UNBREAKABLE ENDURANCE – Training Beyond Limits

What if your limits aren’t real? What if the wall you hit in training—or in life—is just your brain trying to protect you?

In this episode of The Highly Effective Man Podcast, we break down the truth about endurance and why your mind, not your body, is the real governor of your performance. Drawing insights from Endure by Alex Hutchinson, I’ll show you how to push past mental barriers and train your brain to go further than you ever thought possible.

🚀 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ Why endurance is more mental than physical – and how to break past self-imposed limits
✅ The science behind pushing through pain and training smarter
✅ How I applied these principles to have my best CrossFit Open ever—and how you can use them too
✅ The key to high-volume work capacity—how to train hard without burning out
✅ Elite-level recovery strategies to help you train harder, longer, and injury-free

💥 Who is this episode for?
👉 High-performing men (30-60) who want to build grit, discipline, and elite-level fitness
👉 Entrepreneurs, business owners, coaches, and professionals who need more endurance in fitness—and life
👉 Anyone who’s tired of quitting when things get tough and wants to train their mind for resilience

🔥 I’m opening just 5 spots for 1-on-1 coaching in April—these will fill fast. If you’re ready to take your endurance, performance, and mindset to the next level, apply now. Link in the show notes!

🎧 Listen now and start training beyond your limits!

📌 Ready to Level Up? Do This Now:

🔗 Apply for 1-on-1 Coaching (Limited spots – link below)
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📢 Share this Episode – Send this to a friend who needs a push!

🔻 Follow me on social media for more high-performance coaching:
📸 Instagram: @thehighlyeffectiveman
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHighlyEffectiveMan/videos
🌐 Website: https://www.higherlevelcoaching.co/

#Endurance #Mindset #Fitness #TheHighlyEffectiveMan #Grit #MentalToughness #Coaching #ElitePerformance #TrainHarder #CrossFit #Rucking #PerformanceCoaching #HardWork #Discipline

Apply here: https://calendly.com/higherlevelcoaching/discovery-chat

Chapters

• 0:09 Introduction to Unbreakable Endurance
• 0:44 The Mind as Your True Limiter
• 1:51 Three Key Strategies from "Endure"
• 3:47 Applying Mindset to Training Success
• 5:24 Recovery and Work Capacity
• 6:44 The Challenge and Coaching Opportunity
• 8:04 Episode Closing and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to the Highly Effective man podcast, hosted by former Navy SEAL turned life and fitness coach. I'm your host, jp Bolwan. This podcast is your resource for unlocking the healthiest, most productive and highly effective man within you. Let's go what's up, guys. Welcome back to the Highly Effective man podcast. I'm your host, jp Bolwan, and today we're talking about unbreakable endurance training beyond limits. So what if I told you that your body isn't the only thing holding you back in endurance training, that the real limiter isn't your legs, your lungs or your muscles, but it's your mind. Today we're going to dive deep into what it really takes to develop elite endurance, and this isn't just about running further or rucking longer, but it's about building a body and a mind that can handle anything. So this week in the Highly Effective man community, we're doing some rucking, we're doing some sprint work, we're doing some work capacity training All this to build stamina, resilience and grit, but we're also focusing on active recovery strategies so that my guys can train harder and stay injury free.

