human body is a magnificent contradiction. It cannot lift certain things, but you can train it to. Steel, which is so many times stronger, cannot bear a load greater than its capacity. It can’t be trained to do such a thing. If 200 kilograms breaks your back today, in 2 years, it might not. A robot can’t learn to lift more than it has the capacity to do so. Sure, people might say there’s an upper limit to humankind’s strength. And that’s fair. No one today can lift 2 tons. But no one a hundred years ago could lift 1 ton of steel. There are at least two men alive today who can. No one a hundred years ago could have run a sub 2 hour marathon. There is at least one man alive today who can. We can train our body to exceed our limits and create new ones. Things that break us today might not tomorrow. Contradiction one. Here’s contradiction two. You’re driving a car. Everyone knows that the manufacturers have designed the fuel gauge so that even when it shows empty, it still has a little more in the tank for emergency purposes. When our body runs out of fuel, somehow our mind can propel it to keep going on. Take Scott Jurek. I doubt even he has the capacity to run 250 miles on just electrolyte water, and some energy bars. Or David Goggins. I firmly believe the human body was built to run but even if you don’t, we can still agree to see my point. To run 250 miles, probably not? Yes? Yes. But when the body runs out of fuel, your mind takes over. The marathon monks of japan say that to reach enlightenment, you have the 1000 day challenge. It is built to exhaust your body, then your mind, then your soul. Only when you are truly empty, that is when enlightenment enters you. Notice the order. Your body runs out of gas. Then your mind takes over. Somehow keeps it running. The rest isn’t relevant for now. But how fascinating is that? These people breaking barriers previously thought unreadable and just pushing the limits of humankind.