“The perfect program performed without intensity or consistency will lose to an imperfect program delivered with intent and frequency…” – Alwyn Cosgrove
This may sound like a harsh truth to those seeking “the right program” to deliver the results they’ve always wanted from their training, but we’ve witnessed time and again that athletes who show up regularly, and put in the work can achieve far better outcomes from mediocre program design than those who sporadically train with low to moderate effort on expertly crafted programs. Simply put, with infrequent and low-intensity exposures to a stimulus, the human body’s adaptive resources are not provoked to drive any significant physiological change, no matter how “good” that stimulus is. A stellar program based on 3 moderate intensity training days per week for 6 weeks will not work at all if a trainee choses to protract the timeframe to become one low-intensity training day per week for 18 weeks! On the other hand, a daily exercise regimen at low to moderate intensity levels will produce some changes even if it is haphazard.
“But when you get a great program, motivated athletes, training hard consistently, (and maybe a half decent coach) – it’s like magic happens!” – Alwyn Cosgrove (cont.)
Last week at Breakthrough we got to see some of that magic happen! Our In-House Powerlifting Meet was last Saturday and all day long we got to see the proof that there is indeed a simple formula for success:
Consistency + Intensity + Time = Magic!
It was a day filled with laughter, camaraderie and fun, and in the midst of it all our athletes achieved a whole slew of new personal records. So, how did they avoid any serious setbacks and realize those amazing results? Well, it would get a lot of clicks to say that we’d found the “hack” that somehow switched on lean muscle production but the truth isn’t nearly as dramatic. Over the 6 weeks leading up to the day of competition, our team trained consistently for 2-5 days per week, at a level of intensity that mostly ranged from moderate to high (and occasionally low). Yes, the program we use is battle-tested and proven effective, but it’s the consistency and effort of the athletes that produces most of their success.
For many of us, we hear consistency defined as 2-5 training days per week and it immediately sounds daunting. But consider this; with 8 hours of sleep per day, and a 9-hour work day for 5 days of the week, committing even 3 hours to training still amounts to less than 4% of the remaining hours in our week! I hope most of us can agree that the benefits achievable for investing less than 4% of our non-working (or sleeping) hours each week on training are quite astounding by comparison to the time. When we also consider that the average intensity level required to achieve our desired training result is about 73% (well below a maximal effort), it’s safe to say that we don’t have to “suffer” during those training hours, we just need to practice with intention, at a moderate to somewhat high level of effort most of the time.
“Sure there are lots of ways to get fit and strong, but only a handful of them are actually any good.” – Experienced coaches and program designers everywhere.
There are indeed lots of different ways to get a body to become stronger and more fit but if you look at an average sampling of the most productive training cycles, a recurring pattern emerges. Optimal results are usually obtained from exposure to the stimulus an average of 3 days a week, with multiple instances of the same “big bang for your buck” exercises (ie. avoiding random acts of variety). And much to everyone’s surprise and chagrin, hitting a plateau or “getting bored” is no justification for switching out the winning system! When players at the top of their game are asked how they changed up their training to get a peak performance, they usually credit simplifying their programming and a renewed focus on perfecting the basics. Starting up a gimmicky new training regimen using a wildly different paradigm is actually the easy way out; it gives a false sense of immediate progress because it’s not difficult to make initial improvements on something totally new just because it has never been tried before, it’s entertaining, and athletes tend to love anything that makes a body feel sore. But the real question is, does the new novelty training actually bring them any closer to achieving their goal, or are they just going to switch it up again when the longterm results are insignificant and it is no longer an entertaining distraction?
It’s unfortunate that for most hard-working folks in our modern-day instant gratification world, the idea of practicing the same skills 2-5 days a week for months and even years on end might sound tedious at best and outright boring at worst. It’s unfortunate because here’s what is not boring; amazing results! Our inspiring Breakthrough members know all about this experience from participating in things like Powerlifting meets, Tactical Strength Challenges, Adventure Team outings, etc. By continually investing in themselves and prioritizing health and longevity, the desired results are not only predictably obtained, they often exceed their own expectations! Are there sets that they just want to cut sometimes? Are there days when they aren’t as motivated to train? Guilty on all accounts. But they come to the gym consistently anyway and avoid giving in to temptation – and that’s their simple secret. By staying the course and sticking with a regular training schedule consisting mostly of the same high-value exercises, they are able to hit a target with confidence when the test day arrives.
If we can all agree that physical training is worth doing, then it’s worth doing it properly, multiple times per week, whether it’s still the most entertaining activity in our day or not. The results will soon overtake any doubts that we have, provided we can just hang in there long enough for them to bear fruit. And seeing those smiling faces in our gym last Saturday revealed once again just now sweet that fruit really is! So whether it’s hesitation about getting started with training or just struggling to feel motivated to get to the next session, we must remember the first and most important of our training principles; “Continuity of the Training Process.” Showing up and putting in the effort on the regular. Without it, magic is pretty hard to come by.