Want to know the secret to lasting success as an athlete?
“Do a lot of consistent work over a long period of time.”
That’s it.
It’s not about supplements or morning routines or even secret training regimens.
You just have to do a lot of consistent work over a long period of time.
And honestly, that “secret” is why the fitness industry is so messed up.
For one, almost nobody wants to hear that.
Nobody wants to hear that the secret to getting faster is just years of difficult speed work.
Why?
Because it kinda sucks.
Now, if you’re a particular kind of human, you might find the rewards of endorphins and results to be worth the trade, but speed work is unpleasant by definition.
If you find speed work easy, it’s probably not doing very much to make you faster.
Which I recognize kinda sucks.
It’s also a boring message to keep repeating over and over and over again.
Some fitness podcasters record hours of content every week.
How many times can they possibly say the same thing?
Turns out, a lot… but it’s still not enough to fill the constant stream of content we all seem to demand on a weekly basis.
So instead, they start talking about strange, fringe methods and supplements in order to fill airtime.
Know what’s boring to listen to for most people?
Someone talking about adding five pounds to their squat, every week, for six months in a row.
Know what’s interesting?
Some mystical berry out of Tanzania that will apparently make you strong enough to lift a car just by taking it every morning with your coffee.
Unfortunately, that berry isn’t real.
There’s only one study on that berry, and it was funded by the company that sells it and they designed that study to get a very specific result that seems like magic… and your favorite podcaster is more than willing to take a paycheck from that company to say that it is indeed magic.
Partially because that’s how you make money in fitness – supplements.
But they also just don’t have enough to say to fill the airtime we expect them to fill.
Getting stronger and faster isn’t magic.
Yes, there are better ways to do it.
Ways that will provide slightly faster results while reducing your risk for silly injuries.
But the biggest factor to success is just doing a lot of difficult work over a very long period of time.
And unfortunately, that feels like a “secret” because most people are more than willing to sell you results in a bottle.
Hope you have a great weekend.
I’ll be crewing someone at the Bear 100 – so I’ll be doing a lot of hurry up and wait while someone else works very hard… for a very long period of time.