Master the Mundane

Those who are able to master the mundane are the ones who will be the most successful.

We are constantly looking for new and exciting ways to lift more in the gym, to be faster on the field, to be leaner than the week before. We are obsessed with the latest gadgets and toys to take us from A to B, we'll take steroids and other performance enhancers without even thinking about the consequences, and we'll follow diets that make absolutely no sense at all because they look good online or some famous social media personality promoted it one time. They give us the 'quick fix' or 'magic pill' we're so desperately after.

What's interesting though is that the top performers in their field rarely use fancy toys or quick fixes. They are the greatest because they have mastered the mundane. They have become obsessed with mastering the most boring tasks, the activities that no one wants to post about or talk about. They sleep 7-9 hours every night. They eat the right food. They train consistently and with intensity. They take their supplements. They rarely drink. They don't smoke. They recover. They do all of the things we all know we should be doing, but don't because they take effort, time and commitment.

As a coach, we get asked time and time again "what supplements should I be taking", "what training program is the best", "how much creatine should I take", "what protein is the best", and the list just goes on and on. There's no point entering into a conversation about these topics when you can't even drink enough water throughout the day, you don't eat anywhere near enough protein or food in general, you don't train consistently or with intensity, you stay up all night on Snapchat or whatever the latest trend is. You have not earned the right to ask these questions unless you have mastered the mundane.

We all want to be the best, but we're not all willing to do what it takes to achieve this.

Master the Mundane and you will be ahead of the pack every time.

Flexibility v Mobility + Consistency Over Intensity

 Flexibility vs Mobility

This explanation about the difference between flexibility and mobility from Chris Sommer was very good and to the point.

“Flexibility” can be passive, whereas “mobility” requires that you can demonstrate strength throughout the entire range of motion, including the end ranges.”

I find a lot of people say they have to work on their flexibility, which is true a fair amount of the time, but long term what they need is to increase their mobility. After a few weeks of stretching and gaining some flexibility I find they have to get stronger at those end ranges as mentioned above. People tend to over-do the flexibility and neglect the mobility in certain sports. There is an optimal level of flexibility needed for each sport, not a maximal level. Charles Poliquin taught me this a long time ago. For example, a rugby league player needs to be flexible but he doesn’t have to be as flexible as a gymnast.

Related article:

Will strength training affect my flexibility?

Consistency Over Intensity

Chris also has a good saying to remind athletes that adaptation takes time. He says “Slow down. Where’s the fire?” Adaptations from training can take weeks or months of consistent work. Gains don’t come linearly. You may see next to no progress for a while and then all of a sudden your strength seems to go through the roof all of a sudden or you pick up a skill you had been working on for a long time. It is like something just clicks. Sometimes you just have to be patient.

If you rush you increase your risk of injury. You want to coax the body into building strength or muscle mass not force it. So from one workout to the next we may only increase the load by 1kg but it doesn’t matter you are still adapting and making your way towards your goal. By doing this consistently you can maintain technique and eventually you will have increased the load significantly. If you add 5kg to the bar each workout it will not take very long before you are grinding reps, hitting a plateau, and injuring yourself.

Ed Coan spoke of this at great length in a seminar when talking about longevity in powerlifting. It also applies to other sports. Basically what he said was you can have a long career through making gradual progress from session to session and comp to comp or you can go crazy, train 3 times a day, get really quick results, but only have a short career because you have ruined your body and can’t do your sport anymore.

Must Have's for Performance

April 6, 2016

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Nathan Waters

There are thousands of things you can do to increase your performance in life or in the sporting arena. The problem is many of us get confused on what to do or choose an advanced method before we even have the basics dialled in. Here are some things I think you need to have to reach world class performance:

• You have to constantly and consistently work towards progress. It doesn’t matter if it is in the gym or at work, you have to try and be better than you were the day before. This could mean increasing the weight on the bar, doing an extra rep or an extra set, or increasing the amount of work you do in a given time frame. It sounds simple but this is what it is all about. Too often you see people lift the same weight, for the same amount of reps, day in and day out. They are just spinning their wheels. Don’t just go through the motions.
• Get your nutrition in check. If you eat crappy foods you will not perform optimally. If you have brain fog at work and can’t think properly you won’t be able to be at your best and won’t reach your potential. In the end this could cost you a promotion or you may miss opportunities to make good money. If your goal is putting on muscle mass then you have to eat like it is a training session. You can’t grow by dreaming about it, you have to actual do something. Don’t complain if you aren’t growing and you are only eating 2 meals a day.
• When things get tough you have to be able, and willing to push through uncomfortable situations. To increase performance in any field you have to be mentally strong. Anyone who is the best in the world in their field has this quality. Nothing stops them from achieving their goal. They train around injuries and they are willing to do what others won’t do, they push themselves past the point of comfortable.
• You have to be passionate about what you do. Reaching the top requires hard work for years. Without passion it is unlikely you will stick in there long enough to see the ultimate result of your efforts.
• You can’t have any excuses. If you want something bad enough you will find a way. Your job getting in the way, lack of money, or poor genetics for example are no reason why you can’t succeed. If you truly want something you’ll find a way to get it done. If not, did you really want it or was it just a nice thought?

Tags:

Attitude

desire

motivation