My son, who has been lifting weights regularly, has a 12 week cycle. 12 weeks of doing the same exercises in the same order before you switch.
He told me that there’s some science that says that the first 8 weeks of improvements are just your body getting used to doing these movements— muscles firing more in conjunction, tendons adjusting —and meaningful change in strength at the level of muscle fibers only happens in the last 4 weeks.
It’s a useful metaphor for all changes: the first steps in the process are just getting used to doing the new thing. I don’t need to be stronger or faster to improve, I just need to spend regular time in the activity, and all my existing abilities will come together more effectively to produce a better output.
So if I’m trying to run more, I just need to run more, even if that’s a tiny bit every day. The every day is what matters the most, much more than effort or time or the perfect coaching.
Consistency –> New habits –> Reordering of our internal systems –> Improvement
The amount of “improving” we need to do is less than we think and easier to achieve than it appears.
We just have to remember to form new habits, and it all starts with the mantra:
That thing that’s terribly hard for me today will be easier for me tomorrow if I just do it today.
