The Secret to Athletic Development

We have the secret to achieving insane levels of athletic development. It is not some magical supplement, not cold plunges or saunas, not a special secret exercise, it's actually quite simple. Pulling the longest levers consistently. 

The lever is one of the six classic simple machines. By pivoting a rigid bar over a fixed point called a fulcrum we can multiply force through torque. When trying to lift a large object, using a lever allows us to trade distance for force. The longer the lever, or, in other words the farther from the fulcrum you push, the less effort it will take to move the same object. The same idea applies to your training and recovery. Your goal is to lift the heavy object (getting bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic, etc.), your time and energy are the effort, and the longest levers give you the most return per unit of effort expended. Contrast therapy with cold plunges and saunas, TikTok supplements, hyper sports specific exercises, and fascia training are all short levers. They still will help you lift the object without a doubt, but not nearly as much as utilizing a longer lever.

Red light therapy and methylene blue will not replace getting 8+ hours of sleep every night. Worrying about whether to take magnesium glycinate or magnesium citrate (take glycinate btw) when you are undereating by 700 calories and are neglecting protein and high quality carbs around training is placing your mental effort in the wrong place. Once you are pulling the longest levers consistently, taking care of the big things first and well, then and only then, can the shorter levers can give you the edge. At the highest levels of sport, everyone is a master of the long levers so the shorter ones are where the competitive advantage lies. But, until you are at that level of locked in, no amount of short levers will make up for the long one.  As an athlete you have infinite actions you can take to try to improve, but limited time and effort to put towards those actions, so we need to make each effort count. This then raises the obvious question, what are the longest levers? 

In the following posts we will be going over these longer levers, specifically, what the current scientific literature says about them and how to go about doing them well.