063 - Adaptation is Everything

"I don't count the sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting because they're the only ones that count. That's what makes you a champion." - Muhammad Ali In this episode, Coach Tony & Coach Austin talk about the importance of seeking out positive adaptations inside and outside the gym. We love talking about “effort” and prioritizing the effort over the outcome as you keep a growth mindset approach. But sometimes effort falls short as it can be manipulated by the user. We sometimes decide what our best effort is going to be before the workout even begins. Or we decide what our workout will be because that’s what we feel like today. We may take a polite pass on what was written as the FTX or BeachFit workout of the day. Encouraging our athletes to have autonomy over their fitness and listen to their bodies is something we’ll always recommend...but we don’t want them doing it at the expense of adaptation. Adaptation is the process our bodies go through to get better suited to our environment. We purposely place ourselves into a hard environment like our workouts so that we adapt and get stronger. Similarly, a life of hitting the couch hard after work each night and binging 2-3 hours of Netflix creates an adaptation as well. Not a good one. Coach Tony shares how all of his recent nagging injuries have come from negative adaptations from putting his body in awkward positions for extended periods of time. We can choose each day whether to seek out positive adaptations or negative ones for our health. Give this episode a listen and think about what adaptations you’ll seek out this week.