Are you a hard worker?

Posted In: Coaching | Me September 9th, 2013 divider No Comments »

Or a smart worker?

I think most people would agree they are the former but what about the latter? I’m not saying you shouldn’t put your best effort forward, it’s just that effort alone doesn’t get you where you want to go in my experience. What if you’re practicing the wrong things or doing it wrong?

The “old school” mentality was prevalent in my football days. Two-a-days, push-ups as punishment for missed assignments, lots of yelling and deconstructing egos was the norm in training camp. If you didn’t break down physically, you were getting broken down mentally.

Now it seems the world of football has caught up with the rest of the world as well. A lot more mental work with film and walk-through sessions then Oklahoma drills (a glorified hitting/tackling drill). I’m not saying you shouldn’t go out and hit in football, it’s just that you only have one body per person and it’s very hard to perform when you’re injured.

The same can be said with the running world. A lot of top runners are integrating recovery and cross training into their weekly schedule so it’s just about getting out there and pounding the pavement. Science is telling us that recovery is a huge part of the regimen and some pioneers are pulling off great results with minimal mileage.

One of the reasons I named my company Efficient Coaching is because I want my clients to be efficient in their form and in their training. Who needs to log thousands of kilometres if you’re a weekend warrior? From what I’ve seen, it just gets you faster to the offices of health professionals.

You still have to get Having a focus for each workout is paramount so you’re not just out there for the sake of being out there. The focus could be as simple as enjoying yourself or working on a particular part of the running or cycling form.

So just think about it next time you’re out for a run/bike/swim/workouts. Are you out there working hard or smart?