Laird Hamilton is considered the greatest big wave surfer of all times. He knows how important it is for his profession and life to be in top physical shape.
Here are some fitness commandments from him:
1. I base everything on how I feel. Your body is the best instrument for reading how things affect you.
2. It’s really about keeping in shape for life. Think about your body like a car. Once you park a car, it might not start again. But if you just keep driving it, it’ll keep going. It likes to be driven.
3. If it’s potato chips in, it’s potato chips out. You eat garbage, you’re probably going to perform like garbage.
4. Vacation is an opportunity to get in a good routine. It’s like a mini-boot camp.
5. This is something I’m trying to learn: how to rest. Going full steam ahead all the time is not always the most productive approach, because then you’re always trying to play catch-up with recovery.
6. You have to go and try different stuff. The thing is, when you reach a certain level in any sport, you become so efficient at it that the effort level is really diminished. Your body has adapted. So what are you getting? Snowboarding has helped my surfing. Windsurfing has helped my surfing. Biking, for sure, has helped my surfing.
7. Above everything, sleep. I’m an eight-to-ten-guy. Not that I can’t operate with less, but for my overall well-being, I gotta have at least eight.
8. I have friends who eat healthier than anybody, but it takes them all day. And if they don’t have their sprouted bread, they go into seizure. I can eat a Big Mac. I’m not going to love it, but it won’t put me in toxic shock. It’s like if a car is too high-performance, then it’s sensitive to any kind of fuel. I like being more like a truck. If a little diesel gets in there, maybe a little water, it’ll cough and burp a bit, but it’s gonna get through it and keep running.
9. Chew more. That’ll probably do more for your ability to absorb nutrients from your food than just about anything.
10. It’s always more enjoyable to train with other people. It’s going to be more stimulating, but it also pushes you because you have accountability. You can’t just think, oh that was enough. Your partner will say, “That was only 29. I thought we were doing 30.”
11. Fear is an unbelievable motivator, but it also makes people freeze in their tracks. Once you start to understand it, fear becomes something you can tap into.
12. We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they thing they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bed, to fall on your but and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be.
13. In the end, if you’re still just there, doing it, you win.