Question: How does the human brain help to reach or excel the unknown limits of the human brain?

Emma Ross answered on 17 Jun 2013:

There are many reasons why some people can excel in things like sport, part of it is that their biology (like the amount of oxygen they can use, how strong their muscles are etc) are naturally designed for their chosen event, and because through training they have adapted to be even better. However, the brain plays a big role in allowing humans to excel in things like sports, but we aren’t quite sure why! It might be that through training your brain becomes a bit less protective of your body, because it becomes used to the body being put under stress from daily training. The brain then ‘allows’ you to perform at a higher level (faster or for longer) , whereas in someone who is untrained the brain would start sending signals for the exercise to stop in case it damaged the persons body too much. Or it might be because the brains of these elite sports people are better able to tolerate the pain and discomfort associated with high level sports performance.