It’s Monday, 7:32am, at the local gym.  An athlete, call him Helley, who is a new member hovers around lifting various dumbbells, bench presses from a heavy bar, takes a few sets on 3 different machines, runs 7 minutes on a treadmill and crunches his abs on the mat in the stretching area.  Altogether, it’s an energetic 54-minute workout.  He would make it to the gym twice in two weeks, witness minimal positive changes in body composition and pay $425 in gyms fees this quarter.

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Meanwhile, another athlete of the same gym, call him Fokey, spends 32-minutes in the same weight room on the same day.  He warms up with a set of bench press, dips and plank.  Half of his workout is spent on bench press with plank in between sets and the second half is spent on dips with body squats in between sets.  Then he runs on a treadmill for 20-minutes followed by a few stretch/mobility movements while recording ‘chest/tri’ in his journal.  He would make it back to the gym six times in two weeks, lose 2-inches of waistline and notice a 6-pound muscle gain this year.  He’ll pay the same $425 in gym fees this quarter.

 

Both athletes consider themselves healthy and have an identity of going to the gym. Credit to both of them, they are working out!  Problem is: only one will be happy with his results.

 

There is one main difference between these two athletes: the right commitment.  Helley the helicopter thinks he has something he doesn’t, while Fokey is focused.  What Helley doesn’t yet understand that Fokey does, is that being 100% committed to working only 2-3 specific muscle groups in one workout allows him to get better results. 

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Why?

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• One: he fully tears and rebuilds muscles fibers each workout

              (instead of only partially working more muscle groups).

 

• Two: he’s not demolished by exhausting his whole body each gym session. This means that each repairing muscle group has more days in between workouts and he shows up again with fewer days rest.  The overall cumulative work doesn’t ruin his body’s total capacity to repair, resulting in better stress management, recovery and immunity.

 

More simply, he fully commits to less with each trip to the gym, instead of half-committing to too many moves.

It is easy in life to over-commit to too many different events, which results in under-committing overall.  In terms of accomplishment, we may be better off fully committing to fewer items and crushing them, rather than expanding to a wider portfolio.

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Don’t get sick. Under-commit to number, over-commit to quality.

Are there items in your portfolio you should sacrifice?

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