There I was in a yoga class, and the instructor had told us all to assume plank position. That’s when you’re in a pushup position, but instead of straight arms you’re resting on your forearms, body stiff, core engaged. Our instructor told us to hold it for ten breaths, a long period of time, and half way through my body began to shake and my core began to burn, and I thought, I can’t make it, I can’t keep going, and almost folded. Instead, I realized that it was my mind that couldn’t handle the intensity of the experience, that it was my mind looking to escape from the intensity of the moment, so I held on, and sure enough, through my body continued to tremble and I was panting by the end of it, I finished the ten breaths and was the stronger and prouder for it.

When it comes to pushing your limits, you have to understand the difference between your body wanting to stop and your mind wanting to stop. Too often we have spent our lives living comfortably, soft beds, driving everywhere, good food in the kitchen, sitting down at our desks to work on our computers for eight hours. We’re not used to physical effort, we’re not used to discomfort, so that when we experience it while exercising, our minds often don’t have the resiliency to keep going, to hold on despite the new and uncomfortable feelings we’re experiencing. So we stop, not because our bodies are starting to become injured, but because we don’t like the experience.

However, our bodies are usually capable of much more than we think. If you hold on, if you accept the discomfort and the intensity, you can often do much more than you think is possible. Our bodies are amazing machines, capable of much more than we believe, so that when you don’t think you can keep running, when you don’t think you’ve got another rep in you, when you want to quit, to stop, it’s usually our mind that is about to quit, and not our body. Think about that the next time you want to end your exercise early!