Fitness business man Laird Hamilton still trains at the extreme level even at the age of 57, as proof he released an Instagram video in which he swims lengths of a pool while also carrying a dumbbell. As the leader of Extreme Performance Training (XPT), a water resistance fitness concept, Hamilton is all about uncomfortable and physically demanding exercises. In fact, he likes to get as uncomfortable as possible as soon as he wakes up.
During an interview recently, Hamilton says that he gives his body a shock right after waking in the morning, using extreme cold or extreme heat, to “boost” his system, and “rev himself up” for his exercise routine.
“It is like a warm-up,” he stated. “If you feel somewhat achy in the morning, and you are busted up, you go get a very hot shower. You know you will come out of there feeling like a million bucks. We even get into the sauna very early. I will go out in the morning to the sauna even when it is dark to start my day, a really hot one. I will do something very hot, or you could also just jump into an ice tub and get the opposite of this. Either one of these extreme thermal exposures will boost your system. It will rev your body up. I would do a cold shower, but the issue is most folk’s showers don’t get anywhere close to cold enough. And high levels of heat gives you a great kick.”
But he does not do it only for the physical benefits: Hamilton thinks there are a lot of advantage to challenging his body using these two tricks.
“It is difficult. And something about this stuff has a mental impact on you,” he says. “There is a thing about this discomfort. Maybe if we were in an alternate universe, maybe discomfort would not be so helpful. But in the universe right here and now, we benefit from this discomfort. If you want your rose bush to start blooming, you do the work to prune it. There is just no way around this.”
Author: Blake Ambrose