Why doing 10 push-ups a day is better than doing 100 push-ups a day (The training secret your coach will never tell you)

My high school track coach had an undefeated team for 29 years. For almost three decades, his runners lorded it over the most important high school meet in my country, leaving other high school track teams in the proverbial dust. With such a sterling undefeated record, there was a lot of pressure on my teammates and I to do well (I ran middle distance, 800m and 1500m). We’d often ask the coach if we could do extra sets of runs or sprints. He’d always tell us not to and go home and rest instead. Of course, being hard-headed testosterone junkie kids, we’d sometimes try sneak in a couple of extra training sprints or laps. If he would catch us, he would send us off the field. Once, out of bewilderment, I piped in and asked him why he wanted us to stop training. He gave me a knowing laugh and said within earshot of my teammates “I want you to leave the field wanting more.”

This was my first introduction to a training concept that over the years have become part of my core beliefs.

This training principle isn’t for everyone. This is a training concept that would apply to those who are non-professional athletes. That is 99.98% of us, and the target audience of MFTWM and this article.

I saw this a lot of times in my university wrestling club as well. Wrestling is a non-varsity sport where I’m from. That meant the only people we could attract are those who would volunteer to train. Our small but dedicated wrestling tea competed in other grappling sports and MMA competitions as well. MMA being quite a popular young man’s sport was enough of a pull to get a number of people from my university to step into our spartan, albeit quite rundown, wrestling dojo. However, it was always a struggle to get people to train consistently.

Lots of YCPs would come in, full of enthusiasm and spunk. They’d train really hard. We would give them opportunities to go really hard too, thinking that this would be the best way to give everyone a good time. We also had a rule, if it’s your first time in the “dojo”, you have to “fight”. (We would let them either do ground grappling or play a Sumo-like game.) This way they could go really hard on training if they wanted to.

I began to notice that usually most new guys to our wrestling clique would only last a couple of sessions before they would start missing training. Then finally, stop going to training all together. Usually, those who seemed really gung-ho at the beginning would often be the first to peter out.

(On matters aside: This habit of throwing new members in the deep end of the pool probably stemmed from my frustration with how Judo classes are taught (I started studying Judo at 14). In a traditionally taught Judo class, a new Judoka might learn nothing but rolling and break falls for the first few weeks or even months. I happened to have a high school Judo coach who was extra-protective over his kids.)

I was a Physical Education major in university and I began noticing this concept in other sports as well. Those who came in really hard in a new sport with all sorts of tough, fancy training regiments and expensive gear would often lose interest in the sport. Those who kept things in control and simple would be more likely to show up the next training session.

I realized that the biggest failure in a sport is not under training or training too little. Not at all. The biggest reason one fails in a sport is giving up on it and not showing up for training. Those with more balanced attitudes to sports tend to stick around longer.

It makes sense. If your martial art or sport is too much of a burden on you, you suddenly start making excuses to skip training. Once you start missing training, it’s so much easier to stop training all together.

The best secret for longevity in a sport is to build motivation. The best way to build motivation is to build a sense of accomplishment. It’s about training your subconscious.

Sure, there are lots of training mottos about “giving your best every time” or “you only start counting after you fail,” but you can’t fool your primal brain, your subconscious. If you consciously experience failure in an activity without any co-related positive experience, your subconscious mind will start avoiding it.

Make your training a pleasurable experience, rather than one of constant failure, struggle and pain. One is especially prone to making one losing his or her interest when starting martial arts. A lot of ego gets deflated for newbies in martial arts. I’m sure you’ve seen it before, tough guys go into the dojo thinking they’ll hand out lessons, only to find out in the first few minutes they have no idea what they’re in for. While one should have the attitude of leaving one’s ego at the door, it’s no fun getting trashed and physically beat up every single time, several times a week.

That why I am a such proponent of training just once a week. When your goal is long-term success and personal fulfilment, you should train just enough that your body and subconscious mind will want to go back to the gym or dojo most of time, if not every time. That’s why it makes sense to cap your training. It’s counter-intuitive, but limiting how much you train will ensure you keep training, and therefor you overtime get better results.

Human beings evolved as an energy conservation machine. It’s one of our best survival mechanisms. You brain evolved to only stick to routines that it finds rewarding and positive. Thus you have to build on this. They often say getting started is the hardest part. I disagree. Sticking to it is much harder.

Rather than doing 100 push-ups a day, which may be a challenge to you, do 10 day. Do 10 push ups a day until you develop the habit. Yup, you heard me, just do 10 a day. But do not skip. Keep doing it until it becomes a habit. Develop consistency first, before increasing training load or frequency.

Ten push ups a day too easy for you? Do ten push ups a day for 30 days without missing a day, then we start talking. Only when you start kicking yourself in the butt and telling your self this is “too easy”, that make the 10 push-ups into 20, then 30, 40 any beyond. But develop the habit first!

The point is to develop the habit first and ingrain it deeply, before you start increasing the training volume incrementally.

The consistency and motivation to stick to a training schedule is a muscle. It’s a subconscious mental muscle that takes time to develop. The same way that you wouldn’t try to bench press a weight way beyond what you lift, you shouldn’t try shock your system by hurling one hard session at yourself after another if you aren’t used to it. You could for a while override your subconscious and drag yourself into training. But if your subconscious isn’t on your side, you’re bound to start losing interest and start skipping practice.

Some ideas to put this concept into practice

Here are a couple of ideas you can use to apply this concept in your practice routines:

1. Start with 1 pull up a day. No more no less. If you are able to do one pull up a day (or maybe every Monday to Friday) for 30 days, that the only time you make it 2 pull ups a day.

2. Run for only 5 minutes once a week. Extend your running time from 5 minutes only if you are able to stick to your running habit for a least 10 sessions.

3. Deadlift  just your body weight for five reps. Gradually add 10 pounds a time every month, only if you are able to stick to training for that month.

4. Cut down your sparring sessions to just one round every training session. Focus on technique and applying what you learned. Every two or three months, add another round of sparring.

5. Put a cap on your training sessions. 90 minutes or 2 hours is plenty. If you find your training sessions going beyond this time, throw in the towel and save the rest for next session.

Final words…

Again, don’t misunderstand what I am saying. This concept is about building consistency and motivation. If you are professional athlete or you have a competition coming up, take out all breaks and starting forging some iron. However, if we’re talking about the average martial artist who has a full-time job or has a family to look after, the people this blog is for, this concept can become a useful guiding principle to bring balance into your life.

What I don’t want to see is an aspiring martial artist hitting the gym five times a week, only to end up dragging his a** to training after a couple of months when the excitement wears out. What I do want to see is you two, three or even four decades from now still enjoying the sport and teaching it to your grand kids.