I recently heard the story of a cycling team in the UK that went from being one of the worst in history, having only one a single gold medal in the olympics, and never the tour de france in 110 years, to having one 4 years in a row after a coach by the name of introduced his principle of “the aggregation of marginal gains”. This principle required the coach to breakdown eveything contributing to the cyclists performance, and improving each small part by 1%. The accumulation of these small 1% would eventually lead up to astounding changes.

The Physical body is an enormous system, made up of many small parts, and improving a single part helps contribute to the wellness of the whole. I’ve seen men and women that pack in protein shakes morning and night, go to the gym every day for a few hours, and do the same exercise routine, and yes, their results are impressive, but how is their overal physical health? I talked to one man, and he complained about constant pain in his back, especially while exercising. Now, this is not the case with everyone, but to me, having muscles does not equade to being in good physical health, that is only a single part, the way to physical health, and state of wellness is both more work, and easier than those who seek to be more active and athletic give it credit for. It is easier, because there is more to gaining muscle that simple pounding protein shakes and puming iron. Harder, because there is so much more that contributes to the care of the body and the muscles.

Ideally, those hoping to gain muscle, or lose weight, or run a 5k, or run a marathon, wherever you are at, will take more consideration of their physical body, than just performance in that one activity. There are factors such as your diet and exercise habits that will likely need to change, as well as other things such as your sleeping habits, and frequency of exercise. One of the biggest mistakes I see in exercising is the “one size fits all” idea. Every person is different, and needs a tailored exercise regime for them, even if it is just a little bit. The same thing goes for sleeping habits, diet, and just about everything else. Everyone needs their own 1% changes in order to reach their best level of physical wellness.