If you watch the above video, you’ll see a young man playing the piano with his toes, and doing so quite well. Not only is his playing far-and-above superior to what I can do with my toes, it’s better than I can do with my fingers. Born without arms, Liu Wei adapted to his limitations and developed a skill which I’m sure many people would consider impossible. But while the skill that Liu has developed is awe-inspiring, it’s not exactly a superhuman feat. Liu is really just an ordinary person who, with some in-born limitations, some applied effort, and time, has adapted his body to do something beyond what is ordinary. His accomplishment is extraordinary, but not because he is some special type of human with more innate dexterity or capacity in his lower appendages. Rather, Liu is an example of the tremendous capacity of human plasticity, will, and effort. Most of us shod our feet in shoes for most of our lives and only use them for walking and running, and as such, the limits on the capacities of our feet end there. But with application of proper stresses, our feet have many of the same muscles and innervations as our hands and can develop to do things outside of the realm of “normal.” Zoom out, and this applies to far more than playing musical instruments with one’s feet.

Our world (and the internet) is full of similar displays of unfathomable skill and feats of human adaptability. And while innate capacities of course play some role in any skill expression or acquisition (fingers, for example, have physical structures more suited for piano playing than toes) there are countless extraordinary human feats that stand as demonstration of the distant limits of human capacity.

You hold more potential than you could ever dream of, and that’s a beautiful thing.

- PS

3/28/18

• 3 rounds for reps:

• 4 min AMRAP

• 400m row

• 20 pull-ups

• Max SB over shoulder (⅔ BW +)

• Rest 2 mins