Ache and agony is generally accepted as the price you pay in pursuit of goals and gains. But in deepest Kent, renegade researchers are out to prove that the hurt locker is but an illusion preventing us from giving our all. Men’s Health meets the men breaking down the pain barrier for good
Until recently, fatigue has been understood in largely physiological terms. In the early 20th century, researchers cut the back legs off frogs and electrocuted the discarded limbs. With no circulation to resupply them with oxygen, the legs managed just a couple of twitches before they were swimming in lactic acid. This has been the enduring perception when it comes to endurance exercise: you keep going until your cardiovascular system short-circuits and your muscles fail, then you’re done.
Today, however, this is viewed as a fundamental misperception. According to Professor Samuele Marcora, director of research at the University of Kent’s School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, it isn’t your legs, heart or lungs that pull the plug – it’s your brain. “We always thought muscle fatigue is what limits endurance,” says Marcora. “But there is mounting evidence that this isn’t what makes you stop at all.”
In fact, so Marcora’s theory goes, pain is but a figment of the imagination. By learning to overcome it, elite athletes can eliminate the pain barrier for good, setting records in the process. In the professor’s eyes, muscle fatigue, lactic-acid build up and gasping lungs – of the kind that might leave you or I throwing in the towel – are simply signals contributing to our ‘perception of effort’. They’re messing with our minds. But that could soon change.
この記事は Men's Health UK の June 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Men's Health UK の June 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Every Question You Ever Had About Really Eating Well
Nutrition is a maddening business. Foods are in one day, compost the next; vitamins that cured ills last week are promptly debunked. We all want to eat better, but who has the time to sift fact from fad? Rest easy because this is your easily digestible, bite-sized guide to doing precisely that
The False Prophets Of Wellness
Muscle, fat loss, wisdom… Whatever you seek, there is now an entrepreneurial guru armed with hashtags who claims to have the answer. But is it gospel?
The Brexit Diet
Whether you voted Leave or Remain, the EU has transformed the way we eat – and crashing out threatens to deal a mighty blow to both our palates and our nutritional health. MH spoke to the experts worried that the true impact of Brexit will leave a very bad taste in our mouths.
Stamina? It's As Easy As Pie
Don’t flake on post-workout pastry. Pie and mash is your new performance enhancer
The Trip Treatment
Once the poison of the counterculture, psychedelic drugs are gaining credibility as a powerful, viable mental health tool that could transform the way we understand ourselves. Are you ready to turn on, tune in and dose up?
The Gastropub Nutrition Plan
New research suggests you don’t need to cut back on flavour either to satisfy your cravings or to cook off kilos. Better pass that piccalilli
Your Detox Doner Card
The vilified sat fat in your kebab is actually the antidote to offset booze’s impact on your liver. How convenient
Reach For The Stars
He has crossed the Atlantic, from Peckham to Hollywood, carrying multiple blockbusters on his newly broad shoulders. But while John Boyega’s star is in the ascendant, his feet remain firmly on the ground – thanks to a few fundamental life lessons learned along the way. Take note and look up.
One Word Answer #43
As tedious as they might have seemed at the time, most of the lessons our parents taught us as kids were worthy of adherence. Sit up straight at the table; look people in the eye when you thank them; try not to spit at strangers – even as an adult, these are values to live by.
Son Of A Gun
For most men, joining the family business is the easier option. Not so for Scott Eastwood, a man whose father might just be the most iconic Hollywood hard man ever. But while he is, in many ways, a chip off the old block, the firebrand’s son has his own life well figured out
