Monday, June 2, 2008

More on the Mind-Body Complex

Link (T-Nation interview with Mark Mahler)


The article was a worthwhile read, and of course anything involving Bruce Lee is pretty much guaranteed to be a worthwhile listen. Here's an excerpt from the article.

... Finally, the most important part of functional strength, the
part that's completely overlooked by most people, is this: It makes you a
stronger and tougher person overall, not just strong in the context of working
out.

I've seen many people that are training bad-asses, but are
complete pushovers in their personal and professional life.
They avoid risks like the plague, don't have the courage to pursue the
lives they really want, and couldn't make a tough decision if their lives
depended on it.


They always go with the flow, never trust their instincts, and
constantly look to others to make decisions for them. They've completely
compartmentalized their strength and conditioning and don't carry it over to any
other aspect of their lives.


While they have strength and toughness in the context of physical
training, that strength doesn't carry over to where it really matters. It's
wasted. If you're strong and in shape when it comes to working out, but a wuss
everywhere else, then you're not a strong person overall and you've missed out
on the most important benefit of training.

Hard training teaches us how to push through
when things aren't
easy and finish what we start
. Transforming your body and building a
high level of strength takes a lot of discipline and hard work.
Physical accomplishments, whether it's losing 30 pounds of fat, adding 50 pounds
to your bench press, or running a marathon,
teach you a lot about
yourself
and help break mental barriers that hold you back in life.

It's a complete shame if we only have that strength and mental
toughness in the context of working out.

When you push through hard workouts and learn the discipline of training consistently in order to reach a goal, you have very powerful self-knowledge and skill sets which can help you push through in other important areas of life. However, if you compartmentalize who you are as a trainee from who you are in the rest of your life, the benefits won't carry over. That's a travesty!
Ironically, I see many people train the way they should be living their lives and many people live their lives the way they should be training!



One thing I love about Bruce Lee (and I said this about Lalanne as well) is that he doesn't bifurcate the spiritual and physical but he sees them as an indivisable unit. This is similar to Lalanne's belief that we are slaves to our own bodies. When our body is tired, we lay down. When we are hungry, we forage for food. It goes on and on.

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