One of older articles linked from HN said the very name "stress" is wrong, because it conjures incorrect expectations. That you can forever endure a certain level of pressure, but will break after a certain point.
The term "stress" comes from the world of physics. Instead, the article argued, stress resistance is like a muscle. To develop it, you need to exercise it a bit, then STOP. As someone who made working out his hobby, I know rest is an essential part of training. Newbies often utter nonsense like "I will do pushups 7 days a week". It works for the first few days, then you get overtraining and your performance falls below normal.
There is a broad swath between pushups every day (technically just 2 push-ups) and 3x12 or 2xFailure. Most notably, there is 1x50-99% of failure which would be a great way to advance from wall pushups.
Professional athletes had to build up to that volume. Training to handle increased volume is real. A beginner can't handle near that amount.
Also professional athletes are the best of the best. They are genetic freaks, use drugs to help them recover faster, and devote their lives to their sport.
> Professional athletes sleep A LOT, way more than a normal person.
To elaborate on this...
Lebron James and Roger Federer have both said they sleep 12 hours a day.
Usain Bolt, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Steve Nash sleep up to 10 hours per day.
Most NBA players take naps every game day, sometimes for as long as 3 hours.
That said, not all pro athletes sleep a ton. Tiger Woods said he only sleeps 5 hours a night, for instance. But it seems pretty clear that most of them are sleeping way more than the average office drone.
I can believe that. Not to belittle Tiger Woods or anything, but golf is not a sport in the same way that basketball or triathlon is a sport.
EDIT: This was poorly worded. Golf is a sport, but I don't know that a professional golfer is an athlete any more than a professional carpenter is an athlete. A professional basketball player is an athlete however.
I've heard it said golf is probably on the high end of athletism of what might be termed skill sports like darts, billards, bowling. Lots of eye hand coordination required, some specific strength/power requirements, no aerobic fitness/reaction time requirement.
> And yet professional athletes can train for several hours every day. Sometimes twice.
> Doing a couple pushups every day won’t kill ya.
Your now comparing a group that is new to an action and one that is trained in it. However I would like to rephrase OP's comment to: As a beginner you should recognize rest is more important than constant training.
The term "stress" comes from the world of physics. Instead, the article argued, stress resistance is like a muscle. To develop it, you need to exercise it a bit, then STOP. As someone who made working out his hobby, I know rest is an essential part of training. Newbies often utter nonsense like "I will do pushups 7 days a week". It works for the first few days, then you get overtraining and your performance falls below normal.