Eyes focused on the target, a hand twitches to ignite a powerful punch forward. The impulse travels through the body at supersonic speed to almost instantaneously drive a foot unabatingly into the surface. A second movement initiates precisely to balance the body into acceleration, faster and faster, legs exploding like pistons into the ground propelling the body forward at higher and higher velocities. The body now upright, hips held high and legs stepping down to strike the floor with briefer and briefer contacts is approaching 37 km/h and still accelerating…and that is where the story ends…
You may be forgiven for thinking that I was describing Usain Bolt on the way to one of his, in current terms, epic short distance runs. In fact this is a description of fossilised footprints from an Aboriginal man from 20,000 years ago, the reason the story ended was that the fossil record was incomplete. But by analysing the tracks that were left, anthropologists have worked out the size of the man and how fast he was moving.1
Oh, I almost forgot to add, unlike Mr. Bolt, this man was bare foot and running on the soft muddy banks of a lake. Why? Well, we can only assume he was part of a hunting party (there were several sets of prints found, this particular man has been dubbed ‘T8’) in pursuit of prey. Far from being the phenom that we all revere Usain Bolt to be, in our distant past, he would’ve been among peers, exceptionally fast still, but certainly not exceptional.
It’s not just in sprints that our ancestors excelled, in pretty much every endeavour they were superior to us, from strength, to endurance, and even memory.2 They were amazing, and would’ve likely dominated us and our elite athletes if we competed against them today, especially if they were able to take advantage of today’s technology such as spiked shoes and specialised Mondo tracks.
Bettered by primitive man, even with all our new technology and techniques, makes you feel good, huh? It should.
Why?
Because those abilities, which our ancestors displayed, are still accessible to us today.
Look at that sentence again; the key words are ‘our ancestors’. One of the great things about ancestors is that sometimes they leave us heirlooms, and sometimes these ‘hand me downs’ turn out to be quite valuable. I’m not using the word valuable in the sense of monetary reward; that is insignificant compared to real inherit value of this endowment, which lies in its (‘values’) other definition, which means ‘of considerable usefulness’. The inheritance we have been given by our forefathers (and mothers) is our genome.
Without going into too much detail, it takes a long time for the genetic code to make any significant change. So it is more than likely that our current genome is essentially the same as our ancestors from 10,000-40,000 years ago. So if they had the genetic given ability to run at 37 km/h+ in pretty unforgiving conditions, or had the ability to jump in excess of 2.5m (a requirement of certain initiation ceremonies), then so do we.
The key is accessing that genomic power. The genome responds by interacting with information that is put into it; for better or worse. These signals can range from those found in food that we call nutrients, or the technical cues from your coach in the form of words and visuals. The signals dictate how your DNA expresses itself. If your coach provides you with incorrect training then the expression of your potential is severely limited. Likewise, if you don’t provide your body with the appropriate signals via your food, or worse, you eat a diet that is devoid of the built-in ancient signals, then again, your potential for realising the power of your genome is severely compromised.
Our ancestors didn’t develop these abilities using artificially set up environments which we now call training, their environment necessitated them to be this good. Can’t catch that kangaroo; then you’re going to be pretty hungry. Can only throw your spear 20m, that antelope you’ve been tracking all day from a distance will have sensed you and be long gone; again leaving you pretty hungry. And the examples can go on and on, they ‘had’ to develop these abilities to survive. Survival is a pretty big motivator, one that we’re lucky enough to not really be too troubled by in our society. However if you can motivate yourself to roll up your sleeves and put in a little bit of elbow grease, then all of these abilities that our ancestors developed, are within your grasp.
The key to tapping into the enormous power that resides within you is to seek out the right information so that the signals your genome receives stimulate the right expression for performance.
For example, Donovan Bailey was always a fairly decent athlete, but it took the genius of Dan Pfaff (and Donovan to put himself in the right environment) to provide the right instruction to tap into Donovan’s genome and the result was borne out in the 1996 Olympic Final.
Same goes for Usain Bolt. Like Donovan, Usain is receiving the right information in regards to training so that his DNA is expressing the right codes to generate a high performance body. He also has the benefit of the right information when it comes to nutrition too. Much has been made of the whole ‘chicken nugget’ comment made by Usain in regards to his race day prep’, however I’m going to go out on a limb and take this with a pinch (in fact huge handfuls) of salt.
Jamaican cuisine today is pretty much ideal in respect to healthy, high performance bodies.3 It is still very similar to our ancestral diet, with the same nutrients to which our ancestors genome were exposed. This environment of the correct physical stress (training) plus utilising the ancient signals that our genome evolved upon is essentially the perfect storm for performance. In contrast, a diet of modern day processed food and inappropriate training is more likely to result in a grey, rainy afternoon.
You have within you the genetic heritage to be the absolute pinnacle in terms of human performance. It’s not easy, even with the right information, you still have to work your socks off (multiple pairs in fact, but that’s another story). To paraphrase Linford Christie ‘talent doesn’t get you anywhere without hard work and determination and nobody can give you that, you have to find it within yourself.’4
So find something that ignites your flame, tend to it daily so that it grows, then channel the fire to illuminate your talent in a blaze of glory.
References
1. Webb, Steve, Cupper, Matthew L., Robins, Richard (2006) Pleistocene human footprints from the Willandra Lakes, southeastern Australia. Journal of Human Evolution Vol 50 (4) pp. 405-413.
2. McAllister P. Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male is Not the Man He Used to Be. London: St Martin’s Press, 2010.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_cuisine (Accessed on 20/08/2012)
4. http://www.streetathletics.co.uk/StreetAthletics/our_story/ (Accessed on 20/08/2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment