The 80/20 Principle

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Alwyn Cosgrove has a really good post about how the 80/20 (Pareto) principle works in our daily lives- and how it applies to working out. Basically, the principle states that in any group or activity, 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. We see this everywhere- at home, work and school. This principle seems to be so universal, that even churches and denominations see it at work, ie. 20% of the people give 80% of the money and 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Cosgrove applies it to how we work out and there is some important stuff to remember, so head over and read…

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But what about fitness training? How can we use the Pareto Principle?

1. Understand that training methods and exercise selection fall under the same rules – 20% of your activities are responsible for 80% of your results.

   In other words – if you did ten sets of deadlifts – it’s likely that you would get 80% of that benefit with only two sets – the law of diminishing returns.
   




2. Big, compound exercises recruit more muscle, allow you to use more load and burn more calories than isolation exercises – build your program around them. Identify the effective 20%. For example – Rep for rep – a deadlift or a squat out-performs most other exercises – make sure they are in your program first.

3. A 30 minute full-body workout performed three times per week – that includes squats, deadlifts, presses and rows will easily be 80% as effective as any other routine that you can think of.

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If you only have time for a few exercises and can only workout several times a week, try doing squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, and dumbbell presses twice a week. If you do them hard and fast, you will be amazed at how much progress you can make.