“If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” – Confucius/Eastern European Proverb (depending on who you ask).

What about three rabbits? Four? What about chasing five or six rabbits without having a clear idea of what each specific rabbit looks like?

This has been said a thousand times but it’s a crucial concept that bears repeating: Many people are trying to do too many things in the gym.

They would be better served by picking a much smaller number of goals (that don’t conflict with each other) and pursuing them tenaciously rather than trying to do everything at the same time.

Many beginners fall into the trap of trying to progress as quickly as possible. They feel that in order to do this they have to improve at everything simultaneously. However, if you view your lifting and fitness as a life-long endeavor you’ll realize that the consistency and longevity of your progress is more important than the speed of your progress (especially near the beginning of the journey!). With that in mind, most people would be better served by not working at too many fitness goals at once.

So many beginners I talk to are trying to get stronger, get bigger, get a six pack, increase cardio, get better at chin-ups, work in more HIIT cardio, etc. all at the same time. To top that off they want to pick up a new sport as well. Their programs are a smorgasbord that don’t really have a main theme. They’re too complicated and they’re trying to do everything at once. This causes them to spin their wheels, get frustrated, program hop to something that seems better or more interesting, and repeat the same cycle again.

In a recent post on a martial arts forum, someone said they’re doing 6 Jiu-Jitsu classes a week, lifting 5 times a week, and running 3 several-mile runs a week on top of that. They “felt spent” and had no idea why. If the nervous system is like a cup with a finite capacity, then it makes sense to focus on the quality of what you’re filling it with than forcing in more quantity in the hopes that everything will improve. Cramming more liquid into the cup will not help things. When you try to do everything at once, you can’t do anything particularly well.

Contrary to the common belief that working harder at something will always equal more progression, simplicity and doing less is not always a bad thing. If you’re trying to achieve so many diverse strength and fitness goals at the same time it becomes difficult to make progress and difficult to maintain.

My best results in the gym (or in any endeavor, for that matter) have come when I took a very critical look at exactly what I was trying to accomplish and devoted as much effort and focus as possible to achieving that goal. Having nebulous, ill-defined goals is not helpful. Having many of those at the same time is a perfect recipe for frustration.

When your goals are specific and well-defined, you can attack them with more focus and single-mindedness.

Having goals such as:

Put 20 pounds on my deadlift in a 12 week cycle

Get down to 10% body fat over the next 3 months

Build up to doing 100 perfect swings with a 48 KG kettlebell this year

helps to make things more definite. Fewer things to focus on equals more energy with which to focus. Fewer goals at the same time equals fewer competing goals to distract/impede you from progressing.

My advice to almost every newer and intermediate lifter: Quit chasing your tail and trying to be good at everything. Dedicate a set amount of time to getting quantifiably better at one or a few basic goals. See what happens. (I bet it works out well for you).

This is why “basic” and “scaled-down” programs such as 5/3/1 are so popular and successful. They force you to focus on getting better at a smaller number of things and critically consider the reason for adding in anything extra before you do so.

But…but what about elite level athletes who need to spend hours a day improving multiple complex skills and facets to round out their game?

If you’re reading this, chances are this doesn’t apply to you. You are probably working or studying full-time. You probably have very limited time and energy to devote to getting better at fitness/your chosen sport. You should probably just pick a small number of concrete goals and work on those first.

But…but what about experimenting with my programming by adding in extra things here and there? This mixes things up and keeps things interesting. Does everything have to be so defined and regimented?



I’m all for trying random things. I’ve never been one of those “you have to do every program as written or you’ll ruin it” kind of people. That kind of mindless orthodoxy has always annoyed me because self-discovery and plain-old fun can be had by tweaking programs and learning new and interesting exercises or just putting together something on your own and seeing how it works. I just recommend that this kind of stuff be the exception rather than the norm. The best progress comes from good old, boring consistency in the time-tested lifts and the good lifestyle habits… but you already knew that.

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