Do you ever stretch?

I remember rugby practice at school, we used to stretch a lot. From grade 8 to first-team rugby, we would stand in a circle around the captain or coach and they would guide us through a 15-minute body stretch. We were taught that stretching is good for your muscles and prevents injury.

When we stretch before we exercise we think we’re loosening up the muscles to prepare them for what’s coming. We’re wrong. The science just doesn’t support the theory that stretching prevents injury.

A doctor recently told me that our muscles can only extend as far as they can extend. We think that we’re stretching our muscles before we start our exercise, but we’re not.

WE ARE STRETCHING OUR BRAINS!

When we stretch and then repeat the stretches day after day to increase how limber we are, what we’re actually doing is teaching our brains the existing limits of our muscles. We’re not increasing our muscles limberness. It’s our brains that are holding us back. Our brains think that our muscles are going to snap if we don’t consistently stretch them.

Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule. If you are doing an activity like gymnastics or ballet that requires specific types of flexibility (like doing the splits) stretching probably won’t enhance your performance either

What else is my brain restricting? Was I actually like the main character in the film Limitless? Could it be possible that a single change could unlock my brain’s full potential?

Of course, I had to stop writing this newsletter immediately and watched Limitless for further research.

The main character takes a pill that unlocks his the full potential of his brain. It turns him into a genius in every aspect of his life with obvious Hollywood side effects.

I don’t think there is a pill that does this yet (cocaine users might claim this as a side effect of their drug use) but I do think that there is something that we can do to train our brains to embrace crazy limits.

Could it be self-belief? The love of a decent person? Parental guidance? None or all of these? Maybe.

But I think it all starts with curiosity.

Curiosity is your gateway drug to realising the impossible. The more curious you are about something the more you’re going to realise you don’t know and should know. If you believe something with all your might then you should be curious about it, you should challenge what you know about it and you should push the boundaries of what you accept as normal.

Stretching your muscles, stretching your acceptance of ideals and stretching your fundamental beliefs all involve pushing yourself to the limit of what you once held sacred. There is nothing sacred. There are no sacred cows in the world of the curious.

If you truly believe something then the only way to continue to believe it is to challenge it. You thought that stretching was helping you but it isn’t.

What else should you be challenging?