What Is Endurance?

"What is endurance except continued strength?"

I'm reading Pavel Tsatsouline's "Kettlebell -- Simple and Sinister" and he quotes strongman Earle Liederman saying this ... back in 1925.

1925.

And here we are all these years later and we're still being a bit pigheaded about endurance.

Observe the division many of us put between strength and endurance.

Look at the ways we classify and separate workouts, clubs, attitudes. Some folks who dig strength work put down endurance work, and folks who get off on endurance shy away from the strength work.

We're all sort of ridiculous.

Separating strength and endurance is like trying to pick the Mexican out of my kids. You can't. Blood and influences are all mashed up.

Endurance is continued strength. Strength over time is endurance.

So it's kind of stupid if you're a lifter or a CrossFitter trashing the runners or the cyclists or the triathletes. Same goes in the other direction too – if your gig is endurance, you're just trying to be strong over a longer period of time, so don't be turning up your nose at the swole.

Instead of falling easy prey to the divisions offered up by others, why not think for yourself?

Refuse to be manipulated for someone else's agenda or for the profit of any company. Be smarter than that. Think for yourself. And be you, whatever that "you" is.

Try this: look for commonalities and fresh perspectives.

Hostility ages a person.

If we could learn to stop being so aggressive in our need to prove whatever, maybe we could hear and consider other opinions. And maybe we'd learn something. Imagine how refreshing that would be!