Is There A Limit to Physical Fitness?

"Since Roger Bannister broke his 4 minute mile, the record's come down by nearly 17 seconds."
Richard Godfrey

Former Chief Physiologist of the British Olympic Medical Centre at the British Olympic Association's Department of Science and Medicine.

If you currently exercise, you may have experienced achieving some level of physical fitness which was greater than anything you ever thought possible. Did that get you thinking, "Is there a limit to my physical possibilities? Can I continue to push through to achieve higher levels of physical fitness, accomplishing greater and more challenging physical feats?"

Track and field athlete Roger Bannister was the first person to break the 4 minute mile barrier in 1954. Before he did so, many noted scientists, professional athletes and physical fitness experts agreed that it was physically impossible for the human body to run 1 mile in less than 4 minutes.

But Bannister did it, partly because he was upset for not winning the gold medal in the 1500 m run during the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. I know what you are thinking. He was an athlete of impressive physical abilities, much more talented physically than you or I. But yet he, and no other human being on the planet, could run a mile in under 4 minutes before his groundbreaking accomplishment.

What made the difference that allowed Bannister to accomplish something that he or no one else was previously able to? It was simply this...

His mental approach to a physical goal. Nothing more.

And guess what? Only 2 months after Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds, Bannister and Australia's John Landy both ran sub-four-minute miles in the same race. And just 10 years after Bannister's accomplishment, high school runner Jim Ryun bested Bannister time by 0.4 seconds as a junior.

As a senior in high school, Ryun ran a blistering mile in 3 minutes 55.3 seconds. Irish runner Eamonn Coghlan broke the 4 minute mile barrier 83 times in his life, and after retiring as a runner, ran a sub-four-minute mile when he was 41 years of age. Since his accomplishment, over 1,000 people have run a mile in under 4 minutes.

So what changed? Why were so many people able to do what Bannister did, but only after him?
People's beliefs changed. They changed their mind.

Once they saw someone else run a mile in less than 4 minutes, their brain realized they had set their physical limits too low. But probably the most important lesson about personal beliefs in your physical limits can once again be credited to Mister Bannister.

At the time that the Englishman did the unthinkable, he trained very little as a runner. He was practicing as a junior doctor, putting in all the requisite hours of study that occupation requires.
But in his mind, he saw no physical limits. Change your mind today, challenge yourself, refuse to fail, and see exactly what physical achievements you can accomplish.

Russell (Rusty) Hart is the founder of the Health, Fitness & Sport Club, a website devoted to the promotion of health, fitness and wellness. The site encompasses a wide variety of health and fitness activities including general health matters, pilates, yoga, CrossFit, treadmill training, running, kettlebell, swimming, baseball, camping, hunting, HIIT, triathlons, extreme sports, equestrian and more. Should this subject matter be of interest you can visit the HF & S Club home site where you'll find over 1,300 quality posts with new posts being published daily. To quickly access those that are of interest you can select any of 20 Categories broken down by over 260 Sub-Categories for easy access. . Access this website by going to

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