Doing Hard Things

By: Nick Sienkiewicz, DPT, CSCS

Hayden and I participated in the Tough Ruck 2024 this past weekend. It was a rucking marathon event; 26.2 miles with 35+ lbs hanging on the back for the duration of the race. It was extremely challenging. Quite frankly, it was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life up to this point. Numerous times throughout the event, I internally fabricated reasons to stop, but I kept trudging along. I’m thrilled to say we both finished, and in pretty decent time! (Yes, Hayden finished faster, but my pack was heavier!!) Now, I’m by no means bringing this up to brag. My reason for discussing this physical feat is to show you how it relates to functional health and fitness.

We live in a world of comfort these days. It can be easy to fall into the trap of solace, where there is potential to forget the capabilities of human potential! We take our modern lifestyle for granted, which then makes us stress out about things that are ultimately trivial and inconsequential. Our ancestors had to do hard things to simply survive. Nowadays, that is not required of us. Yet, we are still genetically the same animal as our rugged and battle-tested predecessors. For this reason, I believe it is pertinent to human health that we willingly take part in hard things. Our genetics are anticipating challenging things to come our way, so if they never do, our bodies and brains get complacent. This creates a mismatch. All of our primitive mechanisms for survival tone down, and health becomes secondary because our genome is accustomed to relying on survival for health. Without the threat of hard times, our brain’s concept of health becomes smudged. The modern world has actually triggered the human genome to go haywire. We were not created to be this comfortable! We are seeing the effects of this in our current state of health. All of these modern conditions and diseases that are exponentially rising seem to have specific genetic links. The reality is that these genes have been present in humans all along. We evolved to possess these genetic sequences for various reasons. It is not as simple as a gene being present or not. Something, whether environmental and/or behavioral, has to cause the gene to express itself. This is the basis for the study of epigenetics. My point in bringing this concept up is to illustrate the reality that our modern world is sabotaging our epigenetics. Challenging your body, mind and spirit through difficult tasks and getting outside of your comfort zone is truly a way to improve your epigenetic profile as a human, as that is what we were meant to do! By actively partaking in hard things, your body becomes stronger and more robust, your brain gets sharper and more resilient, and you relish in the life we are fortunate to be living each and everyday.

I wholeheartedly believe that intentionally getting out of your comfort zone is pivotal to true functional health in our modern world. Let’s discuss a few simple ways that you can add hard things into your current lifestyle without having to completely leave your life of comfort:

Take cold showers

Jumping in a cold tub or a body of water in the winter works well too. This is a free (can actually be money saving too!) way to expose your body to a challenging task. Nowadays, everything is temperature controlled, and this severely dampens our innate ability to temperature regulate. If humans did not naturally possess temperature control mechanisms, we would have evolved to have fur coats at some point throughout history… Yet, here we are with minimal hair compared to other animals. Regular cold exposure trains your cellular physiology to be better adapted to cold temperatures in a similar fashion to the way weight lifting trains your musculoskeletal system to be stronger.

Heat exposure

Works here too, but I find these days that people naturally tolerate heat better than cold. Despite this, if you are someone who struggles with higher temperatures, sauna can be a great option to create some environmental hormesis to challenge temperature regulatory mechanisms and mental fortitude.

Try Rucking

Get a backpack. Fill it with things that have substantial weight (actual weights, cans, water bottles, sand bag, etc). Start with 10 lbs. Go walk. Accumulate more load and time as able. Even though the topic is doing hard things, we still want to do it the right way. Your body still needs time to adapt physically. This is not about pushing yourself to the point of injury. Be smart!

Go On Some harder and/or Longer Hikes

Similar to rucking, this will test you both mentally and physically. Adding in the navigation component layers another element on top of the challenge.

Pick Up a New Activity

It could be a sport you’ve never played. Maybe you try dancing. Or potentially, you adopt more of a mental practice. Ideally, the new activity is one that you’re not naturally good at, so it is more likely to be well outside your comfort zone.

Do a 24+ Hour Fast

I know intermittent fasting is pretty popular right now, but not eating for a full day is a different animal. Our ancestors were forced into longer periods of fasting when food was scarce. Thus, we have natural mechanisms in place to not only survive, but thrive in a prolonged fasted state. Give 24 hours a go first. If that felt easy, try 36 hours, and so on. Some people do upwards of a 7 day fast annually. There are a few ways to go about these longer fasts. Some individuals only consume water. Others consume minimally caloric beverages, like tea and black coffee, in addition to water. And many utilize electrolyte drinks or powders during a prolonged fast. I certainly recommend the latter. Contrary to what Chad may tell you, you will NOT lose all of your muscle gains if you do one of these prolonged fasts every so often!

Sit in Silence with Boredom

Silence has become a form of discomfort today. Humans really struggle with it because we just never experience it naturally anymore. As a result, it tends to lead to over-stimulation as individuals will just reach for their phone, turn on the TV, or fill the void with some hard core hip hop (Chad loves his rap - Hence, why it plays in the clinic all of the time!). Sitting in silence used to be something humans had to do at times. Now, it is a learned skill that can be very difficult for many. Luckily, you can leverage this in order to enhance health! It is free, and even becomes relaxing once you stop losing your mind in silence.

Partake in Misogi

This one is my favorite, and largely was the basis for joining the Tough Ruck event. Misogi is an ancient Japanese ritual in which you participate in a physical and/or mental challenge in order to cleanse and purify spirit, mind and body. The concept of Misogi was popularized by the author, Michael Easter, in recent years. It is a really great way to implement health-enhancing challenges into your lifestyle. There are two main rules to Misogi: First, don’t die! Your Misogi can realistically be anything, but you can’t pick anything where death has potential to be caused by the Misogi itself (an example would be walking on a tight rope over the Grand Canyon - of course that’s challenging, but also stupid!). Secondly, the chances of success should be somewhere in the realm of 50/50. This assures the Misogi is something that will truly challenge you because “if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you!” The Tough Ruck is a great example of this notion, as there were many points along the 26.2 miles that I wanted to quit and stopping seemed more and more appealing with each mile. Secondary rules to Misogi include participating with others (don’t do it by yourself - that’s stupid too!) and don’t do it all of the time. Misogi is meant to be infrequent because the challenge is intended to be that significant. Annually is a great goal, as the sizable challenge will create learning experiences for weeks and months to come. Some individuals (like everyone at Tough Ruck 2024) are already partaking in Misogis without even realizing they have been doing so. If this sounds like you, you now have a name for what your family members may describe as “insanity.” Just remember, you are not supposed to have a 100% pass rate on Misogis. That is part of the learning experience and health benefits. Misogi is more intense than day-to-day struggles. You are really exploring the boundaries of your body’s capabilities when tackling a Misogi. If you do adopt Misogi as a practice, please go in with the mindset that it is much more about the journey than the destination!

These are a few great ways to implement health-fostering challenges into your lifestyle! Doing hard things is not only an authentic way to build physiological health. It is a strategy that can help you become a better human in all facets of life. I believe this is more than a consideration. It is a must in our modern world. You just have to define what “hard thing” means for you! Once you do that, practice it regularly, and reap the rewards!

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 Let's thrive together,

Nick

*Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. The information is meant to be educational in nature. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent and/or cure any disease or health condition. Simultaneously, the information is not stating that any supplements or methods mentioned can replace medications or any interventions prescribed by your healthcare provider. Please speak with your own healthcare provider before beginning any new supplements or making changes that may affect your health. By utilizing any of this information, you are assuming responsibility for your own health decisions and actions.