A funny thing about fitness, like most things, is that it gets harder the better you get.
Let’s look at the progression of math concepts as an example.
Numbers
Counting
Adding & Subtracting…
(brain stretching challenging math concepts)
…Calculus
We get rewarded by learning one thing by a more difficult thing!
Fitness is the exact same way and unfortunately, most people try to jump straight to the fitness equivalent of calculus.
Doing calculus when you haven’t yet learned addition is either impossible or easier than addition (because you aren’t doing it correctly).
Same for fitness.
If you can’t do a proper body weight squat then moving to a squat jump, weighted squat, or any progressive variation of the squat pattern is either impossible or easier (because you aren’t doing it correctly).
A side note, without the proper foundation of strength, mobility, and mechanics you are also playing chicken with injury.
At Kvell we tell first-time Kvellians…
“It doesn’t get easier you get better.”
(What we often leave out is that it actually gets harder the fitter they become. Let’s keep this our little secret.)
The cool thing is that as we become more capable we enjoy the new challenges.
We look forward to getting better, progressing, and moving to the next challenge.
Although this is the case it’s nearly impossible to see during the early stages.
In the early stages of learning anything, we’re frustrated, exasperated, in pain and feeling like we’ll never be able to X, Y, and Z.
If a human has done it then there’s a 99.9% chance you can too.
Most of the time the only difference between where you are and where the people who have done it are is work.
Work = Time + Effort
Time = mental, physical, emotional hours spent on the skill
Effort = energy put into the correct things for the desired result
Sometimes there’s a little pixie dust sprinkled in for some people, but we cannot control that part of the equation.
So, let’s focus on the time and effort part and see what we can make happen.
Brett “Sprinkling Pixie Dust” Denton