Every Rep Counts!

One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve battled in my life is the notion that physical training has to be an all or nothing endeavor.  If it was lifting weights, I had to lift weights 6 days a week for at least 1 hour per day.  If it was running, I had to run for an hour every day.  If it was martial arts, I had to be able to train 5 days a week.  In the past, the immediate urge to get better has often been my worst enemy because the all or nothing mentality that comes with that urge, always leads to burnout.  For a litany of reasons this mentality has never produced significant gains in physical ability, which of course, is the primary point of these endeavors.  

Today my mentality has shifted.  Whenever I meet a potential new member at the MMA gym where I’ve been training for over 3 years, one of the pieces of advice I am always giving, whether young or old, is every rep counts.  I give people a spiel that sounds something like this:

“I’m going to tell you something and you’re not going to listen to me, but I’m going to tell you anyway.  Even if you only make it to class once a week, at the end of the year, you’ve come to the gym 52 times.  Each time you will be fully recovered from the last workout and that initial pace leaves you plenty of room and energy to manage all the responsibilities you have outside of the gym like work, family, etc.  Also, it gives you time to start making adjustments in your diet that will support your efforts.  Even if it’s just once a week, that time and those reps, count!  They add up!  They keep you on the path to getting better.”

Most people will understand my advice but they’ll go all or nothing instead.  Why?  Martial Arts Training can be addictive, you train with people who are incredibly skilled, and you want to improve quickly because you’re tired of getting your ass kicked.  So what do people do?  They come 4-5 times a week when they first start training.  Some people, sometimes twice a day.  In that time they may get injured and their diet may actually get worse.  Eventually, they stop training and I don’t see them for months sometimes.  Then when they come back, it’s almost like starting from scratch, if they come back at all.

I get it.  I did the same thing while in the Army.  While stationed in North Carolina going through the Special Forces Qualification Course, I got into boxing at a local gym.  I thought I had to be able to train 4-5 days a week or it wasn’t worth the effort.  I tried to get in daily, Monday through Friday, on top of my military training.  I lasted 2 weeks and I was done.  My body and mind were worn out.  Had I understood then what I understand now and committed to going once a week, my boxing skills would be otherworldly by now.  That was 15 years ago in 2009.  Once a week for 15 years with 8 weeks off per year, comes out to 660 training sessions.  Am I going to be vastly improved after 660 training sessions?  My gut feeling says ‘yes’.

I made the same mistake with both Crossfit and MMA after I left the military.  Now, I’m constantly reminding myself that improving in Martial Arts is a lifelong process.  Part of accelerating that process is learning to avoid burnout and being patient with my rate of improvement.  

We should extrapolate this concept to any part of life we are trying to improve!   

I once heard someone say that we overestimate what we can do in a year and we underestimate what we can do in a decade.  We have to understand that our capacities are limited.  Therefore, changes we want to initiate have to be taken incrementally.  And every one of those small steps taken with intention, counts!

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