Meet the superhumans of extreme sports

The ultra-runner

Let’s talk about ultra-running. Forget that casual 26-mile marathon. Because what’s that when you can stretch it to a mere 350? With no sleep. For days at a time. Often in tricky conditions like, oh, you know, the Sahara Desert.  One famed runner tested the limits of the human body completed 50 marathons, in 50 states, on 50 consecutive days. Makes us sweat just reading that. The land is the limit, or rather, there isn’t one. Just keep running.

Was that the sound of your ears popping?

Remember when that legendary base-jumping guy jumped out of a balloon in space? We do. On 14 October 2012, he took a giant helium balloon 39 kilometers (24 miles) up into the stratosphere. And then, like a super-human, he jumped. His 4 minute 19 second descent broke the sound barrier, not to mention all previous records, including the one for fastest speed without the aid of a vehicle.

11 hours in action

Sometimes, it’s not just about any one person lasting the distance. Take the world’s longest ever tennis match in 2010. On any regular match day, you’re lucky to get 3 hours of action on court. These guys went beyond the limits with a match that took 11 hours and lasted over 3 days. There was a staggering total of 183 games played. That’s some serious endurance. For the crowd as well as the players! 

Mind games!

Are these incredible physical feats just the product of insanely superhuman genes, or is there more to it? Spoiler alert – it’s all in the mind. That saying: ‘Fake it until you make it’? Turns out you will, eventually, make it as long as you think you can. Study after study shows that athletes who train the mind as well as the human body can improve endurance and the limits of the human body as a result. Expanding what you believe you can physically endure makes a huge difference – as much as 120% more.

In other words, to be a real ninja, you just have to believe you really are one.