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Instant gratification is lovely, playing the long at first glance however, not so much. In today’s society we find ourselves in a world of people that crave instant gratification. Whether you want to pin the blame of that on social media or not is entirely up to you, but regardless of the cause, the reality needs to be addressed. 

Everybody wants to be seen as being great at what they do. Whether that is their job, their hobbies, or a new skill that they have learned. That’s fine, that’s just human nature. We strive for greatness and rightly so. But we don’t only want greatness nowadays, we want it right now. Not tomorrow, not in a few years time, right now. 

Weightlifting and CrossFit is no different, especially amongst newer athletes. How many people do you know that have tried Smolov in an attempt to hit a 15kg PB in a matter of weeks (myself included), only to find that after they have done so, they break and end up further back than before the cycle? Nobody wants to play the long game and accumulate incremental gains. 

When I was young my Dad presented me with a fictitious scenario. He asked me “would you rather be given one million pound, or I can give you one penny and a chess board. The penny starts on the first square on the chess board, and then moves along one square at a time until it has been on every square. Every time the coin moves square, the money doubles”. Obviously, the go to answer would be the million pounds, or the 15kg PB Squat in 6 weeks. What I was too young and naive to realise was what the value of that penny would be on the final square. There are 64 squares on a chess board, you do the maths. 

Now let’s do some more maths. If you could train injury free for 5 years, and add 1kg every month to a lift, that is a whopping 60kg over the space of 5 years. If some magic Tin Slingin’ genie came and offered me a 60kg increase on my Snatch in 5 years I’d bite his bloody hand off! So next time you’re maxing out, or trying to PB, do so incrementally. Add 1kg, then a 2.5kg, then 3.5kg, then 5kg. If you end up hitting a 10kg PB then great, but on the way up you have already PB’d multiple times. 

Take your time, master your craft, play the long game. You can have one cookie now, or two cookies later, you choose. 

If you enjoyed this post, check out my next post “Acclimation, not Injury“.