12 days of fitness, Day 8

The 80/20 Rule and the 3-Exercise Workout

The 80/20 principle suggests that we can often get 80% of the benefits from just 20 percent of our efforts.

Do you want to know what that high-leverage 20% is in your fitness routine?

It’s three exercises: Leg Press, Chest Press, and Pull Down.

These “Big 3” are an ultra-efficient way to exercise and strengthen the majority of your body.

What’s even better is that by focusing on just these three exercises–and really mastering them–the increase in your workout productivity can quickly rise above 80% to exceed 100% of what you might otherwise be able to achieve.

Many of my personal workouts are just these three exercises. And let me tell you, I’m totally spent afterward. I have no doubt I get a better overall workout than I used to get in 45 minutes with a conventional routine.

So, what can you do with this information? I suggest this: make the “Big 3” the core of your workout routine. Whatever else you might do, make the most of these exercises, every workout. Do only these three at least sometimes; so you’re not distracted by anything else, nor holding back to conserve energy for a longer workout.

While these are basic, straight-forward exercises, there is a lot of subtlety and room for endless improvement if you decide to go on the journey to master the and “milk” everything you can from them. I’ve found that journey to be incredibly valuable, and I invite you to take the same journey. Get excited about mastering these. It’s worth it!

Oh, and while I named exercises that require equipment, you can approximate these with no equipment: a wall sit, push ups, and chin ups. Or, variants of push ups and chin ups can be done as isometrics for people of virtually any age and any strength level.

Don’t be stopped by the “tried that” delusion.

I’ve seen many people dabble in and discard one diet and workout program after another. It’s easy to say everything failed to work. Now, this can indicate a huge problem…but it’s a problem that’s easy to solve once you know how.

Whenever you think: “I tried that and it didn’t work,” do you actually mean: “I implemented it 100% and proved that it doesn’t work”? Or, do you sometimes mean, “I dabbled with that approach, but never did it fully enough to know whether it worked”?

Real failure helps you course-correct; it tells you what not to do. BUT there’s real failure, and then there’s “fool’s failure.” Fool’s failure happens when you conclude that an action failed after never really taking that action. The “tried that” delusion is fool’s failure.

Now, this is an easy thinking error to make, because there’s a sense in which the action didn’t work–you didn’t get the desired result. But if you didn’t fully take the action, how will you ever know if that action works?

If you’re deluding yourself into thinking you’ve taken the actions when you haven’t, this can create an endless vicious cycle of seeking ever new advice, books, experts, programs, etc.

We’ve probably all made this mistake before…I sure have. But I don’t want you do be caught in this trap any more.

So, keep these two issues clear and separate:

1. Does a course of action work in reality to achieve your goals?

2. Are you fully taking the actions that are part of your plan?

If the issue is the latter, looking for a new plan of action will probably not solve your problem. Instead, look for solutions to the problem of not taking actions you’ve identified you want to take. There are various reasons why you might not be taking the actions, and solutions to these do exist. But you won’t find those solutions by looking for a new answer to issue #1.

Quick Recap:

Keep on alert for the red flags of the “tried that” delusion, of “fool’s failure,” and of conflating whether a plan works with whether you took action.

When you notice this problem, here is the solution:

1. Separate the two issues above.

2. Address each issue as needed.

The better you do this, the more I think you’ll find that both your failures and successes will lead you forward–towards your goals.

Now, I don’t want you to be confused that I think the *only* important thing is to take action. Some people say that ANY diet and ANY workout routine will work as long as you do it consistently. They say the only issue is the need to do *something* consistently. I strongly disagree with that. Reality, not our intentions, determines what works. Some approaches work far better than others. And some approaches are downright counterproductive.

In addition to avoiding the “tried that” delusion, I think it’s necessary to put effort into determining what actions are best to take to achieve your goals. And it’s important to observe the feedback your get from the actions you take (i.e., did they actually fail?)–and adjust your strategy accordingly.

To health and life,
Chad

The difference between “outcome goals” and “action goals” can make or break your resolution.

Let’s start with an example: imagine you want to lose 15 lbs., get stronger, and see muscle definition.

Here are the two different types of goals you might set:

a. I’m going to lose 15 lbs in the next 3 months.

b. I’m going to go to the gym at 7:30 am, 2 times a week, Mondays and Thursdays, for the next 3 months; and I’m going to eat according to dietary principles “z” exclusively for the next 90 days.

