Yesterday a fellow wrote to tell me that high intensity exercise is good for you. He explained that pushing yourself until you’re out of breath increased his endurance dramatically, helping him run marathons with ease.

What the man didn’t realize is that agree with him.

When I write about the benefits of NOT training to failure or fatigue, when I speak about those who claim they “always give it 110%” – this does not mean that I am 100 percent against testing yourself, or pushing yourself to your current limits, from time to time.

Once or twice a month, push yourself beyond what you would normally do. This is how I trained for and ran the Honolulu marathon in 1990.

At first, I made the mistake of running 8 or more miles per day. I was burning myself out with this method. Not only was I physically tired each day, I was also irritable and cranky.

With one month to go before the marathon, I switched to daily runs that were ridiculously easy. During the week I never ran more than five miles at a time. Many of my runs were two or three miles. But every other Saturday, I would push myself. Two weeks before the marathon I ran 17 miles straight, the most I’d ever run, but still 9.2 miles shy of a full marathon.

What did I do for the next two weeks? Go into panic mode and train harder, harder, harder?

No.

What I did was realize that my brain and nervous system will remember the 17-mile run for a couple more weeks, and then I can add the extra mileage in the marathon itself.

Did it work? Yes. In pouring down rain, I finished in a time of 3:35:52.

I placed 1,101 out of 13,803 runners.

Note: If I continued to run 8-10 miles per day to prepare, I would have probably injured myself or given up on the idea because, let’s be frank, running sucks.

Sprinting, on the other hand, is a different matter.

You sprint, then you rest for a couple minutes. In fact, in a sprint workout, most of the time, you are resting.

And that is my point about Dao Zou.

People who train hard all the time are burning themselves out. They are frying their nervous system. They are scaring themselves away from the improvements they seek.

Most people who fry themselves in their workouts, desperately need a way to cool off so they can recuperate and recover faster. But they don’t have a clue as to how to do this.

Meanwhile, Dao Zou is waiting in the wings, ready to effortlessly take you to the next level. It helps reduce the unwanted stress plaguing your mind and body. It helps eliminate the negative thoughts and feelings playing in your mind. And if you insist on training super hard, it helps you recover from the brutal workouts you are giving yourself.

The reality is this: I know I can kick ass and take names whenever it’s necessary. But is it necessary every single day in every single workout? Not only that, is kicking ass in every workout a good idea? Is it productive?

Even if you’re a collegiate or Olympic or professional athlete, the answer is no.

Your mind and body need workouts that are relaxing and rejuvenating. Your mind and body need time to recover. And push, push, push, go, go, go, all the time, are a definite no-no.

You heard it here first.

Latch onto Dao Zou today and begin enjoying the benefits immediately.

Best,

Matt Furey