Medicine? Poison? The Difference is in the Dosage

When I was a 244lb fat boy, I could do maybe 1 push up and 1.5 pull ups.

As I placed demands on my body to get accustomed to those challenges, it eventually got used to how hard they were.

Eventually, after my body adapted to those demands, doing 1 push up and 1.5 pull ups wasn’t too challenging.

I applied extra stress to my body (2 push ups, 2 pull ups, etc.). Since those stresses were reasonable and gradual, my body was able to meet those demands because they were just barely outside of its limits.

When something’s just out of reach, you can touch it if you try just a little harder than usual.

Fitness (and anything else, really) is about properly dosing the stress that you put on your mind and body.

EXERCISE NERD SHIT WARNING

The SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) Principle states that your body and mind will try its best to get used to the stress that you put it through.

Remember the book Holes? Zero’s ancestor carried the pig up the mountain every single morning. As the pig grew, the ancestor adapted to that specific exercise, and it became easier for him to maintain. As the pig gradually grew, so did the ancestor’s strength. This is also a perfect example of the concept of Progressive Overload.

Progressive Overload is the practice of slowly introducing more and more stress to your body so that its limited are gradually pushed over time. This allows for safe and reasonable growth.

People always need to start slow when it comes to fitness or any other task.

At the beginning, you won’t be able to handle much. You need to start with something that does not exceed your limits, and then slowly push your limits over time.

Your mind and body are very capable, and if you’re reasonable with them, they will rise to the challenges that you present to them.

When you’re not reasonable, a few things can happen:

• You think that you need to “go big or go home,” so you just go home.

• When you’re attempting to make progress on a goal, you do too much too soon, fail spectacularly, get discouraged, and stop.

• Conversely, you don’t give yourself enough stress to push yourself past your current limit, get discouraged, and stop.

These scenarios are not good, so it’s best to avoid them, as I’ll help you do below.

The above issues usually bring up these common worries:

• I don’t know how to dose my stress. (No one does. That’s why you need to experiment by starting slow and small.)

• What if it’s not enough? (Increase the stress.)

• What if it’s too much? (Reduce the stress.)

Do I have an answer for everything? In this case, yes.

If you figure out how to dose your stress properly

• You can make consistent, reliable progress if you’re dosing yourself correctly.

• You can also avoid the negative consequences of stressing yourself too much or not stressing yourself enough.

• You can understand that Level 18 is achievable if you know how to properly go from Level 1 to Level 2 to Level 3, etc.

Now, remember that this is all in reference to both physical and mental challenges. I can assure you that it’s very worth it.

Here’s how you figure which level of stress is best to start at:

1. Create a goal.

2. Start with baby steps. (If you want to read, start with 1 page. If you want to meditate, start with 1 minute.)

3. Once you get used to those baby steps, increase your output by the next available unit (1 page becomes 2 pages, and 1 minute becomes 2 minutes.)

4. If this is too much, reduce it. (1 page can become 1 page and a paragraph, and 1 minute can become 1 minute and 15 seconds.)

5. If this is not enough, increase it. (1 page becomes 3 instead of 2, and 1 minute becomes 3 instead of 2.)

6. Remind yourself that, yes, it is that simple.

7. Repeat until you reach a milestone or endpoint.