Regular readers of HackTheGym will know that I always say you need to take time off now and then to make sure you keep making those badass gains in the long run.
In those 52 weeks of the year, I reckon I need to be completely taking off eight weeks somewhere along the way. That’s two months of the year with no training. Ouch!
These breaks, even if I don’t want to take them, mean that I come back more supercharged, ready to go and ready to tear up that training session when I do get back into beast mode. But life sometimes gets in the way. I recently moved into a 200-year-old Georgian cottage with my girlfriend and had to take some time off, because the house was in such a mess, there was no room to train, no gas, poor water supply and nothing but a mobility shower to get washed in. Priorities changed for a bit and I had to eat into a big chunk of my workout downtime.
And that got me thinking.
It’s all about the long run. It’s all about the regular, consistent, incremental gains and achievements. We all know that. You may have to drop out for a bit – as I did – but as long as you get back to it and make progress above and beyond your last best performance, then you’re making it big.
It’s basically a marathon and not a sprint.
With the Olympics in full swing and the athletics gearing up – or track and field – depending on where you’re living, I’ve been watching the best of the best. Living in the UK, I’ve been rooting for Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and the guys, but also the powerhouse that is Michael Phelps and of course Usain Bolt.
Source: The Courier Mail
And then I started thinking about the whole ‘everything is a marathon’ thing again. And then it hit me.
That’s what it’s about. Everything in life is a marathon.
Yes, even a sprint.
Even Usain Bolt’s sprint is a marathon. If you look at it in the long term.
Usain Bolt’s success doesn’t just happen, he’s had to work at it, for years. Putting in the time, slogging out the hours. The same as we all have to, to make our goals become reality.
Usain Bolt’s sprint is the result of thousands of hours of putting his body through intense, explosive exercise, resting and repeating, tweaking, fine tuning. And sticking at it.
Source: The Telegraph
That sprint, when you step back and look at it from a wider viewpoint, is actually a marathon.
So, everything is a marathon, and that’s the way you gotta look at it. Make sure you’re in it for the long run if you want to succeed.
Whether it’s working out, building a business, raising a family, learning to ride a unicycle, a motorbike or a horse. You just have to keep up the momentum. Dig deep and keep pushing!!
A long time ago, I read somewhere that you need to put in an average of 10,000 hours on anything that you want to master.
…and don’t be worried about taking scheduled breaks. As long as you get back into the game, those timeouts are going to help you in the long run. Don’t you start going stale on me. 🙂
So, keep up those training sessions, folks, and let’s reach our goals together.