Overcomplication

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

It’s not about daily increase, but decrease—hack away the inessential.

Boy does Bruce Lee cut to the core of our urge to overcomplicate and get in our own way.

Sometimes we make things harder on ourselves than they have to be. That is certainly the case with exercise.

Let me give you a couple examples:

  • In the search for rock hard abs, people choose several stomach exercises. Crunches, leg lifts, flutter kicks, planks, side planks, etc. Yet most of these exercises fail to get to the root of the problem—to get rock hard abs, you have to challenge your abdominal muscles sufficiently. Working up to a hanging leg raise is more like it. Using an ab roller is also sufficiently challenging.
  • Many people spend 15 minutes exercising just their biceps through a variety of curls—barbell, dumbbell, preacher, concentration, etc. Developing capacity to do weighted chins and pull ups will stimulate your bicep and make curls unnecessary.

The gist? Less is more, but quality and intensity count.

So, you do less, but you develop skill at hard exercises like chins, dips, deadlifts, squats, and presses.

The question is, do you have the patience to learn these and other difficult exercises that thoroughly work the body?

If you want to get strong and fit, you need to do things that most people aren’t doing, and you need to do them well. I’m talking about big exercises. The payoff is huge. Better results, less time, more energy, less fat.