Speaker 1: 1:30

I'll be sharing some powerful insights from the book Endure. It's a book that completely changed the way I think about endurance, and it's not just you know endurance and training, but also in life Plus, I've got an important announcement I'm opening up five one-on-one coaching spots for April, and if you're ready to level up, stay tuned for details in the end. So let's just get into it Now. Most guys think endurance is about cardio or running long distances, but the real endurance is your ability to sustain high effort for extended periods, no matter what the task is, whether it's rucking, sprint work, lifting, handling the chaos of life. The ability to push through discomfort and fatigue is what sets high performers apart. One of the biggest takeaways from the book Endure is this your body can handle way more than your brain allows you to believe. I'll say that again your body can handle way more than your brain allows you to believe. That means your mind acts as a governor, pulling back your effort long before you've actually maxed out, and that means when you hit the wall, you're nowhere near your real limit. You have to train your brain to stop underestimating you. So that moment when your workout, where your legs feel heavy, your lungs are on fire and your brain whispers to stop, that's not your body giving out, that's your mind setting an artificial ceiling. In Endure, alex Hutchinson breaks down how elite athletes train themselves to override that governor by using three key strategies. Number one self-talk and reframing. So instead of saying I'm dying, they say this is where I grow. Number two pacing and control. Stay disciplined and don't redline too early. Number three embracing the suck. The best performers they expect and they welcome discomfort.

Speaker 1: 3:47

The first time I read that book Endure it was right around the CrossFit Open a few years back, and what's fitting is that the Open just wrapped up here in 2025. So I know a lot of guys listening can relate to this, but at the time I had been training for a bodybuilding competition, doing longer sessions to burn calories, all while still trying to stay functional. I was the leanest and fittest I had been in a while. But when those open workouts hit, I don't care how prepared you are, you push to your absolute max and at some point you hit a wall. Well, that year I approached things differently. I applied some of the things that I had learned while reading the book Endure, understanding that my body started screaming to me, screaming to me to stop and it wasn't because I was done is because my brain was trying to protect me. I stopped fearing that moment. Instead, I leaned into it. That little shift in my mindset made all the difference. I had my best open ever. Mindset made all the difference. I had my best open ever and I barely missed the top 200 in the world for my age division. Now that was the moment that endurance stopped being about how fit I was and became about how I thought about things mid-workout. And once you get that, you start seeing endurance everywhere, not just in training but in life.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Now endurance isn't just about pushing longer, it's also about recovering faster so you can push harder more often. That's where work capacity, training and active recovery come in. So high volume work capacity is the ability to sustain intense output over time. This applies to lifting, sprinting, endurance work, even your ability to handle stress in life. But training hard without recovery discipline, that's a shortcut for burnout. So to train at an elite level without breaking down, you need active recovery strategies okay, strategies like cold exposure and contrast therapy that helps reduce inflammation and speed up healing. Breath work so that you can manage stress and improve oxygen efficiency, mobility and soft tissue work so that you can manage stress and improve oxygen efficiency, mobility and soft tissue work so that you can keep your movement efficient and pain-free. And sleep discipline, because all gains happen in recovery, not just in training.

Speaker 1: 6:27

So the challenge for this week is that, when the burn sets in and your mind starts to look for an out, override it. When you feel gassed, just push for another 10 seconds. Train your brain to stop underestimating you. Now. Endurance isn't just about how long you can go. It's about how deep you're willing to push when every part of your body is screaming for you to quit. It's about your ability to keep showing up, to keep moving forward and to refuse to break when the pressure's on.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So this week, when you feel that burn, when exhaustion creeps in, when your mind starts looking for an out, I want you to reframe it. Instead of seeing it as a breaking point, recognize it for what it really is. That's the proving ground, because the men who build real endurance, the ones who perform at the highest level in training, in business and in life. They're the ones who refuse to be ruled by their limits. They push past them and they see what's on the other side. And if you're serious about unlocking your full potential, I've got five spots open for one-on-one coaching this April.

Speaker 1: 7:49

I've got five spots open for one-on-one coaching this April. These won't last long. So if you're ready to go all in, hit the link in the show notes and let's make it happen. Stay relentless, stay disciplined and, as always, stay highly effective. See you next time. Thank you for listening to the Highly Effective man podcast. If you enjoyed or learned something on this episode, do me a favor and share this with somebody who you think needs to hear it. And one last thing if you want to work with me as your coach to help you get fit, be more productive and, in general, just be the most effective version of yourself, head over to my site, higherlevelcoachingco Once again, that's higherlevelcoachingco and schedule a call with me there. Thank you again. Let's go.