Glenn Murphy is a science writer and educator, bestselling author, and longtime student of the Russian martial art known as Systema. He’s also my teacher, my friend, and a hilarious guy with a kick-ass British accent.

It turns out that a great deal of science of human stress and resilience was done in the former Soviet Union which was embargoed and unavailable to the West until recently. This neuroscience of performance was tested and validated in work with Olympic gold medalists and spec op forces – both of whom are under a great deal more stress than most of us will ever know.

And these insights are baked into Systema, which teaches relaxation and selective use of tension in response to physical threats rather than rigid stances and hyper-aggressive techniques.