On Endurance Athletes and Large Hearts

This week’s book learning is from Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin (and continues to be inspired by the concept of deliberate practice)

We have often read articles about how the bodies of endurance athletes, tennis players, etc., are “different” from us. For example, endurance runners have larger than average hearts while ballet dancers’ feet seem to have the ability to turn impossible angles.

Research has revealed that the reason for this is not necessarily super human ability at birth. Deliberate practice has found to alter the physical nature of a person’s brain and body.

A study of endurance runners showed that their hearts grow in size after years of intensive training and go back to normal size when they stop. And, it’s been demonstrated that the our brain (specifically the cerebral cortex) changes with deliberate practice too!

While the changes are larger when we are young, a famous study of London taxi drivers which showed them to have larger hippocampuses (= greater spatial memory) after their intensive qualification tests shows that deliberate practice can alter us at any age!

So, great performers ARE fundamentally different – their abilities to perceive, organize thoughts in their fields, etc., are far beyond what we possess. But, a large part of that are proven to be a result of a process – the general elements of which are clear.

Sketch by EB

Interestingly, scientific research seems to the point to a substance called “Myelin” that increases the speed at which impulses move in our brains. Myelination is a slow process as the same action needs to happen millions of times for the substance to form a coat around specific neurons – this illustrates in a way why it takes years of intensive work to become expert.

Myelin may just be the connection between intensive practice and extraordinary performance.

On a completely different note, if you have an extra minute, do check out this post on “The BookBytess Project” and let me know if you are interested.

Here’s to deliberate practice and “myelination” this week!