It is apparent to me that many lifters confuse performance with progress. I understand this confusion because I was confused by this for years. I thought the only way to make progress was to perform your absolute best in every workout. I don’t think this way anymore.
A Performance Mindset
A performance mindset is based on doing the best that you can do today. A progress mindset is much more concerned about how today’s workout will contribute to your next workout; and not just the next workout, but how each workout will continue to affect the workouts that come after them. Many people assume as I once did that if you push yourself to do your very best today, that it will help you to be even better in your next workout. I learned that this assumption leads to a dead end road.
A Progress Mindset
A progress mindset is much more concerned about long term improvement than today’s performance. If you want to keep on improving, always leave something in reserve for the next workout. I highly recommend that you listen to Ed Coan who is one of the greatest powerlifting champions of all time, and listen to Mr. Universe, Bill Pearl, in the following videos:
Ed Coan
Bill Pearl
Get better at what you do before doing more
My belief is that if you want to keep on improving, you should feel like you are getting better at what you are already doing before you add on and do more. If you are getting better at lifting a specific amount of weight, the weight is going to get easier to lift. I like to let the weight become just as easy to lift as it was the last time it became easy enough to add weight. If I increase from 200 pounds to 205 pounds, I am going to keep using 205 pounds until it becomes as easy to lift as 200 pounds was before I increased to 205. I am then going to increase to 210 pounds and keep using 210 until it becomes as easy as 205 pounds was before I increased to 210. If I keep increasing in this manner over the course of a year to the point where I am using 250 pounds, it should feel just as easy to lift 250 pounds as it did to lift 200 pounds a year earlier.
Controlled Effort
Inner drive, enthusiasm, and motivation can be your best friends when it comes to pushing yourself with maximum effort. Max effort often works when the goal is short term progress or performance. At the same time, inner drive, enthusiasm, and motivation can become your enemies if you don’t learn to tame them with controlled effort when the goal is long term progress. This is why I recommend the use of training thresholds which I also refer to as precision points, as these help you to avoid exceeding your capacity for strong reps, strong sets, and a strong lifting motion.
Training Thresholds and Precision Points
Thresholds are based on your ability to repeat reps as long as you can maintain the same rep pace and rep speed from one rep to the next. Stop a set if your rep speed and rep pace start to slow down. Only repeat sets for a muscle group as long as the muscle group can recover back to full strength between sets. Stop doing sets for a muscle group if you reach a set where you are no longer recovering back to full strength. Only use weights that allow you to perform a smooth nonstop lifting motion and avoid weights that are so heavy that they cause a rep to slow down, pause, or stall in mid motion. These guidelines are not based on helping you to perform to your absolute limit in a given workout, rather they are based helping you to make progress in future workouts. But just remember this, training for progress may seem to short circuit your performance today, but the payoff is that it helps you to perform better in the future. Best of training to you.