Willpower Isn't Your Problem

Every January the gym fills up with people running on pure motivation.

This is it.

This is the year they're finally gonna get their shit together and lose fat, get jacked, and get fast.

By March they're gone.

The story they tell themselves is that they lacked willpower.

Or they simply think they weren't motivated enough.

Wrong.

They were spending willpower on decisions that should never have been decisions.

• What am I training for?
• What are my goals?
• What am I training today?
• How heavy should I go?
• Should I run or lift first?
• Do I push today or take it easy?
• Is this too much?
• Is it enough?

Every one of those questions costs something.

And if you're trying to answer them at 5:30am, or after work when you're mentally drained, it's not going to go well.

That's exactly when your judgment is worst.

Feel good? You probably do too much and/or go too hard.

Feel tired? You probably skip the workout or half-ass it.

Either way, the plan makes no sense and really isn't a plan.

It's a system problem

The people who train for years without falling off aren't necessarily more disciplined than you.

They just have better systems in place.

Their decisions are already made.

They walk in knowing exactly what today is: this lift, this weight, this run, this pace. The only choice left is show up or don't.

And showing up is a much smaller ask than showing up AND designing the workout AND judging your own effort.

"Listen to your body" is (usually) stupid advice

This is why "listen to your body" is such stupid advice for most people:

Most people that listen to their body are fat, overweight, and out of shape.

Most people that listen to their body don't lift heavy or hard enough.

Most people that listen to their body run way too fast way too often.

And many times, your body says skip it every time it's tired and go nuts every time it's fresh.

Both of which are wrong most of the time.

Put the decisions in the program

Follow it when you're motivated. Follow it when you're not.

Motivation becomes a bonus instead of a requirement.

No thinking involved.

All you have to do is show up.

Capacity Training

I built Capacity Training so you walk in knowing exactly what today is. It plans your running and your lifting together, picks your next weights from the sets you log, and on a rough day it can suggest a lighter session or a rest day.

Run faster. Get stronger. capacitytraining.app

Mike