“Just do something.”
It’s a common piece of advice that I see in pretty much every industry.
Admittedly, it’s well-intentioned.
It’s an effort to get people to take that first step – to get moving and try to create some positive habits.
While that’s great, I also think we can do a little better.
A lot of the time, when people “just do something” and take that first step, they start heading in the wrong direction.
Which, to be fair, is a valuable learning experience.
Figuring out what not to do can eventually help you find what will ultimately be helpful.
We also have to accept that any difficult process is going to take some trial and error.
Whatever path you take, you will almost certainly make mistakes and have to reroute.
Yet if you want to go north, we probably don’t want to start by heading south – because that requires you to completely turn around and retrace your steps.
We’d probably be a lot happier if we instead started going Northeast.
Sure, you still have to redirect a bit, but your progress is still generally in the correct direction.
Far too often, I see people start towards a goal with things that aren’t remotely helpful.
For example, using a low-carb diet to try to get faster.
It’s not that popular anymore (thankfully), but for years people were trying to improve their performance by becoming more “fat adapted.”
Which just isn’t how the body works.
Aside from some specific health issues in specific people, carbs help you move faster.
And while I don’t think most people need to get anywhere close to the 150+ grams per hour that professional cyclists are currently using…
We should still be trying to push carbs if performance is actually the goal.
Same thing with exercise selection.
A lot of people try to “fix their low back pain” with exercises that don’t really do anything for their low back.
For example, a superman isn’t really targeting the “problem” muscles in your lower back.
Sure, you’ll definitely feel it there, but that’s just a side-effect of where other muscles attach.
Most of the muscles that are typically responsible for helping low back pain can’t actually create force.
They just respond to load.
So, in order to make them stronger, you need to put yourself in a position where those muscles have to respond and keep you stable.
Like a Romanian deadlift.
Or a bent-over row.
And if you don’t know this, it can be really easy to start heading down the wrong path.
“Just do something” is well-intentioned advice, and a lot of the time, it can help a lot of people.
But just a little bit of direction can help you make sure that “something” is actually helping you achieve what you want to achieve.
If you want to make progress and aren’t sure where to start, send me a message.
I’m here to help.