Extreme workouts build mental strength by putting you voluntarily in front of something that looks impossible, then teaching you to break it into manageable pieces and finish one rep at a time. Whether it was a tough wrestling practice in high school, a marathon, SEALFIT Kokoro, or a self-created Memorial Day monster in my driveway, these challenges taught me how to flip the switch in my head, silence the voices of doubt, and carry that confidence into business, parenting, and everything else. In this Physical Friday I read something I wrote about exactly why I do this.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
They put you voluntarily in front of something that looks impossible and force you to figure out how to get through it. Rarely in today's society do people get the chance to face that and choose to take on the challenge. When you discover how to ignore the voices of doubt, continue despite physical pain, and break a giant challenge into little manageable pieces accomplished by putting one foot in front of the other, you carry that ability into starting a business, parenting through trying times, and every other hard thing in your life.
DT is a classic CrossFit workout with a single barbell — 155 pounds as prescribed. Each round is 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power cleans, and 6 jerks, and you do five rounds as fast as you can. It is simple, effective, and it punishes the athlete who has neglected Olympic lifting strength in favor of endurance or gymnastics. DT is hard for me when I am fresh, and in the workout I describe in this episode I hit it after hours of running, weighted pull ups, push ups, and squats.
Murph is a one-mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run, all wearing a 20-pound vest. I can remember the first time I saw it written and wondered if it was even possible for me. Eventually I completed a few of them, then strung two together, and for my 40th birthday a group of us — including my 16-year-old son — completed a triple Murph. Each victory built the confidence that the same strategy could accomplish anything: one rep at a time.
SEALFIT Kokoro is a fifty-hour training camp run by Navy SEALs on a cold California beach. It taught me that when you feel like you have given everything, you are capable of about twenty times more than you think you can do. With that philosophy I have been able to start businesses, win tournaments, build teams, and lead my family. It is one of the experiences that showed me what is really on the other side of the voices of doubt.
Because having a goal or event in front of you helps you organize your whole life around the process of preparing for it. When the goal is completed, the sense of accomplishment extends far beyond the workout and into every other area of life. As I accumulate more experience, it gets harder to reach that cathartic moment of flipping the switch, so the challenges get bigger — but everything else in life gets easier. That is the answer to why I keep doing this.
No. The challenge does not have to look anything like mine. It could be running or walking a 5K, getting thirty minutes of exercise a day, a yoga class, a single Murph, or learning a foreign language. What matters is having something out in front of you that pushes you, training for it, and finishing it. Those are the things that push us to excellence and keep the mind strong and healthy.
Someone asked me months ago why I feel the need to do really challenging workouts, and I did not want to answer it off the cuff. Challenges are something I keep on the calendar — races, runs, or events I create myself — and they have done so much for me that I wrote an introduction and then read an article I had written after one of these big challenges. I have never read anything on this podcast before, but this one deserved it. Press play in the player above to hear the whole thing.
It was 10:50 on a Memorial Day morning, and since 7:30 we had run 11 miles, done three sets of stairs, five runs up a 20 percent grade, 30 burpees, 30 clap push ups, 200 weighted pull ups, 400 weighted push ups, and 600 weighted squats. Then I found myself just staring at a 155-pound barbell, wondering if I could even pick it up. It was placed there strategically — a serious challenge inside a long workout to see how we would react. I walked around, drank water, even changed shoes trying to find the switch in my head. It was hiding. So I took it one step at a time: just the deadlifts first. The full story of how that played out is in the episode.
This is the strategy I used to finish DT at 155 pounds in the middle of that Memorial Day workout, and it is the same strategy behind Murph, double Murph, and triple Murph.
I walk through each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
This workout was a send-off for my friend Mike Drew, who has done more of these long extreme workouts with me than anyone. When I asked him why, he wrote me a list: he genuinely enjoys it, the long ones become meditative, the focus transfers to every part of his life, it lets him test the training he has put in, the social side of suffering with friends makes it special, and it is his way of fending off the effects of time for as long as he can. His full answer is in the episode — press play in the player above.
Having a challenge in front of you helps you organize your life, prioritize your training, and get everything else done better at the same time. The physical workouts are just a doorway to open up the mind and keep it strong.
I would love to hear what challenge you have coming up — a big race, a 5K, anything. Email me at podcast@saltwaterexperience.com or tag me on Instagram @tom_rowland and maybe we can hold each other accountable. Press play in the player above.
David Goggins · SEALFIT Kokoro · GORUCK Challenge · GORUCK Selection · Murph · DT · CrossFit · Mike Drew · Matt Green · Patrick · C2C adventure race · marathon training · Physical Friday · Saltwater Experience
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the workouts, nutrition, sleep, and mindset practices that keep me ready for long days on the water — practical fitness for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and anyone who wants to stay in the game for life.
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