{"id":195,"date":"2019-06-19T08:48:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T08:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robdix.com\/?p=195"},"modified":"2020-04-21T15:27:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:27:26","slug":"more-pushups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robdix.com\/more-pushups\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental limits, physical limits (Or: How I increased my maximum number of pushups by 33% overnight)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the last few months, I’ve been doing 30 pushups every morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t settle on the number 30 for any good reason, except with proper form it should take about a minute. It’s hard to be lazy enough to try wriggling out of doing one minute of exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I found weird, though, is it never got easier. Without fail, the final five would be tough and I’d barely be able to complete the final one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do something every day, isn’t it supposed to get easier?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the other day, I read an article about how being able to do 40 pushups is associated with better cardiac health. This is probably nonsense, but no matter: I decided I’d start working up from 30 to 40, by just doing my absolute best to add an extra one whenever I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I did my first set up pushups with the target of 40 in mind…and I achieved all 40 with the same perceived effort as I was previously using for 30<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that my previous limit of 30 wasn’t physical at all: it was mental. As soon as I shifted the target in my mind, my body could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is consistent with the idea in David Goggins’ book Can’t Hurt Me<\/a> that when your mind is telling you you’re done, you’ve only used 40% of your physical capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number is plucked out of the air, but the logic is sound. There comes a point where you reach your physical limit \u2013 but there’s a large range before that point where it’s your mind<\/em> that’s holding you back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be examining where else in my life I might have been wrongly telling myself I’m at my physical limit. And maybe setting myself the target of 50 each morning…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: The brain is weird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMental limits, physical limits (Or: How I increased my maximum number of pushups by 33% overnight) - Rob Dix<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/more-pushups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mental limits, physical limits (Or: How I increased my maximum number of pushups by 33% overnight) - Rob Dix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Summary: The brain is weird.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/more-pushups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rob Dix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-19T08:48:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-21T15:27:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rob\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rob\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/more-pushups\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/more-pushups\/\",\"name\":\"Mental limits, physical limits (Or: How I increased my maximum number of pushups by 33% overnight) - 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