“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ~Arthur C. Clarke
The death crawl was my favorite scene from the movie “Remember the Titans”. Members of a Virginia High School football team were on the field unwinding after practice. Jeremy asked how strong the opposing team was, and Brock admitted to already writing off their upcoming game as a loss. The coach called both boys to the front and challenged Brock to do the death crawl again. In other words, he must crawl on all fours without his knees touching the ground. Brock was pretty confident that he could make it to the 30-yard line but agreed to go 50 yards as long as no one was on his back. The coach instructed him to make it with Jeremy on his back while promising to do his absolute best. After Brock promised, the coach added that he would be blindfolded to discourage him from giving up too early. Of course the other boys were now intrigued and eager to see the outcome.
Brock started off okay. Coach walked along side the pair, encouraging Brock to maintain good form as he went. Brock began to get tired and asked if he was at the 20-yard line yet. Coach told him to forget about the 20 and just give his best. A few more feet and he paused. Coach told him that he can’t give up and must go until he has nothing left: “I ain’t done. Just resting a second.” He continued on. His grunts and heavy breathing were met with coach yelling repeatedly that he demanded Brock’s very best. The energy started to shift, and the other teammates were no longer laughing. Brock yelled back that it hurts; Jeremy is too heavy; and he was running out of strength. Coach was now crawling beside him while insisting that he kept going despite the pain. Cue the emotional music. It’s another few minutes of back and forth with an exhausted Brock wanting to quit and a relentless coach not letting him. The scene ends with him collapsing on the ground saying it has to be 50 because he doesn’t have anymore. Coach removed the blindfold and showed him that he made it all the way to the end zone.
I recently decided to venture out of my comfortable strength training routine into the world of hypertrophy training. “Hyper” means over or beyond, and “trophy” means nourishment. Muscle hypertrophy is the over nourishment of cells that produces muscle growth, a.k.a. gains. So, that point where I am inclined to collapse on the ground is where I need to dig deeper and push harder. I hear a lot of people talk about learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, but how often do we force ourselves beyond our limits? I imagine many of us don’t ever reach our full potential in fitness, work, school, relationships, etc. because we quit before the growth begins. I understand now that I don’t get to stop because it is hard. I stop when I have nothing left to give.