Don't give 110%

"Give 110%!" is a phrase beloved of marketing gurus, self-help seminar speakers, people trying to convince themselves they won't give up this time, and – I'm ashamed to admit – many personal trainers. Of course you cannot actually give 110%, you cannot give more than everything. But many people try, which leads to burnout, illness, injury, general misery and fuckups.

If you try to give 110%, you have to take something from some other area of your life. Most of us have been in love and found we're spending all our time with our beloved, leading to loss of friends, calling in sick to work and so on. Or we've stayed up all night reading a book or playing a computer game and our work the next day was far from our best. Perhaps we worked late and missed a dinner date with our lover. Or maybe we trained too hard.

When it comes to physical training, we have to be able to look at our lives and ask ourselves how much we're giving in all the areas of our lives, including physical training – is it all balanced? Two stories should help here.

Firstly, me. My son was born in June last year. For the last month before his birth I did workouts, but really only went through the motions, I couldn't push myself at all, I just couldn't focus. For two months after his birth I was just tired, I didn't work out at all. Things settled down and I felt ready and started back. Three weeks later I got sick – and I hadn't had so much as a sniffle in the past 18 months. But here I was knocked down with the flu, and I had a cough linger for four weeks afterwards. Now I'm back into things, and better, and lifting again for several months now, it's all good. I'd thought I was ready, but I wasn't. Why? I was giving 110% to my son, and 110% to my work – this had to come from somewhere else, so it came from my health.

The second story is a gym buddy, Greg.

"My lifts were stalled for ages," he said, "then in the last couple of weeks they've just flown up easily, I don't know why."

"Anything changed? Food?"

"Food's the same."

"Rest?"

"Same sleep."

"Work?"

"Well, there's much less pressure and stress at work than there was before... ah, I get it now."

He was giving 110% in work, this had to come from somewhere else, it came from his lifting. When he gave less to work, he had something left over for lifting, and got stronger. 

Never give 110%. Giving 100% is plenty.