Training Smarter, Not Just Harder

To explain training harder, I need to start by explaining the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency in training is doing an exercise well, with good form, the right intensity… as prescribed. Effectiveness in training is doing the right exercise well, with good form and the right intensity…. prescribed effectively.

What this really means is that what you do is more important than how you do it. That is not to say efficiency is not important, but that it is useless unless applied to the right things….

Everyone who has played sport has at one point or another come across a teammate, competitor, or coach that thinks the answer to all your problems is training harder. “Run harder, faster…..” At one stage or another half my teams have been filled with these people.

This approach is not training smart. The truth of the matter is that you can train as hard as you like and never see the improvements you deserve if you are doing all the wrong exercises.

For example, imagine a rugby player working his ass off in the swimming pool. Not as a cross training exercises but as his only training exercise. I know it seems ridiculous, and it is meant too. Because as we could all have told him, training harder and training faster in the pool isn’t going to help him with his rugby. Brining it back to something a little more believable, if you are doing Kettlebell swing exercises in the gym to help with your rugby and the exercise you should be doing is Deadlift exercises then you have the same problem. You can trainer harder and faster all you like, but you will not reach your potential….

So the moral of this story is that before you jump into training, take a time out to decide if you are training smart, or just training hard. They are not necessarily the same thing.

Thanks for reading,

Cameron West
Cameron is the Director of Pro Training Programs