Incremental and Compounding

I'm in the best shape of my life, and I have ever reason and excuse not to be.

For one, I'm the oldest I've ever been—obviously—and with adulthood that generally means a decline in physical prowess. I also have a nine month old baby, which both means I've recently gone through a pregnancy and delivery, and that I have the joy and burden of caring for a bundle of nerves and muscle that's becoming more ungovernable by the day. I work full time. I make it to the gym three times a week at best, if the stars align. And when I do make it to the gym, I'm regularly 10-20 minutes late.

But I do work out. Some weeks I get in a solid three hours of strength training plus multiple long stroller walks for "cardio", some weeks I barely get in a single 45 minute session and it rains ad nauseum. The point is, even with a few bumps along the road, I'm fairly consistent and it shows.

When I started strength training almost a decade ago, I was convinced there had to be a secret, some better way to train that leads to results faster. Sure consistency is important, everybody knows that, but there had to be something else. That special ingredient I was still missing which would propel me to excellence.

I trained on and off with this mentality for years. Some months I'd be in the gym almost daily for hours, until I ultimately burned out because the pace was unsustainable. Then I'd take a break for a few months until the next bout of enthusiasm struck. It's not that I didn't see results, but like I said, I'm in the best shape of my life right now.

Whenever I hit a new record, either in reps or weight, I'm pleasantly surprised. I don't feel like I'm pushing myself toward these milestones like I was before. I simply show up, and the rest eventually happens. "One percent better each day," is what my trainer says.

It's a clichéd life lesson, but it's one that's worth repeating. If I can be present and humble enough to accept one percent as the maximum I can improve in a single day, then I can reap the rewards of compounding, incremental gains. We know this from the field of finance. The best time to invest was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. Either way, that time will pass. Those days will go by whether I get my one percent or not.