Deliberate Practice: The Guaranteed Way To Succeed In Fitness
Last modified 1 week, 2 days ago.
In my early weight-lifting days, I became very interested in barbell training and kettlebells. I spent a long time enjoying books by Pavel Tsatsouline, as well as articles and videos by other members of the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) crew, like Steve Maxwell, Mike Mahler, Anthony DiLuglio, Sarah Lurie, and Osvaldo Aponte.
The RKC crew was great and a lot of fun to watch and learn from, especially for a youngster.
I poured over the information, scraped some pennies together, bought some kettlebells, swung them all over the place, and even learned how to do perfect “butt-to-the-grass” one-legged squats (or “pistol squats”).
It was all very cool!
But, we live, gain our own experience, and hopefully, learn from it, too.
Ultimately, although sobering, I think Steve Maxwell displayed the most erudition. Maxwell now advises against using ballistics or explosive movements. Yes, swinging heavy kettlebells over your head 1000s of times is putting you into the sweepstakes for destroyed shoulders.
It was a bad idea then, and it’s a bad idea now.
Maxwell attests that many of the kettlebell practitioners (and instructors) were walking injury cases. John DuCane, the major business manager of the RKC, packaged and presented the system well to the public. However, explosive training will always be one of the most dangerous ways to train, because speed increases the forces involved. Think of it this way–would you rather get into a car accident at 25 mph or 100 mph? I’ll keep the speeds under control myself.
There’s no need to throw the kettlebell out with the pickle juice, though.
One of the most evergreen principles that Tsatsouline and the RKC espoused was simple . . .
Treat your training like practice.
Resistance training, high-intensity training (HIT), dieting, sleep hygiene can be looked at as skills or practices.
Suppose you were learning a language? Would you say, “I’m going to get a Spanish workout in?” No, you look at it as a skill to be developed, and you practice. Over time, you would get better and better. Conversely, this is also consoling if you weren’t practicing. No deliberate practice, no real improvement. You would be able to look that in the eye pretty easily.
Also, would you beat yourself up about not being able to write like Gabriel Garcia Marquez after a few months? No, that would take years, serious desire, as well as at least some natural ability.
Why beat yourself up about your early struggles in fitness then?
You already know the general principle behind improving your health & fitness. If you look at it like you are dieting or working out, of course, you are going to fail. You’re putting an extreme burden on yourself to perform rather than to practice deliberately with skill and develop yourself.
When it comes to dieting, exercise, resistance training, or other health habits, look at them as practices. Then, for once, instead of quitting in frustration (and restarting later) again and again, you stick with it and get better season after season.
It’s the guaranteed way to succeed, because no matter what your talent or ability level, you’ll get better.
Then, instead of comparing yourself to mutants and hereditarily-exceptional people, like Tsatsouline and most of the RKC lead instructors of the past, you are comparing yourself to yourself.
You will be wise and compare yourself to where you were before and see the difference.