I’m going to keep this short because I’m about to hop on the phone with someone to talk about running 100 miles.
Like most people, I answer the same questions every week at my job.
One of the questions I get asked most often?
“Shouldn’t I be doing more?”
And it’s fair.
Our entire culture is built around the notion that we’re not doing enough.
The idea that if we want to find success, we have to completely bury ourselves in work until we can’t even see daylight.
And the fitness industry is especially guilty of this.
I talk to people all the time who are brand new to the gym…
Who haven’t done any form of exercise in years…
And yet when I ask them how often they think they’re going to come in, they tell me, “I’m think I can do five days a week.”
They’re always surprised when I say, “How about you start with two…”
Same with runners.
People sign up for a race and immediately think they have to be running every day of the week or putting in long, five-hour runs on Saturdays…
Even if they’ve only been running two days a week for the past three months.
It’s even more common with people in pain.
Someone gets plantar fasciitis and they buy about twelve different gadgets and immediately begin an hour-long stretching regimen and nine million calf raises… daily…
Then they wonder why it keeps getting worse.
Most of the time, we don’t need to do as much as we think we do in order to make progress.
We hear about all these professionals running over 100 miles per week and we think it’s necessary to see results.
It isn’t.
For most of us, we could make progress towards our goals on a third of that volume.
Same with the gym.
People see these fitness influencers and professional bodybuilders lifting 5-6x per week and think that’s what it takes to hit their goals.
It doesn’t.
I mean, that’s what it takes to become a 300-pound wall of meat and step on stage nearly naked…
But that’s just not what most people want.
And when you get injured, I realize that you want to do something… anything… to make it feel better.
But hammering the shit out of inflamed tissue probably isn’t the answer.
You also have to let it rest.
And even in situations where we really do need to train a lot – say you’re training for a 100-miler – you still need to progressively build a base.
You can’t just go from 15 miles per week to 50, unless you really enjoy being injured.
We all want everything so fast.
Myself included.
Problem is, that’s just not how it happens.
It takes time.
In the movies, you get to skip all of that and just watch a training montage.
But when you’re doing it yourself, you don’t get to do the cutscene thing.
You actually have to put in the time.
And honestly, it can be kinda boring.
Whether you’re learning to squat or going through rehab or building a running base…
It’s just not all that interesting.
But you have to go through that part if you want the progress.
You just have to add a little more weight or a couple more miles every week until you’ve safely built to a level of difficulty that might help create some real changes.
For some people, it will happen faster – be it a gift of genetics or a long training background.
For others, it can take a while…
But if you try to rush it, you’re just gonna get hurt.
These things take the time they take and the first step is consistency.
Just keep doing the thing and adding a little more every week.
You’ll get there.
And if you need someone to tell you that you probably need to do less, I’m happy to be that person. Let’s chat.