Goal “a” is a goal for an outcome, goal “b” is a goal for action.

First, notice that both these goals are specific. A vague version of these goals would be: “I’ll lose weight,” or “I’m going to start going to the gym and eating better.” Being specific makes both these goals better than average.

But there are important differences between “outcome goals” and “action goals.”

You can DO an action goal. Because of this, every day has the potential to be a 100% success–a “win.” You can precisely track and monitor how well you’re doing. Every day you either completed the desired action or you didn’t. This allows you to set up simple and clear accountability processes.

On the other hand, a goal for an outcome requires a potentially unlimited number of unspecified actions. It provides no daily guidance. There’s no obvious way to measure your accountability on a daily basis. And you can only experience success after the entire goal is completed. While you can measure your overall progress toward an outcome goal, e.g., how much weight have you lost so far, you can’t achieve the daily “wins” that come with completing the simple actions that are inherently part of an action goal.

It might sound like it’s automatically better to have action goals instead of outcome goals. But that depends on the situation. Here’s how it works…

When an “outcome goal” is optimal: If you have a track record of consistently achieving this goal in the past, and there’s no question about your ability to do it, then an outcome goal is right for you. A simple example: your goal is to drive to a favorite restaurant for dinner. You know exactly how to get there and you have full confidence that you can do it based on past experience. You can focus on the outcome of where you want to end up–at the restaurant. However, if you’re visiting an unfamiliar town, going to an unfamiliar restaurant, you’ll need turn-by-turn guidance/goals in order to arrive at your destination.

When an “action goal” is needed: If it’s not obvious that you’ll automatically achieve your outcome by simply focusing on the outcome, then you’ll benefit from specific “action goals.” The more difficult and uncertain your task, the more important this is. This was the case in the unfamiliar restaurant example above, and also this is the case for most people’s fitness goals.

As I alluded to above, action goals also lend themselves better to various accountability strategies. The right accountability can dramatically boost your chances of succeeding. If a goal is important to you, this can be critical, but the principles and tactics of accountability strategies is a whole other topic that I won’t get into now. If you’d like me share my thoughts on that topic let me know here.

BUT, action goals cannot exist in isolation…

Action goals serve a larger purpose: your overall desired outcome. When you have action goals taking the actions is your immediate focus, but you must also check in at appropriate intervals to ensure your actions are achieving your overall desired outcome. If not, you need to re-evaluate your strategy. The specific turns you make while driving must take you to the desired restaurant. The exercise and dietary actions must to improve your body in specific ways: like losing that 15 pounds you want to lose.

Questioning your action strategy too often can be detrimental. This can be the “watched pot never boils” syndrome…and can cause you to stop taking actions before they can realistically achieve the desired effect. There’s an art to balancing evaluating and setting overall strategy and focusing on taking the determined actions fully. A systematic approach to balancing this well is something I’ve worked on developing over the years with clients. I’ve found that for most people, a serious “outcome goal” and strategy check-in every three months tends to work well. Between those check-ins, it’s all about action and implementation of the determined strategy.

Getting clear about the difference between actions and outcomes is necessary to avoid what I call the “tried that” delusion.

The “tried that” delusion is something I’ve seen frequently prevent people from ever getting the outcomes they desire–and it’s a simple mental error that you can avoid once you understand it. I’ll explain that tomorrow.

To health and life,
Chad

You can’t achieve your goals unless you do this…

Make your goals as specific as you can.

To the extent you’re not clear about what you want, your chances of achieving any of it go south. Being specific doesn’t guarantee you’ll get there, but it can improve your odds a lot.

So, take your list (you have a list somewhere, right?) and, if these goals are important to you, find a way to be more specific.

When I work with people on clarifying their goals, I find a lot of initial resistance when I ask for more clarity like this. I expect you’ll resist this and not want to do it. But I’ve also seen that once people get beyond that resistance for even a few seconds of hard thinking they benefit immensely almost every time. So set a timer for 2 minutes and see what emerges.

What did you find? Was it easy? Difficult?

