posted July 30, 2000 08:57 PM            

Consistency is Everything.

There are several guys I know at the gym who come in regularly for a month, or even a couple of months, and then disappear for a long time, only to show up again for awhile, and then repeat the process over and over. In terms of physical condition, they seem to hold their own, and that's no small feat. But they don't seem to add much strength or size over time. In fact, I wonder sometimes why they bother to come in at all, since I bet that merely watching their diet, and some light exercise like walking or biking would do them as much good as their intermittent visits to the weight room, and would obviate the painful DOMS they experience when they start back in on their occasional workouts.

No, the people who really seem to progress nicely, who keep moving to the right up the dumbell rack, who gradually transform themselves physically until, years later, they're unrecognizable, are the ones who come in, rain or shine, all the time, never missing a workout except for a serious illness or a planned recoup. When they're out of town or on vacation, they buy a daypass to a gym or they even improvise with the furniture in their hotel rooms and manage to get in a few good workouts (Ever try doing two-handed hammer curls with a BarcaLounger at the DC Hilton? I have!). When they're injured, they concentrate on working a different bodypart until the injury clears up, or if they're really racked up they dive into the literature and bone up on something that's training-related, or try to straighten out guys on a discussion board like this one.

In short, the "real soldiers" live this stuff, and they're both innovative and consistent, day after day � week after week � month after month � year after year. They have lives just like the guys who come in hit'n'miss. They have competing loyalties and commitments, too. But when it comes to balancing everything out, their workouts constitute the limiting factor on their activity, not the other way around. They know they're in this for the long haul, and they know that, just like the man says, 90% of success is simply showing up.

I see the same principal in my career and in my private life: The best results grow from consistent pressure, long applied.

More later, bros. Keep the Fire!

Bjaarki

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"'Til the weard of the world, stands, unforgotten,
high under Heaven, the hero's name." - Hrolf Krakki's Saga (Iceland)