New York Times-bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson returns with a fresh, provocative investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk shape our behavior and help us find meaning.

Off the beaten path, following unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and continues to mold our behavior in ways we are only beginning to understand. In fact, the latest neuroscience suggests that exploration in any form--whether it's trying a new restaurant, changing careers, or deciding to run a marathon--is an essential ingredient of human life. Exploration, it turns out, isn't merely a hobby--it's our story.

In this much-anticipated follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Endure, Alex Hutchinson refutes the myth that, in our fully mapped digital world, the age of exploration is dead. Instead, the itch to discover new things persists in all of us, expressed not just on the slopes of Everest but in the ways we work, play, and live. From paddling the lost rivers of the northern Canadian wilderness to the ocean-spanning voyages of the Polynesians to the search for next-generation quantum computers, The Explorer's Gene combines riveting stories of exploration with cutting-edge insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience, making a powerful case that our lives are better--more productive, more meaningful, and more fun--when we break our habits and chart a new path.

The New York Times Bestseller * Foreword by Malcom Gladwell

Reveals how we can all surpass our perceived physical limits. --Adam Grant

Discover the revolutionary account of the science and psychology of endurance, revealing the secrets of reaching the hidden extra potential within us all. This updated paperback edition features a new afterword.

The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field. But what if we all can go farther, push harder, and achieve more than we think we're capable of?

Blending cutting-edge science and gripping storytelling in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell--who contributes the book's foreword--award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-altering research over the past decade suggests the seemingly physical barriers you encounter as set as much by your brain as by your body. This means the mind is the new frontier of endurance--and that the horizons of performance are much more elastic than we once thought.

But, of course, it's not all in your head. For each of the physical limits that Hutchinson explores--pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel--he carefully disentangles the delicate interplay of mind and body by telling the riveting stories of men and women who've pushed their own limits in extraordinary ways.

The longtime Sweat Science columnist for Outside and Runner's World, Hutchinson, a former national-team long-distance runner and Cambridge-trained physicist, was one of only two reporters granted access to Nike's top-secret training project to break the two-hour marathon barrier, an extreme quest he traces throughout the book. But the lessons he draws from shadowing elite athletes and from traveling to high-tech labs around the world are surprisingly universal. Endurance, Hutchinson writes, is the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop--and we're always capable of pushing a little farther.

La capacidad para resistir es el rasgo clave que subyace al gran rendimiento en prácticamente todos los campos, desde un sprint de 100 metros hasta un ultra maratón de 100 millas, desde la cumbre del Everest hasta la realización de exámenes finales o la finalización de cualquier proyecto difícil. Pero, y si todos podemos ir más lejos, presionar más y lograr más de lo que pensamos que somos capaces de hacer?

Combinando la ciencia de vanguardia y la apasionante narración en el espíritu de Malcolm Gladwell, quien contribuye con el premiado periodista del libro Alex Hutchinson, revela que una ola de investigaciones que alteran el paradigma durante la última década sugiere que las barreras aparentemente físicas que enfrentas se establecen como tanto por tu cerebro como por tu cuerpo. Esto significa que la mente es la nueva frontera de la resistencia y que los horizontes del rendimiento son mucho más elásticos de lo que alguna vez pensamos.

Pero, por supuesto, no todo está en tu mente. Para cada uno de los límites físicos que Hutchinson explora -dolor, músculos, oxígeno, calor, sed, combustible-, desentraña cuidadosamente la delicada interacción de la mente y el cuerpo contando fascinantes historias de hombres y mujeres que han superado sus propios límites de formas extraordinarias.

Endure

The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field--from a 100-meter sprint to a 100-mile ultramarathon, from summiting Everest to acing final exams or completing any difficult project. But what if we all can go farther, push harder, and achieve more than we think we're capable of?

Blending cutting-edge science and gripping storytelling in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell--who contributes the book's foreword--award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-altering research over the past decade suggests the seemingly physical barriers you encounter as set as much by your brain as by your body. This means the mind is the new frontier of endurance--and that the horizons of performance are much more elastic than we once thought.

But, of course, it's not all in your head. For each of the physical limits that Hutchinson explores--pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel--he carefully disentangles the delicate interplay of mind and body by telling the riveting stories of men and women who've pushed their own limits in extraordinary ways.

Award-winning journalist, physicist, and bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson reveals the little-known and often surprising truths that science has uncovered about exercise, ranging from cardio and weights to competition to weight loss.

There's plenty of conventional wisdom on health and fitness--but how much of it is scientifically sound? The truth is: less than you'd think.

In Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?, physicist and award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson tackles dozens of commonly held beliefs and looks at just what research science has--and has not--proven to be true:

• Should I exercise when I'm sick?
• Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running?
• What role does my brain play in fatigue?
• Will running ruin my knees?
• To lose weight, is it better to eat less or exercise more?
• How should I adapt my workout routine as I get older?
• Does it matter what I'm thinking about when I train?
• Will drinking coffee help or hinder my performance?
• Should I have sex the night before a competition?

This myth-busting book covers the full spectrum of exercise science and offers the latest in research from around the globe, as well as helpful diagrams and plenty of practical tips on using proven science to improve fitness, reach weight loss goals, and achieve better competition results.

Ash Hatcher knew he had made it to the career bigtime when he joined a multi-million dollar boxing promotion. What he didn't expect was to fall in love with their star fighter. Ash tries to hide the relationship from his new employers and his psycotic girlfriend. While fearfully walking the line between paranoia and success, will his rebelliousness tear the promotion apart. Or, will his girlfriend find out the truth?

A respected political activist is murdered while investigating the 2000 Presidential election. A group of wealthy Florida activists hire his college friend and now private investigator Edmund Morrissey to track down the murderer. Ed quickly discovers that his financiers have ulterior motives. Dragged back and forth by fervent partisans he fights the raging tides of propaganda with simple logic and ultimately withholds his decisions until all of the facts have been collected. The deeper he treads, the more of a target he becomes. Each conspiracy slinging character deposits some grain of truth in the sub-conscience of the only man who could piece together the boldest electoral crime in American history.

Ash Hatcher knew he had made it to the career bigtime when he joined a multi-million dollar boxing promotion. What he didn't expect was to fall in love with their star fighter. Ash tries to hide the relationship from his new employers and his psycotic girlfriend. While fearfully walking the line between paranoia and success, will his rebelliousness tear the promotion apart. Or, will his girlfriend find out the truth?

Jason would do anything to turn his misfit group of backyard wrestlers into a profitable Independent federation. The local police try to stop his extreme storylines but the real danger was the stunts that took place in the ring. Shattered elbows, facial burns and even a car accident present the group with expensive injuries but it's not enough to stop them. Will the Extreme Backyard Alliance make itself nationally known or will someone have to die in the ring before this madness has ended?

Anarchy Bell is a heart wrenching story about feeling helpless and angry while living in a time of war. No other book has been able to capture the raw emotions of pain and grief found throughout this masterful collection of free verse poems.