When most people feel like they are at 100% they are actually at 40%.
This line was my introduction to David Goggins.
Goggins, if you are unaware, is a former Navy Seal, Army Ranger, Wildland Firefighter, ultramarathoner, pull-up record holder, author and motivational speaker. He has become the epitome of the “success is actualized by hard work and personal sacrifice” ethos.
Goggins’ mission in life is to essentially help you realize what a weak bitch you really are. Cancelling a scheduled run because of a dangerous hail storm or quitting a competition because of something as inconsequential as debilitating blisters or a broken bone are cardinal sins in the world of Goggins.
Some may agree with Goggins (at least to an extent) and some bristle at his extreme version of hustle culture, but his statement about 40% does hold some scientific merit.
In one study, lifters were asked to stop when they thought they had reached their 10-rep max.
On average, they could have done about 10 more reps.
Essentially, when they thought they were cooked and couldn’t complete even one more rep when they got to 10 reps was, in reality, 10 reps short of their actual capability.
And, as a society, I’d say that’s true. I can’t tell you how many gym-goers I’ve seen quit a set just as the challenge and efficacy started.
This is not a small deal. Approaching actual failure is a key component of the progressive overload system and is a big driver of strength and muscle building outcomes.
But I’m not looking to be a substitute Goggins here. Yelling at you to do one more rep and “stay hard” while you bleed from your eye balls.
Because while I do think that 90% of people do not push their training hard enough, there are 10% of people who push too hard. Who believe that a training session is not complete or effective if they’ve done anything short of absolutely obliterating themselves.
Their indicator of success is if they need a gurney to get from the gym floor back to their car.
Workouts can be divided up into many categories but for the purposes of simplicity and (thank God!) brevity, I’m going to stick to two: training and performing.
Performing is reserved for testing capabilities in important lifts or skills or conditioning milestones in order to establish a benchmark. It is important to know what your best abilities are from time to time because that information can really inform training.
Knowing what percentage of a maximal lift is on the bar or what pace you are holding relative to your best is a great way to manage your training load. And you can’t use those numbers if you don’t test them and know them.
Performing is also appropriate in actual competition and sport. If you are at a powerlifting meet or CrossFit competition or Hyrox or whatever, the goal there is to put up your best effort and experience the culmination of all your training.
It's less about technique and more about outcomes.
Training, on the other hand, involves building the skills, volume, techniques, strength qualities and energy systems that contribute to performance.
A set of 10 Back Squats at 65% of your one repetition maximum, when combined with other training, will ultimately increase your one repetition maximum.
This is just how training works. Submaximal efforts have to be part of the equation. They are what allow for joint integrity, increase in muscle mass and allow you to accumulate the volume that is necessary for adaptations.
Going all out all the time leads to injury risk, increases time required to recover and can often result in burn out and a decreased desire to train.
If you are looking for an equation to balance all of this, I would argue that you want very easy workouts less than 20% of the time. 70% of your workouts should be challenging but allow you to develop skill and capability and stack volume. You might be sore from them but you shouldn’t wake up the next day feeling like you got hit by a Buick. The final 10% can be saved for performance. Those days where you need to perform (because you have a game or a fight or an event or a maximal test scheduled) or the rare instances where you feel like you can’t be stopped and want to push the envelope a bit further than prescribed.
What you want to avoid is being someone who’s workouts are so easy that they never feel challenging or being the person who is trying to end their life with every rep, set and effort. These people live on opposite ends of the same coin. And that coin is submaximal results.
To bring this back to Goggins, there is definitely a risk in believing you’ve put in a Herculean effort when, in reality, you’ve barely broken a sweat. Again, that’s where most people are.
And these people could use a bit more Goggins in their training. A few of us over-correct and create other problems. But the real smart training lands somewhere in the middle.