Big Things and Little Things
By Gus
Most people don’t even do the big things. But everyone that’s come into my gym has had some worry about at least one of the little things.
Big Things
- Train to get Stronger
- Have a physical activity for fun (a sport, hiking, martial arts, gardening… whatever your thing is)
- Sleep enough
- Eat enough fruits and vegetables
- Eat appropriate amount of food overall
- Deepen your family and social relationships
You can pick one of these and perform/improve/invest in it today. And you can do that every day of your life.
Little Things
- Supplements
- Meal timing
- Complex training programming
- Testing and re-testing VO2 max
- Ice baths
We can go on and on. It’s not that these things wouldn’t have some value. But…
- They won’t have the value unless you’re already doing the Big Things along with them. Example: What time you eat won’t matter if you still eat poor quality and inappropriate quantity of food.
- They’ll have marginal improvements in performance. A high-level athlete would get some value of a supplement with a 1% improvement on their performance but most will not. You turning your 6 minute mile into 5:56 won’t change your life in any meaningful way. Turning a 3:58 mile into 3:55 would warrant making something part of the everyday routine for an NCAA athlete.
Start Where You Are
If you’re reading this you might be looking to make a change in your fitness. Give yourself an honest consideration, and make sure you have the big things before you give any time to the little things.
