ENDURE: Summary: Endure: Alex Hutchinson

Rather than the original text, this is a summary and study aid complements Endure by Alex Hutchinson. Key points arise as they are derived from the reading and pop-up again in a summary.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell

Limits are an illusion: discover the revolutionary account of the science and psychology of endurance, revealing the secrets of reaching the hidden extra potential within us all.

"A voyage to the outer reaches of human capacity." —David Epstein, author of Range

"Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits." —Adam Grant

The ability to persevere is a vital characteristic that underpins exceptional achievement in almost every discipline. But what if we could all go farther, work harder, and accomplish more ? Award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-shifting research over the past decade suggests that the seemingly physical barriers you encounter are set as much by your brain as by your body, blending cutting-edge science and gripping storytelling in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell—who contributes the book's foreword. This implies that the mind is the new frontier of endurance, and that performance frontiers are far more pliable than previously imagined.

It isn't, however, "all in your brain." Hutchinson disentangles the intricate interaction of mind and body for each of the physical limitations he explores—pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel—by recounting captivating tales of men and women who have pushed their own boundaries in remarkable ways.

Hutchinson, a former national-team long-distance runner and Cambridge-trained physicist, was one of only two journalists permitted access to Nike's top-secret training initiative to break the two-hour marathon barrier, which he chronicles throughout the book. However, the lessons he's learned from observing professional athletes and visiting high-tech laboratories all across the globe are remarkably universal. Hutchinson defines endurance as "the effort to persevere despite an increasing urge to stop"—and we can always go a bit farther.