Quality over Quantity
by Thom Van Vleck
I love being in the gym. When I first caught the “iron bug” I’d spend hours in the Jackson Weightlifing Club gym. While I would always be training….not all that time was working out. I recall reading a story about Paul Anderson. He would rest for up to 15 minutes between sets while visiting with others or other distractions. I know I often found myself doing the same thing. I would visit, read lifting magazines, or be writing down stuff related to my workout. I was putting value in the quantity of time in the gym over the quality of my time.
I know I’ve been guilty of doing a certain number of sets for a certain number of sets for the simple reason my work out plan called for it. Most of us go into the gym with a plan. I have often found myself looking to hit certain benchmarks and success was measured on getting those sets and reps. I was happy if I made my “goals”. I was putting value in the quantity of sets, reps, and poundages over the quality of sets, reps, and poundages.
A couple years ago I decided to start focusing on the quality of my workouts. As I started to use that as a measure over quantity I found myself very lacking. I found that I could take a weight and lift it….or I could LIFT IT LIKE I MEANT IT! I also began to notice that I was wasting a lot of time just being in the gym and not doing things that had a direct impact on my lifting. Oh…you know….like actually lifting weights! So my re-dedication involved assessing every part of my work out by constantly asking myself one question, “Is what I’m doing adding quality to my workout or is it just quantity?”.
I began to notice several things. I started to make gains again. I lost weight. I got in better cardio shape (my workouts much faster), I got more done in less time which meant I was working out more and most of all my attitude towards my workouts improved as it re-energized me and gave me confidence in the idea that what I was doing was going to help make me stronger.
So, the next time you work out you might want to ask yourself, “Quality..or Quantity”?