I am sure there are many people can relate to this scenario.  For those who run, think of the days you woke up and just felt great.  Legs were full of energy.  Body completely rested.  You get out on the road or track and you feel lighter than ever as though you are cutting through the air like a sharp knife.  You make it through your route with complete ease and wish you had extra time to keep going so that you don’t waste this surge of energy.

Whenever I have runs like this, especially if I have a few in a row, I always think it’s time to kick it up a notch.  I know I can’t extend my run as my time in the morning is limited, so I try to bump up my pace a little to see if I can get that heart rate going.  The funny thing is it can be just trying to shave off 10-20 seconds, and even with that small amount I feel it tremendously.  Suddenly my abundant energy is sucked right out of me.  Legs start to tire quickly.  Breathing is more rapid than it has been in quite some time.  What happened to reaching the next level? Where did my energy reserves go?

To me, I think it’s a great example of how little changes you make in your workout can go a long, long way. We often want to make huge gains in our fitness program to get to our desired level as quickly as possible. And when these giant leaps prove to be too much to handle, we can get frustrated and lose our ambition. It’s important to know that even small changes will have a tremendous impact on your workout.  The running example is just a start, as you can look at increasing your pace slightly or try to transition to an interval training run where you do small bursts at a faster pace and then slow back down to your normal pace.  If weight training, instead of adding more weight to the exercise like most people do, try decreasing the amount of rest in between sets.  Or incorporate a giant set where you string two exercises together such as dumbbell flies and dumbbell press to exhaust the chest muscles.

This is America.  We like to go all in every chance we get.  We want to go from our studio apartment, right to our dream house.  Forget the small starter home in between.  We want to remodel our entire kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite counters, not upgrade one piece at a time.  But when it comes to our workout, small steady changes really do the trick. While we can appreciate the ambition to make a giant leap of faith in your fitness routine, sometimes the turtle really does win the race.