Avoid the Struggle Bus

One of the hardest lessons I have ever learned in the weight room is to avoid the “struggle bus”.

Meaning, to NOT push every exercise to a 10 out of 10 on the challenge level.

It is just so counterintuitive to think that you can get in better shape by NOT working as hard.

Here’s the thing – practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.

And with strength training (a skill) the lesson is no different.

By the very definition of pushing an exercise to a 10 out of 10 effort, we WILL struggle; otherwise, it isn’t a 10 out of 10…And, when we struggle, we use a poor technique which doesn’t allow us to make long-term progress.

The best way of understanding this is to think of compounding interest.

Imagine, would you rather double a penny every day for 30 days, or receive $10,000 every day for 30 days?

Most would choose to receive the $10,000 every day, the equivalent of going 10 out of 10 effort on all exercises.

They would be wrong.

Here is how that scenario works out:

Days 1 – 25 of receiving $10,000/day would leave you with $250,000.

Days 1 – 25 of doubling a penny every day would leave you with $167,772.16.

Here, in the shorter term, taking the $10k and going for 10 out of 10 effort wins big time.

But check this out.

Days 26 – 30 of receiving $10,000/day leaves you with $300,000. Not bad by the way, but.

Days 26 – 30 of doubling a penny every day leaves you with $5,368,709.12. EXPONENTIALLY MORE!!!!!

Same thing in fitness.

Making slow and steady progress with a 7 or 8 out of 10 effort and PERFECT technique will leave you with EXPONENTIALLY better results in a year. As opposed to the person who goes for 10 out of 10 effort up front, struggles to get through all of their exercises, does well, but ultimately falls behind.

Again, it is really hard for me to wrap my head around this concept until I hired myself a coach who instructed me to take a lot of weight off the bar. But, I trusted him and the process, executed it, and in a year’s time was stronger than I had ever been in my life.

Stay patient.

Avoid the struggle bus.

Can’t lose.

Nate

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Train With Me From Anywhere

If you can’t make it to my facility in Austin, you can still train with the best!

We can train you on Zoom, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, or almost any video software that you prefer.

This is exactly like personal training, but it’s anywhere you need it to be, and it’s even more affordable. If you are interested in my world-class, anytime & anywhere program, reply with ‘online’ and I’ll get you all the details.

2. Come in for a Custom Success Session

We’ll sit down together and discuss your goals, simple steps you can take to achieve them, and see if there is anything else I can do to help you get the results you want quickly.

If you’d be interested in a Success Session, just reply and put “Success” in the subject line and I’ll follow up with you.

3. Enjoy a Week of Personal Training for $1

Sometimes a coach and a community of like-minded people is just what you need to get motivated and work on becoming your best self.

I have a personal training studio in central Austin, Texas.

Come test drive it for just $1 to see if we’re a good fit. Just respond to this email with “$1” in the subject line and I’ll get back to you with details.