Britain’s hardest man’s tips for mental strength – which he used to swim 1,800 miles and run a marathon pulling a CAR
HE’S run a marathon pulling a 1,400kg car, climbed a vertical rope the exact height of Mount Everest and most recently earned himself a place in the Guiness book of World Records for swimming 1,791 miles around the British coastline.
But when you ask him why he’s put himself through what can only be described as torturous physical challenges, Ross Edgley simply shrugs and says: “Someone told me it wasn’t possible, so I wanted to see if I could do it.”
Ross, 34, has been called everything from a “real life action man”, and “a superhero” to “utterly bonkers”.
His crazy physical achievements have earned him thousands of followers but, he says, most of them are not so interested in how he does it, but why?
And his answer might surprise you.
‘The human body is capable of incredible things’
The Lincolnshire strongman – who has also run 1,000 miles barefoot carrying a 50kg backpack and completed an Olympic distance triathlon while carrying a 100lb tree – says he does it to test his mental strength, rather than just the physical.
“The first question people always ask me is always, why?” he says. “I think that’s really interesting.
“To me it shows that people know that the human body is capable of incredible things, but they just can’t imagine being able to put themselves through it themselves because they doubt their ability to push themselves to do it.”
Ross says his barmy feats are all about pushing his mind to the limit.
Now he’s put his theories about resilience in a new book, The Art Of Resilience, a follow up to his debut, The World’s Fittest Book, which became a Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller.
“You absolutely need both physical and mental strength, in equal measures,” he explains
“It’s no good being the strongest man in the world if your mind isn’t strong enough to keep going when it really starts to hurt.”
Ross knows a fair bit about keeping going when every bit of you is screaming to give up.
On August 14th 2018 he completed a swim around the total perimeter of the British Isles.
He swam non-stop in two stints of six hours out of every 24, for 157 days, in between just about finding time to consume 15,000 calories a day (that’s 58.5 big macs) on the the boat that followed him.
He was stung 37 times by jellyfish, suffered saltwater rot, half of his tongue fell out and, back on land, he had to learn to walk again after so long at sea.
“The power of the mind is an incredible thing and in the face of adversity, when you have used up all that the body can give you, it’s your mind that takes you on,” he adds.
‘I never gave up’
In the book he explains that he wasn’t born to be as tough and fit as he is now — but he made up his mind early on that he would exceed expectations.
The middle son of three boys, Ross grew up with a tennis coach dad, a sprinter mum, one grandad who ran marathons and the other who was in the military.
“Basically, if you played sport you would fit in fine at our house, if not… well,” he says.
“I grew up wanting to fit in with my older brother’s friends.
“He took me along to play football when I was 13 and I’d be competing with full-grown men.
“I was getting beaten up on the pitch.
“I wasn’t as strong, or fast or tall, so I realised I had to make up for that with keenness.
“And I did. I got stronger but I tried harder than anyone else, I never gave up and I was determined to be as good as them, and it worked.
“And that has me fascinated ever since.”
Swimming in solitary
When you meet Ross, his positivity is contagious.
He laughs continuously, even when he is talking about half his tongue falling off due to salt rot from sea water.
So how does he “stay positive” when putting himself through this physical torture?
“I’m human so of course I had awful times at sea, I felt sick, exhausted and in so much pain, but at the time I didn’t allow my mind to think about it,” he says
“When you are swimming for days on end, often at night when it’s so dark you can’t tell the difference between where the sky ends and the water starts, you are basically in solitary confinement.
“I needed mental strength otherwise I would have “gone crazy”.
“If you think negatively, your cortisol (stress hormone) spikes, it causes your body to inflame, your immune system is suppressed and your ability to perform is decreased.”
So you just smile through being stung by a jellyfish that’s stuck to your face?
“Yes”, he says, with a smile.
Below, he reveals his tips for maintaining mental strength in lockdown…
Strengthen your mind
In a time where the nation is going through a period of uncertainty and we find ourselves in isolation, alone with our thoughts, is there something we can learn from this superhero of resilience?
Here is Ross’s guide to learning to strengthen the mind.
1. Deal with isolation
On a simple level, occupy your mind.
I watch TV in my head, I flick through the channels.
One might be playing out a whole Christmas day with my family.
When your mind starts to think too much about the current negative situation, you need to distract it with something else.
A memory, a game, anything.
2. Be positive
If you can train your mind to always be able to find a positive in a situation, and only focus on this, and let the negatives go, the power you unleash is incredible.
It can be as simple as forcing yourself to smile or laugh when you are in pain.
Or being able to find some small bit of good in a bad situation that can make the difference between succeeding and failing.
3. Accept the uncontrollables
You can control certain things.
During an extreme challenge it’s having enough calories, getting enough sleep, wearing the right clothes for a task.
But you can’t control the weather, the jellyfish, the huge waves.
There’s nothing you can do about it so you’ll only be wasting time and energy if you choose to think about them.
Focus on what you can do.
You cannot control lockdown, but you can control making sure you cook something enjoyable for dinner, video calling friends, keeping yourself physically fit.
4. Push back against the physical body
Your body gets to a point where it doesn’t want to go anymore and tells your brain to stop.
You have to be able to have strength in your mind to tell your body no, I’m not stopping, we can keep going.
You get this from experience.
Have you ever achieved something you initially couldn’t do? Run a 5k? Passed an exam?
If you know that in the past, you have achieved something you didn’t think you could, then you start to realise the possibilities of doing things are endless.
5. Knowledge is power
Decades ago science said running a four minute mile was impossible.
Then Roger Bannister ripped up the rule book and did it.
The following year more and more people did it too — because they knew it was possible.
If you know people have gone through extreme periods of isolation way worse than you have, and come out stronger after, then you know that you can too.
6. Face your fears
If we fear something, our “flight or fight” response is activated when we face it.
This releases a crazy amount of hormones in the body that prime us to survive.
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While good initially, this uses up a lot of energy and after the first spike your stress levels can remain high.
Some studies show most people’s stress response decreases the more times they’re exposed to something psychologically stressful.
The more you face your fears, the more prepared you will be to face them.