"About Professional Sports and the everyday- life at the limit" by Mathias Zinkl

Like the headline says, this one is written by a very dear friend of mine, Mathias Zinkl, a fellow medical student.
( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1679349068 )

He continues to challenge my mindset with his own thoughts about training, living, interacting with other beings.
Enjoy the article!



First some basics of our physiology:
Humans managed to adapt to external circumstances over millions of years. Those adaptations were always realized with minimal energy- consumption, simply because the way of living back then, a constant battle between kill and get killed, living in constant cold surroundings, a diet rich in fiber, did not allow us to spend too much energy.

What does this mean today?
Professional athletes over and over reach and cross their mental and physical boarders.
In between they REST more or less to be able to expand their limits the next time.

A life at the limit like Alexander Huber (a free solo climber) is living is admirable and many people think it would be far too dangerous for themselves and insane in general to try to reach such limits.
But A. Huber as well needs regeneration, rest, activities far beneath his capabilities to recover. Without such borderline- walks would not be possible and he would fail.

Most people agree when telling them such professional athletes need enough preparation and (here we would lose some agreeing people) regeneration to prepare for such extreme events.


Now let´s put together both previously discussed points and look at them in the life of a typical worker with a desk-job in an office who comes home after several hours of working while sitting and consuming 2 coffees and ends his day by relaxing on the couch in front of the TV.
Is he a competitive athlete?
Does he go for his limits every day?
Most people would consider this question ridiculous and answer “No.”

But let us take a closer look:
Our office worker has adapted to what surrounds him for many years: sitting in front of a computer and according to his genetic programs he is wasting as little energy as possible and, since he does not need them, keeping his ability to compensate (physical) stress as little as possible too.
So this man/woman is living at his/her limit every day of his life. The limit may be ridiculously small but a limit never the less and constantly driving in the red zone demands a toll (as every visit to ones´ borders does).
We all know specialization form professional sports. The office work is specialized as well, maybe even more than any performance athlete can ever be.

But there is a major difference:
The limit of the athlete is very, very high and he can easily reduce the intensity and regenerate.
The office worker is always at his limit, even when he is just lying on his couch watching TV because his heart has to press blood through his clotted blood- vessels, his intervertebral discs are constantly mal- supplied since there are no muscles to hold the spine in a optimal position.

He has LOST the POSSIBILITY to REGENERATE due to his specialization to the low demand of his surroundings and it is just a matter of time till all his compensations fail.

One thing is logical to everybody: a life without rest and regeneration is not possible in the long run.
This is what happens to people who have to go for their limits simply to survive in society, just to produce the next heartbeat.

There are no more activities below their limits except death.

Those things such people most of the time criticize when talking about professional athletes, apply to them as well, they are simply to blind to see it.