The Tyranny of ‘Progress’

When starting out with fitness, it’s easy to fall into the mindset that progress – either with strength, or hypertrophy or endurance – is linear. This leads to the expectation that each run should be faster than the last or each lifting session should add more weight. I recently listened to a podcast conversation between Dr. Andrew Galpin and Andrew Huberman, in which Dr. Galpin listed the different types of adaptions training can induce. For inducing strength, he mentioned a ‘3 to 5 rule’, that the number of sessions per week, sets, and reps should all fall within the 3 to 5 range. He also said that weight should increase 3% to 5% per week.

Now, I had to pause and ask myself, is a 3% to 5% increase each week possible over the long term, particularly for intermediate lifters like myself who have been lifting for over 5 years? Sure, there have been periods when I have made sustained progress and probably approached this level of incremental gains, week on week. But, that progress was invariably followed by a plateau, when my body adapted to the load and progress fell off. I’m very skeptical how this level of constant progress can be maintained for someone who has reached the point where their body is conditioned to training.

The point I’m trying to make is that the expectation of constant gains and progress might discourage some from continuing to strength train or train in general. The quest for optimal gains now can lead to a sub-optimal outcome later. It’s better to have long-term mindset with fitness. It’s good that beginners in strength training and running for endurance/speed see immediate gains. This will probably help them develop habits that will keep them in the game. But for people who are at an intermediate stage, why should they keep putting in the work if their not constantly seeing progress? They need to think in terms of years rather than days or weeks, because the work they’re putting in now might not pay off until a few years down the road.

When I look back over the years that I have been lifting, I see that I’ve gone from benching 135 to 225, so progress has been made. These gains came when I was consistently in the gym, and not just for weeks and months, but consistent for years. And I wasn’t always lifting heavy, nor did I follow a dedicated program for strength or hypertrophy. I was just showing up and putting in the work because I enjoyed it.

Right now, my running progress has stagnated. I’m not running faster, particularly with my easy runs, week to week. In fact, I’m slower some weeks. This lack of performance may be related to my nutrition, sleep, and stress, but it is not discouraging me from getting out there in the morning and putting in the work. I’ve changed my thinking so that I believe this work is cumulative, that I’m preparing and priming my body for progress in the future. My goal now is to build mileage to prepare my body for my first 10k training block in the Spring, so it doesn’t matter if I ran a 12 minute mile this morning. Even if I don’t see progress in the near-future and miss my 10k goal time, I’m hoping that the work done in these years will pay off in the distant future, increasing my healthspan and allowing me to live how I would like to live in my 60s and 70s.