Let me know your thoughts, below or here: www.facebook.com/myogenicsfitness

Cheers,
Chad

P.S. Tomorrow I’ll discuss the difference between goals for specific actions and goals for specific outcomes. You might want to ponder this distinction as you do the above.

The minimum effective dose: a 2-minute workout.

What is the minimum effective workout that delivers exercise benefits?

This is an important question; there can be hectic moments in life when you just can’t fit in the routine you originally committed to. Instead of doing nothing, I like to have a fallback for those times: the bare minimum effective dose.

So what is that minimum? It’s one exercise. It takes about 2 minutes. It can be done anywhere, any time with no equipment or special clothing required.

The exercise is: the wall sit. Here’s how it works: you mime sitting on a chair with your back flat against a wall and nothing under you. Your thighs should be parallel to the floor, your knees should be at a 90 degree angle, and your feet should be directly below your knees. It feels easy for 5 or 10 seconds. Then your legs begin to work like crazy.

Your goal is to hold this as long as you can. Most people will last somewhere around 2 minutes, give or take a minute. And by about halfway into it you should notice that you’re getting winded and your legs are tremoring.

This single, non-movement exercise delivers an impressive cardiovascular and muscular workout that involves many of the largest muscles in your body. If you’ve done it before you know what I mean. If you haven’t, pull out your phone, open a stopwatch app, and try it now before you finish reading this. How was it?

I recommend committing to doing a wall sit as a fallback, must-do workout any time all else fails in your schedule and routine.

You can do this anywhere, and you have time to do it if you’ve made it a priority. It takes less time than brushing your teeth.

Did you try it? What do you think? Do you want more advice on how to get the most out of this exercise? Let me know on facebook, here: www.facebook.com/myogenicsfitness

Beware of the performance trap.

We typically expect that as we get in better shape, our workouts will feel easier. We’ll feel stronger, we’ll get less winded, and we’ll be able to last longer. We’ve all experienced it, and that’s the way it works…right?

BUT, there’s a mistake–and a trap–in this thinking that I want to point out.

A quick personal story: when I was running track in college, I was a reasonable runner, but I had never been able to swim well. I always particularly hated treading water–this was exhausting torture to me. So once some water polo players showed up at the track to challenge runners and see who was faster. After one lap of the track the water polo players were exhausted and miserable; they hadn’t even kept up for a short distance. Were they somehow suddenly out of shape at the moment they came to the track? And had I been suddenly out of shape at just the times I went swimming?

What we’re seeing here is that a big part of performance in any activity is due to skill. Improved skill allows you to perform an activity more efficiently. The better your skill, and the better your efficiency, the less energy is required to perform any task: running, swimming, or even cooking.

Being in better shape does help your performance, but the contribution of skill is not a minor issue, but a major one. Dr. Doug McGuff (author of Body by Science) tells the story of being in basic training and watching an overweight, out-of-shape fellow soldier pass a physical fitness test with flying colors–by simply practicing for a handful of times the exact activities they’d be doing during the test. The kicker is that at the same time an extremely fit and active soldier failed the test.

One more example: when I learned to juggle as a boy, I was uncoordinated and had to work hard. I recall dripping with sweat and panting out of breath every day soon after I began to practice. I practiced for days like this–I was determined to get it. Once I got the skill, I could juggle almost effortlessly. Something similar can happen with jogging, hiking, swimming, and almost any activity.

Now, my point here is not to give you a party trick to enable you to appear more in shape than you are by practicing an activity a few times. The point is for you to not fool yourself that you have a great workout going simply because an activity that was initially tough to you has become a lot easier.

The benefits of exercise come from challenging your muscles, not from letting the challenge to your muscles decline as your skill improves. If you think you’re getting exercise benefits from an activity that requires relatively little effort, you might be spending a lot of time fooling yourself.

This raises one reason I love using weight training to exercise: I can easily, precisely control the situation so that I’m always challenging myself. I can challenge myself ever more as I become stronger and more skilled at any exercise.

Remember: the degree of exercise you’re doing is proportional to the degree of challenge you’re experiencing.

Be prepared to face the trap of thinking an improvement in your performance means your workout is more productive. If the effort you’re putting in has decreased, you’re exercising less.

As you look forward to what your exercise routine you’re committing to this year, be sure you’re thinking of exercise, as opposed to simply getting good at a skill…and then practicing that skill with ever diminishing exercise benefits.

