How do you manage your training? Reactionary or Visionary

by Mike Pimentel, LATC, CSCS
Sport Medicine Specialist

I recently read an interesting business article. It focused on the fitness industry and its current economic state…. poor and getting worse. Industry analyst, Michael Scot Scudder, called the management style of the time “mechanical management”. It is associated with the massive growth of the industry for the last 20yrs – (incidentally the health and wellness industry is now approaching a one trillion dollar industry.) I say “in part” because there were other factors contributing to the growth. Great economy, great marketing, and social trends towards health – “its hip to be fit”. So much like the stock market during the boom times – you could do almost anything in the market and make money. As a result the management style of the time was more reactionary than visionary. However, what about today? And what does this have to do with physical preparation?

Today, the fitness industry is doing it tough. The management style of the boom years is now the greatest limiting factor in the survival and development of the health and wellness business of today. New paradigms are needed for the changing times. The need today is to be more visionary than ever before – to anticipate the needs of people and meet those needs with more efficient methods of distribution, and development of products and services which meet those needs. As a result a new management style will emerge to assist with this development and distribution of new products and services. Some of the old management methods which worked will be kept while others will be replaced to accommodate.

Physical preparation itself, in my opinion, is running a close parallel to the industry. I had the great pleasure of speaking to a group of High School athletes yesterday. We all agreed that, much like the fitness industry during the boom years, any type of training would yield a result. In earlier times an athlete could simply “outwork” his or her opponent by “doing more”. As a result, over the years, this paradigm resulted in a linear increase in the amount of work performed by an athlete. The answer was always “more, more, more”. More mileage, more lifting, more speed. The challenge is we are a biological system where the system can easily override itself where it eventually breaks down. Break down in our system is not represented by dollars and cents as in the economy. It is represented in the form of injury, illness and time away from our chosen sport or activity.

While “hard work” has its merits and provides valuable contribution to the training process – it is a reactionary trait and when used inappropriately (one dimensional) it can be dangerous to a biological system. It only uses the past and present to forge the decision of the day – never anticipating how the needs of the future will change. To be visionary in your health would be to anticipate how the decisions of today will affect you tomorrow. Will you prevent the injury/illness with a simple change in your decision process or will you pay the price with your health? Business philosopher Jim Rohn once said,” there are two pains in the world, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline costs pennies while regret costs thousands.”

The following are some questions to help you balance reactionary vs. visionary in the pursuit of health and performance.

What training will get the result I want?

Will that training get the result efficiently?

Will that training get the result safely?