Secret to Success
One of the biggest questions athletes have when they come to us for coaching is how can I get faster and stronger? The answer is simple but the process is deep.
Success revolves around many moving parts. It is how those parts move together in harmony and “consistency” that we begin to see success.
My number one piece of advice for this question whether I am coaching the person or not is CONSISTENCY. In my opinion and experience without consistency you will never see the success you want to have.
WHAT IS CONSISTENCY?
So what is consistency. Let’s take the example of a single sport athlete, a runner, since most of us can relate to that sport. This particular athlete has been training for a few months and seeing some growth in endurance and speed but not what they are hoping for. So why is that? It revolves around consistency.
Week 1 the athlete gets his/her 3 training runs in, a couple of yoga and strength sessions and does well at fueling each day and getting adequate sleep.
Week 2 the athlete only gets 2 training runs in, skips yoga and strength and falters a bit on the sleep and fueling.
Week 3 the athlete gets 1 training run in and 1 strength session in. Because they have missed workouts the athlete feels they need to do more so they do a large workout on the weekend to “make up” what they have missed.
Week 4 the athlete gets 2 runs in, 1 strength session and no yoga, sleep and nutrition are poor.
Here are some key points I want you to focus in on.
You can not “MAKE UP” a workout. No matter how much you want to or think you can, you can not make up a workout. Most athletes try to do this with doing too much and sacrificing quantity for quality and getting injured over time. If you have ever had this happen “ I have not worked out much this week, I’ll do a really long run slowly to make up for what I missed.” STOP. Your leading yourself to injury and your not going to have the success you want with building your endurance, your foundation for a lifestyle change.
While the athlete is performing workouts each week, in their minds they feel they are being consistent because something is taking place each week. The problem is the weeks are not consistent. Now had these athletes consistently ran 3x a week, kept up with sleep, nutrition, yoga, and strength training for those 4 weeks they would be at a much higher level fitness wise because there is more consistency day after day and week after week. There is more quality in their sessions each week.
This was my issue when I first started over 10 years ago. I could not understand why I was not getting better at running. I was running each week and strength training but it was not consistent week after week.
Sometimes I ran 4x a week, the next week is was 2 days, then back to 3 or 5 days a week. Some days I made time for strength training and nutrition and some days I did. While I was doing something each week workout wise it was not in a consistent manner. This was the big reason I was not successful. It was the reason I had a hard time developing fitness. It was not a consistent effort and focus week after week.
If this sounds familiar to you focus on being consistent. Day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Those that are consistent across all platforms; running, strength training, nutrition, sleep, yoga, recovery. Only when we are consistent across all platforms week after week, month after month, year after year will we truly begin to see success.
There are many moving parts, in my opinion and experience to consistency. Some of those include goal setting, performance and process goals, quality vs quantity, patience, sacrifice and a host of others but that will be for another post.
So the questions I leave you with after reading this is; Take a look at your goals. Do you have any? Are they clear or generic? Are you consistent each week across all platforms or is it lacking in quality.
