Why Resilience Is Not a Virtue to Focus On & An Immense Reward Nobody Talks About From Physical Performance.

Something to ponder:

A rock on the ocean shore is resilient to the relentless pounding on the waves, but a rock never moves forward.

The irony for me is, I have a far superior knowledge, understanding and ability to use visualisation techniques now than I did when I was a professional athlete. It’s amazing the depths of learning one can access through responsibility and risk of life. Nothing has taught me more about visualisation than ocean rowing and the harsh reality that if a mistake is made ‘out there’ I am probably not coming home. This truth sharpens the mind to say the least.

At the Ironmind Institute we do not count resiliency as a virtue one should focus on developing. The virtue of resilience in itself is not something we have a problem with. It is functional, practical and beneficial, however where it loses merit as a desirable virtue for one to focus on cultivating is in its passivity.

The mindset of resilience, to withstand and endure, exposes one to unnecessary suffering. Meaning, it is the last line of defence before one submits; a process of absorption that only deepens one’s ability to absorb. This is clearly not a bad thing, a lot will be learned by the one with the ability to absorb pressure, resistance and difficulty, however this act does not move the needle; it does not place one further from the state of having to be resilient for the next time. The timeline to get there will be the exact same, the change will come in your abilities to withstand and endure. As we said, not a bad thing but there’s a better option.

At Ironmind the focus of our programs and their practices are on developing virtues that strengthen the human (body, mind and spirit) and embody furtherance. Simply put, we would rather focus on practicing virtues that increase our overall human preparedness of our trainees, pushing them further and further from moments of resiliency.

I admire the rock on the shore, sitting steadfast and stoic in the face of relentless punishment, however I am inspired by the person who exposes themselves wholeheartedly to the fire of life and bravely attempts to move themselves forward.

Recommended: Search out physical acts that within their practice will mean embodiment of virtues that are fulfilling to you. (Fulfillment – to fill in holes within ourselves)

Something to practise:

Positional Integrity (within your physical training)

Nobody talks about this but – physical training for performance is a way to deepen one’s virtue system (and therefore your character.) It is a gateway practice into a deeper internal world where there’s something much bigger at stake for you and your relationship with yourself. In the act of endeavouring to improve one’s physical performance we find –

– Every moment of every rep is a chance for us to raise the standards of what we accept from ourselves

– Every moment of every rep is a chance to embody virtues that are meaningful (and therefore fulfilling) to us.

When we place meaningful virtues (to us as individuals) under stress and we fight to continue to embody that virtue despite the resistance, we take a step forward in our journey to self realisation and self mastery. It’s arguable that no virtue is more important to fight for in that journey than integrity and we have the opportunity in physical performance training to create situations where our integrity is challenged. How do we do that? In the words Clubber Lang – ‘Pain’. Through placing our body in states of discomfort (a much more accurate word than pain), where every cell is screaming for a way out, we open ourselves up to a potentially, impactful opportunity, if we choose a certain course of action – to honestly reposition our body into the discomfort and hold firm despite the extreme duress we may be experiencing. Try one of the movements, sets, reps and rest intervals below and tell me otherwise.

Recommended: He’s a personal list of exercises I love to create this situation.

6 sets of 30 metre ‘Sled Bear Crawls’ with a 45 to 60 secs rest between pulls
4 sets of 20 reps on Barbell Back Squat or Hack Squat with 75 secs rest btw sets.
Concept 2 BikeERG: Block A – 4 x 30 secs maximal sprints (Drag 160 – 190) Rest = 3 minutes (8 minute rest btw Blocks) Block B – 8 x 1000m (Drag 120 – 140) Rest = 90 secs
Concept 2 Rower: Block A – 5 x 350 metres maximal sprints (Drag 155 – 180) Rest = 4 minutes (10 minute rest btw Blocks) Block B – 8 x 800m (Drag 125 – 140) Rest = 120 secs.
Concept 2 Rower: 2000m time trial.

Something to pose:

“What is it that physical training and performance gives me that keeps bringing me back for more and pushing for more from myself?”

It is a worthwhile use of one’s time to try to get a clearer understanding of what it is, at its deepest levels, that drives you to push your body and mind continually. Much like an onion, there’s many layers to this, and it will take time and attention, but there’s no rush and as the ancient Greeks so powerfully philosophised on the Temple of Apollo – Know Thyself.
Something tells me you might uncover some personally meaningful virtues are getting some sharpening from time to time and one session like that is enough to keep a man searching for the same extraordinary feeling for years to come.

'As long as you live, keep learning how to live'

~ Seneca

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