Why doing 90% is not enough

Now that it is College Basketball playoff time we get to see a lot of young kids interviewed after games and often they say things like “I gave it 100%” or “I left everything I had on the court” or my very unfavorite (as my daughter would say) “I gave it 110%”.

Gave it 110% eh? Well that does not even make sense but the reason thaqt people say that is that they want to stress that they had nothing left except what they did today. The fact is it is impossible to give your workouts, whether cardio or weight everything all of the time. You have off days and you have times when you are a bit tired or your diet is not quite there on a particular day.

To really make gains ion strength or losses in fat you need to go beyond your norm, beyond 90% and remember how these college athletes do things trying to get to the final 4. I have always been a believer that if I do a set of bench press the first few reps are useless for strength increases. The only reps that matter are the ones where you are pushing your already known strength limits and reaching to levels of strength where you have never been, the last couple of reps is where all of the muscle gets created to be needed next time.

Similarly when doing cardio, the first few minutes of a ride or a run are just the warmup. I never look at the workout as really being fat burning and endurance generating until I am over 30 minutes or when I am over 80% of my target heart rate.

This week look at all of your workouts. Are you pushing as hard as you can? Are you going through the motions? I know that there are down times but if you are not reaching your goals right now why not “Go the extra mile” and get even in the next couple of weeks to levels of fitness that you have never reached before.

As hard as it is inpushing past your self imposed limits, in the end, right after the wrokout even, it is very satisfying.

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