Apply The 40% Rule to Your Training

And overcome your primal brain.

It’s a horrible feeling.

With each breath, a fiery stream ignites your lungs. A lactic acid build-up floods your muscles causing each limb to feel as heavy as lead and to top it all off there’s an energetic, sweaty guy standing in front of you with focus pads strapped to his hands, smashing them together like cymbals and urging you to do more.

“C’MON! DIG DEEP! LET’S GO!”

There’s no clock or timer to tell you how longs left. At this moment, time does not exist. The world around you is a blur. You have tunnel vision. It’s just you, your trainer and the voices in your head telling you to quit. But you don’t.

Instead, you suck in another deep blazing breath and through gritted teeth, you throw the damn combination.

POP! POP! POP!

Your strikes echo throughout the gym like gunshots as you annihilate the pads. Nice work. You’ve caught a second wind. Another combination lands, then another and another.

Now you’re running on autopilot, zoned out but completely in the moment. You’ve found your rhythm, delivering shots without a second thought. It’s almost angelic.

Sweat lashes down your face, you can barely see a thing but it doesn’t matter, nothing does.

You must keep going. Keep pushing forward. Fight through the pain.

The torture continues, on and on and on for what seems like an eternity until finally, from out of the abyss a voice calls, “TIME!” and just like that you snap back to reality feeling sore, tired but satisfied.

Overcome Your Primal Brain

“It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how your story will develop.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

If you wish to be the best, achieve all your goals and grow stronger in life you must learn to overcome adversity.

Whether it be pushing yourself harder in the gym or striving to succeed in other areas of life, not giving up when your mind and body are screaming at you to quit is an asset not many people possess.

You see, when faced with a challenge, your primal brain often misinterprets the situation. It feels a rise in your vital signs, immediately concludes you’re in danger or distress and kicks into survival mode by telling you to stop, pull back and retreat to the safety of your comfort zone; even though you’re more than capable of continuing on.

David Goggins — retired US Navy Seal, ultra-marathon runner, world record holder and perhaps the toughest man alive — famously coined this The 40% Rule.

Goggins theory states; when the mind and body are tired, hurting, experiencing discomfort and desperate to give up, you are in fact only at 40% of your capacity. You’ve still got 60% left in the tank to give.

But when you decide to fight back against the primal brain’s incorrect diagnosis, ignore the urge to quit and push through the hardship until the job is done, you’ll find you become tougher, more resilient and gain the most progress.

So, the next time you feel like you’re going through hell, faced with testing times and on the verge of giving up. Don’t.

Instead, remember David Goggins 40% rule and push yourself through the pain towards greatness.

Thanks for reading.

Also published here Apply The 40% Rule to Your Training — Bloodyknuckle.org