Tag: work out

It’s about how you do things

Practice vs deliberate practice. Working out vs training. Going through the motions vs living intentionally.

You can become moderately good or even above average by consistently working on something. But if you’re just going through the motions and not deliberately following a plan to improve, you won’t reach your full potential and your progress will be much slower. Do you have a specific plan or are you just doing what you feel like doing that day?

Improving is partly just about “doing something” repeatedly as it relates to your goals. But that’s only a small part of the solution. The bigger part is practicing perfection. We will never achieve perfection, but the more we aim towards it, the closer we will get in chasing excellence.

Sport-specific training

Working on your genera fitness is great for most people. This would include your average working out like running, lifting weights, or doing yoga. But general physical preparedness (GPP, as we call it in the biz) should only be the baseline for those who are training for a specific sport or event. GPP focuses on health, but not on performance. And while you typically need to be healthy to perform at the highest level, being healthy does not necessarily translate to athletic achievement.

For example, in most sports, it helps to have one or more of the following attributes: strength, explosiveness/power, flexibility, agility, aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, etc. You can easily work on all of those at the gym by yourself. But no matter your strength or conditioning level, you still need sport-specific training to work on your skills if you want to excel at your sport. It doesn’t matter how many times you hit the weights or run, those are not going to make you run a better route, use better technique, or improve your hand-eye coordination. Being more agile will not make you a better shooter, swimmer, golfer, etc.

Always work to have GPP. But if you are competing in a sport, make sure you take the time to focus on your sport-specific skills. Most of the time, if someone is highly skilled and in decent shape, they will outperform someone with low-to-moderate skill but is in great shape.

Pay yourself first

Just like with investing, you need to “pay yourself first” by making time for self-improvement. Everybody has the same amount of time in the day. Most of us fill up that time with work, housework, watching tv, or going on social media. But how many times have you heard people say that they are too busy to exercise or that there aren’t enough hours in the day?

Many people feel that they have a shortage of time. I understand this and feel that way too. But our problems often stem from poor time management and how we can rearrange our schedule to make it work optimally. For me, I like the idea of working on self-improvement first thing in the morning. My thought process is that just as you should automate paying the first 10% of your paycheck to yourself (saving/investing), you should also automate spending the first part of your day improving yourself. I like using the morning for working on myself because it’s quiet, the day hasn’t started (so there are no “fires to put out”), and my motivation is at its highest (I’m not tired from a long day of work). Not only that, but it feels good to start your day off right. It’s easier to keep the momentum going by starting right as opposed to starting and stopping throughout the day.

Although it can be daunting to feel like you have to do a lot in the morning before heading to work, you really don’t. Start with a little at a time. Read one page of a book you’ve been meaning to read. Do ten pushups. Stretch. Plan your day/set your intentions. Think about/write down what you’re grateful for. These are just a few examples. Just remember, every little bit counts. If you can improve yourself even fractionally each day, you’ll amaze yourself at how much that adds up over time. There is no greater return on investment than investing in yourself.