Are you becoming an Extreme Athlete?

An Extreme athlete is someone who is attracted to a particular activity where there is a combination of danger, high skill and elitism.

We live in an age where things that we thought were impossible have become a reality for the brave few pioneers who dare to challenge our expectations, our values and our beliefs about what is achievable.

However, when you are pushing the limits of human performance, there is a greater risk of musculo-skeletal injury. With great achievement comes great risk.

Once you have been successful with the impossible where do you go from there?

Are you an adrenaline junkie?

Are you a risk-taker?

Do you want to know how far you can push yourself?

The answer is probably yes. That's why you are still reading this.

So how do we train for the extreme?

Do we need to train the mind just as much as we need to train the body?

Perhaps it stars with intensity.

With the influence of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and it's time efficient evidence base for improved training, more and more people are becoming extreme athletes.

Professor Tabata could be called the Godfather of HIIT.

With his 4 minute exercise programme of 20 seconds work followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8 times, this is a good example of hardcore time-efficient training.

If you can handle Tabata training what will be next?

I think my friend, you are becoming an extreme athlete.

If you can achieve more than you expected in training, what can you achieve in the rest of your life?

In the words of Diana Nyad, "whatever you want to do in life, find a way!"