Newton's First Law of Fitness 🧐
Wise old chap was Isaac Newton...
Imagine impacting the world to such an extent that you're referred back to centuries after you died. Mental.
I often bemoan the speed in which I see some exercises being performed in the gym. Are you moving that weight or is that momentum I see you applying to your bicep curls?
Let me explain another way...
This isn't even the point of this email (I'll come on to that) but let's run with this first.
If I hold a 2kg (not very heavy) dumbbell 5 feet above your foot. And then let go...
It will hurt.
If I hold the same 2kg above your same foot but control it's descent at a much slower speed until it lands on your foot...
You'll barely notice the impact.
In a roundabout way this is the law of intertia.
"Newton’s first law states that if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force."
"But Ben surely if I move weights faster that is better right?"
Me and Dave both do 3 sets of 10 bodyweight squats. He goes 1 second down, 1 second back up for each rep. I go 3 seconds down and 1 second back up for each rep. He spends 2 seconds in his one rep. I spend four seconds in my one rep.
Although we both do 3 sets of 10 reps, which one of us is doing more work? 4 second rep Ben.
Moral of the story, stop using momentum to weaken your output in the gym.
Move the weights or machines slower and get more bang for your buck in the same time frame.
Anyway, my actual point...
You'll need to read the quote again.
This time apply it to your progress. Are you at rest or in this case, positively, using the momentum of movement?
And by movement, I mean consistency in your training.
The gym's pretty quiet at the moment (although the leg press is still never free) and the reason for that is we all go through these periods of high action and low action when it comes to fitness.
I'm getting to the point now - unbelievable effort if you've made it this far. Honestly. I owe you a drink or something.
Rather than going through this yoyo of doing great, going to the gym regularly for several weeks, not eating takeaways, cutting out alcohol and then 6 weeks down the line it's all flipped around... Why not, make going to the gym once a week your law of inertia?
If you go to the gym once a week for a year, that's 52 gym sessions. If you yoyo through 6 weeks of being awesome followed by 8 weeks of not and so on, there's no way you'll hit 52 sessions in a year.
Not only that, you'll get significantly better results by going once per week consistently as opposed to yoyo'ing.
Final word...
Take action on what you want. Make your health and fitness a priority and put a plan in place you can stick to.
If you need help with what the hell you should be doing in that one session per week - let me know!
Benjamin 'Newton' James