In a previous post I offered 3 principles that I live my life by. The first, and the topic of my previous post, is "do what you say you're going to do". The second one is "do your best". Your best will never let you down. It can't possibly let you down, because if your effort is truly your best effort, then, win, lose, pass or fail, you gave it your best shot, and that is something that will always make you better and it is something that you can always be proud of. Similar to "do what you say you're going to do", "do your best" also seems like a no-brainer, right? Why wouldn't you do your best? But in all honesty, do you always do your best? How often do your best intentions become just good enough?
Your best effort is going to be doing the task at hand to the absolute best of your ability with the singular purpose of advancing closer to achievement of your goal. When it comes to training, don't make the mistake of equating "best" to "hardest". Granted, some days a max effort may be exactly what's required, but in most cases it is some other level of intensity that is going to best help you achieve your goals. Whatever the level of intensity that is prescribed by your program, the key is to do your best to meet the required level of intensity. Additionally, when talking about exercise, doing your best means achieving perfect form every rep for the prescribed number of reps, or the amount of time in a timed set. Every rep you cheat on your form is holding you back from achieving your goal. Here's a common example that I see almost every time we have pushups in our workouts at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. I'll use a fictional character here as not to call anybody out specifically. I tell Conor Nordengren to keep a solid plank position during his pushups, elbows in, lower the chest to a couple inches from the ground and extend fully at the top. But Conor drops his head, flares his elbows out, sags at the lower back, and only gets halfway to the ground because his ego won't allow him to regress the exercise to a simpler modification that he can do with perfect form. I correct his form, offer him a simpler modification so that he can progress at the level he's at. Once I turn around Conor goes right back to the way he was doing it because, again, his ego won't let him do pushups from his knees. Does he really think cheating his form is going to get him closer to perfect form? Is it going to help him achieve his goal better than perfect reps at a slight regression of the same exercise? In reality, he is probably well on his way to requiring PT for a shoulder impingement.
With perfect practice, Conor, someday you too will be able to pull off the headband and knee-high striped tube sock look.
I have coached hundreds of athletes and adults over the past 20 years and in every case, whether it's in the weight room or on the field, the person who checks their ego and practices perfect form achieves at the highest levels. The saying, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect" applies.
Consistently doing your best takes a lot of practice, concentration, and dedication. It is easy to not do your best. It is easy to settle for "good enough". For me, it is constantly at the front of my mind. I am always asking myself "are you doing your best". I am not lying when I say that I do this at least 10 times per day. When I am on my bike and my training session calls for hard efforts I continually ask myself if I can go harder. If the answer is yes, then I pedal harder. If the answer is no, then I keep going at the pace I'm going. The other day I had 13:00 threshold intervals and I asked myself this question at least a dozen times. It's easy to let yourself back off as the pain tends to take over and the brain is telling you to let up a little. Asking myself if I'm doing my best keeps me in the moment and keeps me focused on doing the task to the best of my ability. In the gym, when I'm doing pushups, pullups, squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, every one is perfect. I refuse to cheat a rep and it's because I always have the self-awareness of whether I am doing my best or not. I ask myself the question, and if the answer is no then I immediately make the adjustment. This is the only way that I will continue to improve.
But this goes well beyond what I do on the bike or in the gym. Doing my best is paramount to my success as a coach. When I am running sessions at the gym I am constantly aware of whether I could be doing a better job, providing better instruction and feedback, paying proper attention to form. When I'm designing programs I am always striving to put the best program in place to to give our clients the absolute best training experience possible. In my research I read the books and attend the seminars that I feel will help me become the best coach I can be.
I find that how I approach training in the gym or on the bike translates very well to how I approach things in life. I believe this is probably true for most people. In training you are in the perfect environment to do your best and be rewarded with qualitative results. If you don't do your best, you don't get the results. Same in the gym as it is in the real world. When I coach soccer teams I have always told them that their goal for each time they step on the field is to step off a better player than they were when they stepped on. Each and every time. If you approach everything you do with this attitude there is no question that you will achieve at the highest levels. I approach everything in life on a personal and professional basis with this simple principle. Do your best. I have learned from years and years of experience that my best has never let me down.
Every once in a while your best may actually be THE best!
