Consistency: the key to successful training
MAX KING: the man, the myth, the legend. As the most adaptable pro runner I’ve ever met, he’s won races across the globe at every distance from the 5K, to the Steeplechase, to Ultras. And he RIPS on skis too. You don’t earn all that without being consistent at everything you do. Be consistent like Max.
There’s a LOT of noise out there
Do this workout. Never do that workout. The 3 moves every athlete must do! The foods to avoid. The best stretch for you! Reality Check: sensationalism + headlines don’t win. A solid strategy does. It’s simple really. Any successful person, athlete, student, patient, adheres to one strategy: prepare for the task at hand.
In my 20 years of working with athletes, I’ve seen a different “headline” play out over and over again. The athletes that fail typically DON’T prepare their body for the stresses they’ll face.
Most people BACK-LOAD their body care. They neglect their body, freak out when it has niggles, and stress about not being able to recover when they never gave their body proactive help. How about a different strategy? Let's FRONT-LOAD your approach to your body and build better SKILL and TISSUE CAPACITY.
Move Smart to Build Skill
Exercise & sport aren’t just about raising your heart rate; it’s about building skilled control within your body. The desk jockey spending 9 hours a day hunched over a laptop is still the same person with poor posture awareness running with their heart rate pegged at 185 bpm later that night. If that same person shows up without proper foot and hip control, they turn into a wobbly mess. If you train with garbage movement you practice and reinforce garbage mechanics. Blasting your heart rate won’t fix poor control. Stop the madness.
Step back. Take action. Make time each week to find & FEEL better position to build skill. That way, when that heart rate hits 185, you know how you are supposed to feel and move more efficiently.
Exercise & sport aren’t just about raising your heart rate; it’s about building skilled control within your body. The desk jockey spending 9 hours a day hunched over a laptop is still the same person with poor posture awareness running with their heart rate pegged at 185 bpm later that night. If that same person shows up without proper foot and hip control, they turn into a wobbly mess. If you train with garbage movement you practice and reinforce garbage mechanics. Blasting your heart rate won’t fix poor control. Stop the madness.
Step back. Take action. Make time each week to find & FEEL better position to build skill. That way, when that heart rate hits 185, you know how you are supposed to feel and move more efficiently.
Training to Build Tissue Capacity
Tissue what? Let’s keep this simple. Every time you step, cut, leap, jump, pop, and carve you place stress on the tissues within your body. Your muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and soft tissues are the ones dealing with all the stress that your brain is driving. That load has to go somewhere. And yes, it’s true that exposure to stress over and over again can build up the tissues within your body and make them more resilient.
But you know what works even better? TARGETED training to build better and stronger parts. If you direct specific loads to your body parts, you get specific adaptation: better, stronger, and more resilient parts! They can tolerate more load before breaking down, and then can put out more force for better performance. It’s a total win.
A Plan for Success
A solid plan doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be consistent, and it does have to “cover all the bases”. This means you need to train a variety of things often. SO, I’m going to give you a challenge. Below is a blank 4 week calendar. I’d like you to write in the 3-5 days a week that you are going to work on improving your body. No need for a 45-60 min training session. I want to see you carve out 10-15 min 3-5x a week for a month. I guarantee you’ll feel amazing and move better, especially with holiday temptations coming up. Having a plan keeps you accountable.
What do you fill it with? From the MOBO side, we’ve got 30+ moves on our website. If you’d like a follow along workout style, then check out: Posture Matters, Happy Hips, Strong Knees, & Foot Focus. If you want more, check out two videos that I made for my book, Running Rewired (Workout #1 and Workout #2). Learning new skills is challenging, both in your brain and in your body. Solid preparation will pay off in spades in the long term.
At the end of this month, look back at this calendar. If you only have one stability or strength logged, don’t expect much. But if you see 3+ marks on this calendar each week, there’s a good chance you don’t just feel proud of your calendar, you likely feel pretty proud of the body you’ve built too!