Intense Doesn’t Equal Effective: Theseus’ Ship: And Double Ankle Work For The Win

Ask yourself, am I focusing on what I want now or what I want most?

It’s impossible to know what’s effective without knowing the goal.

Say the priority is getting out of knee pain. But instead, we focus on running a faster 5k. There’s a good chance our runtime improves, but our knee still hurts.

That’s not effective. The training might feel intense but ineffective at reaching the goal.

The same goes for a workout that leaves you drooling in a puddle of sweat, sore for days from far too many reps, and compromised for the rest of the week. Most would say that’s intense (disregard the formal definition of training intensity).

But was today’s workout intensity the goal? Or are we aiming at a lifetime of sustainable improvement?

Ask yourself, am I focusing on what I want now or what I want most?