THURS: Complexity is the Enemy of Consistency

When delivering a presentation on program design during our first Coach’s Academy back in November, I stressed that there was nothing impressive about complexity. I think it’s one of the most important concepts to understand when it comes to adoption of anything.  It’s why most people will opt for the longer route with less turns, and the fully assembled table rather than the one from IKEA.

If something is complex and confusing, we will be slower to adopt it or will bail altogether. No one has time for your two hundred page user manual, and shame on you for thinking anyone will stick around for the final chapter if there’s a ten pager elsewhere that gets people to the same ending (or possibly better).

It needs to be accessible. It needs to be easy to adopt. This is not the same as easy to succeed, but the entryway to adoption needs to have an open door, not a barbed wire fence.

When I was a younger coach and young gym owner, I thought the opposite was true. I thought that if I wasn’t programming movements that had at least four words in them, then our training would be perceived as run of the mill and I was “elevating our image” by not keeping it basic. Ah. What a misguided viewpoint that was. Little did I know that what seems like mundane is actually by and away the most productive selection choice we can make when it comes to our fitness.

All I was doing by selecting complexity was adding obstacles to consistency. I was getting in the way, when the absolute last thing a good coach, programmer, teacher, or boss should do is build barriers to success that do not need to exist.

Steve Jobs famously never used four syllable words in his talks, and avoided three syllable words in all marketing because he knew that simple was smart. Google makes people all enter and exit through one door at their corporate headquarters to create a simple experience funnel. The smartest teachers will use the concept of simplicity on their side when it comes to getting people results and allowing progression to take place.

No one cares how much you know, they are in there to get better.

Keep it simple stupid. KISS. Always.

-Dave

Thursday, 4.26.18

First, for Strength.
5/s Heavy DB Step-Ups
10 Ring Face Pulls
6/s Alt. KB Row
Complete 1 set every 5 min. for 20 min.
—
Then, for Conditioning.
25-20-15-10
Renegade Row
Hollow Rocks
Sandbag Lap and Stand (6 Each Round)
10 Calorie Bike @ 60%