How To Train and Improve at Any Sport

I recently finished “The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom” by Dan Cleather.

Nearly every paged is dog-eared and thoroughly underlined, and it’s easily one of the best books I have read about training. Coaches and athletes alike are sure to find it packed with practical insights and advice that they can apply to keep improving at their sport and in the weight room. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting it regularly.

Here are 4 of my favorite principles from the book:

1.      The cardinal rule of training “Above all else, be consistent” and its corollary “Don’t do things that might negatively affect your consistency.”

If you want to be good at anything, you need do it consistently. Unfortunately, the reason many people fail to make progress in their training is because their behavior is at odds with the cardinal rule. For instance, training too much and/or too hard so that they are always tired or injured, overcomplicating things, striving for perfection instead of good enough, frequently changing goals or training programs, under fueling/sleeping.

2.      The myth of always giving “100 (and 10) %.”

There is a common belief that one should always give “110%” in workouts. This belief causes people to train with a high level of effort and intensity every training session (the overzealous distance runner who runs their “recovery shuffle” just under race pace). The result is the athlete is always fatigued and not fresh enough to be able to perform the “hot” sessions (the ones that matter most) with the most optimal quality. Not every training session deserves the same level of energy and effort. Hold back and “leave a rep in the tank” most of the time so you have the energy and enthusiasm to really attack (and potentially work hard) in the hot sessions/when it matters most.

3.      Spend most of the time building a base and improving your “any day level” of fitness and less time training at/near maximal intensity.

The success of any massive structure depends on its foundation. The wider and more extensive the base, the higher you can build. The same is true in training. Your ability to tolerate and adapt to phases of higher intensity training is largely dependent on the size of the base you’ve built through “easier” more general training. Even with a solid base, extended periods of training at or near maximal intensity are physically and mentally taxing and should be reserved for when they are really needed (i.e., priority race/competition).

4.      Start light and progress slowly.

The body won’t adapt unless you give it a reason to. In order to keep improving we need to make the training activity more challenging in some way (increasing the weight, volume or intensity, progressing to harder exercise variations, etc.). There is an optimal rate of improvement, however, and trying to progress more quickly than this will generally be counterproductive. Greater stress does not equal greater/faster progress. Many people (especially those just starting exercise or a new program) are too greedy with the improvement they seek to make and bury themselves with grueling workouts from day one. It's almost always better to err on the side of doing too little and to progress your training by the smallest effective increments. Many people struggle with this (myself included) because they fear they are not doing enough and will lose fitness, but starting light and progressing slowly allows you to build confidence and positive momentum early on and continue making progress for a longer period of time.