What do you think? Let me know on facebook, here: www.facebook.com/myogenicsfitness

Cheers,
Chad

Day 2: Think a little about your goals.

Are the things you want good goals? Will you feel motivated to work to achieve them? Will achieving them actually bring you more happiness and a better life? It’s especially important to think about what you want to be true about your life, and whether the goal you’re setting will actually move you closer to that.

Your initial desires are great places to start when setting goals. But these desires can result in terrible goals to pursue. The wrong goals can lead you away from a better life…even while you assume you’re moving toward it.

One example: some people exercise to be strong and healthy while they lose weight and get into better shape. That’s great. BUT, many people set exercise goals purely to lose weight. There is strong evidence that even high amounts of exercise don’t cause any weight loss over time; only changes in diet do. If this is true, people who focus on exercise as their only weight loss strategy are using the wrong tool for the job. They’re likely to end up frustrated and worse off.

For more thinking about what this means, and what it means specifically for fitness goals, join the conversation on facebook, here: www.facebook.com/myogenicsfitness

Cheers,

Chad

P.S. If a goal of yours happens to be to lose weight, I think education on what works and what doesn’t is a necessary first step. Much of the conventional wisdom we hear about what works doesn’t withstand the scrutiny of science. If you ask on the “Day 2” post on facebook, I’ll be happy to point you to the single book that I think is the current best overview of what the science says about works for weight loss.

Happy New Year!

It’s the first of the year, and I’m finding myself taking stock of where I am and what I want to improve. Perhaps you are, too. I thought I’d share some of my thoughts and maybe hear some of yours.

So I’m calling the first 12 days of January the “12 Days of Fitness,” and I’m planning to write a thought each day that will be brief and helpful. Maybe I’ll throw in some gratuitous pictures of Seth, or answer your pressing questions, too. Let me know what you want.

Day 1: Take stock.

Capture–write down!–the desires you’re feeling for this year. It doesn’t need to be comprehensive or definite. We’ll get to organizing the list, strategizing what to do, and perhaps modifying and purging some of the goals before the end of the 12 days. For now just record your strongest desires on a note on your phone, on a Word doc on your computer, on a piece of paper…whatever is handy.

The transition to a new year often makes us momentarily take a larger perspective on our lives and elevates us from being overwhelmed by the “weeds” of daily existence…and into gaining perspective on the whole forest of our lives. Take advantage of this moment, and note what desires this stirs up within you.

If you want to share any of your thoughts with me and others here, feel free to do so below or on the facebook page: www.facebook.com/myogenicsfitness

I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Cheers,

Chad

Seth is now 9 months old. And I have video of his first foray into fitness coaching…below!

But I also have an insight that came up this week…

I lowered a client’s usual weights by 1/3. She commented right away how light the weights felt. But soon she was working every bit as hard as usual. Afterward, she commented in amazement that it felt just as challenging as always…it just took a bit longer to get there.

The Lesson: it’s not about where you start, it’s about where you finish. And we can deceive ourselves that heavier is harder; it is often easier! Let me explain…

A heavier weight is equally hard as a lighter weight at the end of the set–where it is toughest. They are equal in that you are trying as hard as you can, and you cannot move it. A heavier weight just gets you to this toughest part of the exerciser faster. And then you’re done!

So the difference between a set that lasts 3 minutes and one that lasts 90 seconds is that the 3-minute set includes everything you’d feel during the 90 second set…plus an additional 90 seconds before it. A lighter weight means more work.

Safety note…never use a weight that is too heavy for you to use safely. Make sure you feel no pain of any kind during the exercise, and also that the weight is not so heavy that you cannot continue in the effort for at least 90 seconds. The very reason we lowered my client’s weight by 1/3 was that she was recovering from an outside issue, and it was appropriate to use a lighter load this week.

Now, this all assumes that your exercise technique is excellent. If you have good technique, you can use just about any weight and get a good outcome. Even a weight you cannot move! (An isometric.) If you want to improve your technique, just email me or comment below and say, “I need help!” We can figure it out from there….I’ll gladly help direct you to resources I think will help.

To health and life,

Chad

P.S. Here it is…the video commentary from Seth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSLatZKQuGc
Note: From now on, you must watch this commentary any time you wimp out during a workout!