The gears of training: Why consistency is the key to success

What gear are you in in your training? If first gear is your first ever session. Second gear is if it’s been a week since you trained last. Third is you’ve just started training 3+ times per week consistently. Fourth is you’ve been training at this level for three weeks or more. 

Physical training isn’t only about ability to do work, from a physical point of view, but also having the fuel to do it. This refers to metabolic conditioning. If you take two weeks off training to go on holiday for example, when you come back home, you won’t have lost any significant amount of muscle mass, but you will have lost the ability to use it to its full potential. That’s because you have become metabolically deconditioned while you were away. You’ve gone from fourth gear, into second. 

But after a few training sessions, your energy levels increase, and consistency brings more improvements, you can push yourself harder again. And soon enough, previous training levels are restored. 

Breaking new ground in your training takes massive amounts of energy. If you’re training in second gear, you’re only metabolically adapted to one to two sessions per week at low levels of exertion, then your going to find breaking new ground hard and slow. 

If however you’ve been consistently training week in and week out, metabolically conditioned to tough workouts, physically conditioned to total muscle recruitment, this is where the magic is. This is where leaps in performance live. Because breaking through plateaus, over reaching for new strength, takes huge amounts of energy. 

On the flip side, maintaining current levels of fitness and strength is surprisingly easy to do. Take a month off training, and I guarantee you, within three weeks of returning you’ll be lifting the same you were before you took time away.

 Training once per week is often enough to maintain current levels of strength. Maintaining muscle mass takes a lot less energy than building new. Maintenance can all be done in second gear.

But optimal training volume is 3+ sessions per week, consistently.