Rejecting The Importance of Consistency and Moderation

I often shudder when I hear the word "consistent" mentioned in conjunction with athletic goals. I urge that you reject the notion of consistency when it comes to pursuing peak performance goals. Sure, we can be too analytical and debate semantics here, but the important point is this: the body needs a balance of stress and rest to improve. This is one of the fundamental laws of nature and captures the essence of athletic training. Repetition and frequency are important to master any skill, but balance is more important. Without adequate rest, repetition and frequency will get you injured and burnt out.

Along the same lines, you also should challenge the concept of "everything in moderation." As the popular quote often attributed to Mark Twain goes, "Everything in moderation, including moderation." If you want to lose weight, improve athletic performance and delay the inevitable aging process, sometimes you have to take extreme measures. When you push your body with challenging workouts, you stimulate a fitness response in which the body recovers and comes back stronger.

Consider the bodybuilder with eighteen-inch bulging biceps. Did he get his prized guns by consistently doing fifty curls every single day? Hardly. To develop those arms, or to drop 10 pounds of body fat or to build the incredible endurance required to complete in three sports during an Ironman triathlon, you must push yourself extremely hard once in a while. The bodybuilder will focus on the biceps exercises only occasionally with a very intense session. Then, the biceps are rested for several days afterwards, allowing the muscle to repair and grow back stronger.

The endurance athlete mentality is often the opposite of this common sense model. For decades, the focus has been on weekly mileage and maintaining a consistent balance of workouts and mileage for months on end. A runner who maintains a regimen of 25 to 40 miles per week, with a long run one day per week, intervals another day and tempo another day, is the epitome of consistency and mediocrity. The end result of a consistent training schedule is that you get into decent shape and suffer the occasional – or frequent - setback due to injury or illness (from hovering near the edge of overtraining and diminished immune function). You'll probably carry a few (or more than a few) extra pounds, suffer frequent performance plateaus and never experience anything near your true peak performance potential.

The concept of dividing the calendar into periods emphasizing different types of training is called periodization. Off-seasons of reduced commitment and focus on exercise will create the balance, energy restoration and motivation to pursue peak performance during your more devoted training periods. Similarly, building a general fitness base with low-intensity workouts will enable you to absorb and benefit from the more intense, performance-specific workouts you will undertake when your training escalates during peak season.

Periodization has been proven effective since it was first popularized by Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand's revolutionary distance-running coach, in the early 1960's. Every elite athlete in every sport, from NFL football players to Ironman triathletes to Olympic milers, organize their annual training plans according to the principles of periodization. Unfortunately, there are many casual exercisers and competitive amateur athletes who ignore the concept of periodization in favor of the desire to be "consistent" with their exercise routine.

I believe you'll find greater satisfaction by pursuing peak performance rather than moderation and consistency. Reject the compulsion to fill up the log book or stay in "good" shape year round in favor of a periodized calendar with peak seasons and rest seasons. Take some risks and conduct extreme workouts that stimulate fitness breakthroughs, then balance those efforts with more down time and easy workouts.