Motivation 1

The Pareto Principle

From the all-knowing Wikipedia

“The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients.” “

How does this relate to training? Well, I believe that in training 80% of your results come from 20% of the things you do. The key is to make sure you are doing the 20% stuff, and doing it often.

As an example,  I happen to like squatting. When I am stuck for ideas what to do, I squat. I believe the squat is an 80% results exercise,  and this has allowed me to get away with a lot. For instance, if I enjoyed using the leg extension and leg curl instead I really doubt  I would have the same muscle mass, power,  metabolic rate,  bodyfat %age etc.  I know that  if  I go in the gym and do squats, the little things will tend to take care of themselves. My legs will stay strong, my abdominal region will stay strong, my back will stay strong and my shoulders will stay strong. Every muscle that is under the bar will HAVE to maintain a certain level of strength, even if all I did were squats.

If  you are smart you can use the 80/20 rule to your advantage. For instance, if you choose to do more of the 20% that is most important to your training, you would likely make faster progress. People around you could work as hard as they liked on the 80%, but would not be able to match your results. The key is to find what is the most important action to take which will improve what you are trying to improve, do more of it and do it well.

To find your magic 20%, think of the following - if you were forced to drop 80% of what you are doing in training, what would you do? In weight training you might be left with squats, deadlifts or weighted pullups for example. In MMA you may be left with sparring, or technique work. Now ensure that whatever happens, that gets done and you will see much faster rates of progress.

20% Down…

This is copied from Alwyn Cosgrove

Tomorrow marks the 20% point of the year.

A fifth of 2008 has already passed.

Are you on track with those New Years Resolutions? Are you on track with your goals?

It’s amazing how time passes so quickly.

Don’t waste a single second.

If your goal is fat loss - start today

If your goal is muscle building - start today

If your goal is (insert anything here) - start TODAY !

20% of this year is gone forever. Will you make changes TODAY or will another 20% pass, then another 20% — and before you know it — it’s 2009…..

Don’t waste a single second. Start TODAY.

And remember, procrastination is like masturbation - at the end of the day you’re only f***ing yourself…

Alex.

New Barbell Complex

This is my latest fun torture tool to use on myself and others. Benefits include strengthening the posterior chain, increasing explosiveness and reinforcing the hip/triple extension pattern. I should mention that if you haven’t had training in the olympic lifts this complex may not be for you, as your technique has to be good enough to repeatedly perform correct repetitions even when tired. If this is the case I would recommend starting with an easier complex from a technical point of view.

Here is the complex:

• Close Grip Snatch x 6
• Power Clean And Press x 6
• Clean And Jerk (or Push Press) x 6 (3 each leg if doing jerks)
• High Pull x 6
• Jump Shrug x 6
• Romanian Deadlift x 6

Rest 60-90 seconds

Repeat x 3-5

Good luck, and make sure you have a good grip on the bar!

Lazy Perfectionist…

I came up with this term for myself while talking to someone recently, and I feel it sums me up perfectly.

I am a Gemini star sign, which as you may or may not know is ‘The Twins’, and that really describes me well - sometimes I feel like I am actually made up of two different people!

I have one side of me that is driven, focused, and destined to greatness -the other side would be  perfectly happy to sit and watch reruns of Scrubs and live on the dole.

One side of me is neat almost to the point of OCD -  the other side is the guy who lets the house get to the state where you have to find a path from the chair to the door.

One side of me loves training, pushing myself and desires a great looking, strong physique - the other side can’t be bothered training (especially if progress is slow).

Being aware of this dichotomy isn’t enough to control my lazy slob side, I have to get aggressive and force him to shut the hell up and stay out of my way! (At least until I am a millionairre!)

The only way to do this is to set goals and targets regularly, and schedule time to work towards them. Of course, the lazy side of me doesn’t want to bother doing this, so the most important appointment on my calendar falls on a Sunday, and is named ’Timetable next week’. :-)

For some great resources on goal setting, organising your life and increasing productivity check out:

7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

and

Goals by Brian Tracy 

Hello world!

First blog - just kicking it off and testing!