Endure

‘This book is AMAZING!’ – Malcolm Gladwell

'Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits.' Adam Grant, bestselling author of Hidden Potential

‘Anyone who has ever felt exhausted, whether from heat or cold or altitude or pain or simply a loss of will, is going to find their own experience in this book.” — David Epstein, author of Range

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You've felt it. The moment your body says stop. Your legs leaden, lungs burning, every instinct telling you there's nothing left. But what if that signal isn't the end of your capacity? What if it's just your brain playing it safe?

In Endure, award-winning science journalist and elite distance runner Alex Hutchinson upends everything we think we know about human limits. Drawing on decades of research and the cutting edge of sports science, he makes a compelling, evidence-backed case: fatigue is not a physical event. It is a sensation, one manufactured and managed by the brain, which is constantly calculating how much you have left and deciding, often conservatively, when to call it.

This changes everything. Because if your limits are partly a decision rather than a fixed ceiling, they can be negotiated. Trained. Pushed.

Hutchinson takes us from early experiments with electrical currents and frogs' legs to sophisticated brain imaging, from elite marathon runners chasing the two-hour barrier to mountaineers at the edge of survival on Everest. He examines what heat, cold, pain, altitude, and sheer loss of will actually do to performance and introduces the new frontier of endurance science, where researchers are using brain stimulation, psychological priming, and cognitive training to extend what athletes can do.

But Endure is not just a book for athletes. It's for anyone who has ever stopped short of their potential and wondered why. Hutchinson's answer is surprising, scientifically rigorous, and, ultimately, galvanizing: the barrier that matters most is the one inside your head.

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‘If you want to gain insight into the mind of great athletes, adventurers, and peak performers then prepare to be enthralled by Alex Hutchinson’s Endure.’ – Bear Grylls

'Endure is a pure science book that goes deep, especially into the mind, and the pacing and story-telling are top notch. – Runner's World

'So good. Smart, inspiring, and just fun to read. Makes me wanna be a better runner (and faster reader).' – Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times

‘An intelligent, exhaustively researched study.’ – The Times

About the author

Alex Hutchinson is a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics magazine, senior editor at Canadian Running magazine, and columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail. He holds a master's in journalism from Columbia and a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge, and he did his post-doctoral research with the U.S. National Security Agency.