We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus with this newsletter, and perhaps I got in over my head doing three different newsletters.
OR, maybe I’m in to the exact right level on my head, because we’re back!
And today, we’re going to talk about getting back into fitness for regular folks with an exploration of a topic that I hope will help a lot of you: New Jersey Style.
NJ Style
No, not a fashion magazine of tanned bros who dress like goth Guy Fieri.
New Jersey Style is a software development style coined by a guy named Richard Gabriel, often expressed simply as: Worse is better.
How does software development apply to fitness? Gee, if only someone wrote a newsletter about it…
HA! HERE I WRITE THAT VERY NEWSLETTER!
Let’s start with the first part of this idea, worse is better, by talking simplicity.
In software, the idea of “worse is better” could sometimes mean that a software with fewer features, fewer bells and whistles, might be “worse” on a technical level, but “better” for users.
Because a simple software that does what it needs to may be easier to learn. It may be less rigid and more adaptable as time goes on.
The point of software isn’t the software itself. The point of software is to let people complete a task. If I get “worse” software 6 months sooner, and if it’s got a simple learning curve and easy implementation, then I end up a year ahead of anyone who uses the “better” software. And maybe that year is more valuable to me than what I would gain from waiting on and learning the “better” software.
This is some of why I’m not a huge fan of certain types of dance-y, coordinated movement types of fitness classes, nor am I a big fan of super complicated strength circuits or fitness plans that require complex spreadsheets.
I think it’s easier to exercise when you keep it simple.
The less equipment, the better. The less instruction needed, the better. Because when it’s simple, I can just do it.
Man, that’s a great slogan. Someone should trademark that shit…
If you’ve been having trouble getting started or sticking to something, try picking the simplest version of that thing you can find.
If you haven’t been able to make your cardio plan work, fuck it, just walk. That’s got to be the simplest thing you can do, so do that.
A good simplicity test: if I look at my last workout, can I tell you immediately what my next workout should be?
If the answer is No, then it might be too complicated.
But wait, there’s more…
The other aspect of “worse is better” comes in optimization.
There’s WAY too much bullshit out there about optimizing your exact, perfect fitness plan.
To some extent, it makes sense. If you’re going to engage in an activity that’s not exactly a blast and a half for you, you want to derive the maximum benefit from it.
But it’s pretty common to get stuck in trying to optimize things so hard that you don’t do anything at all.
You spend so much time worrying about whether an elliptical or a treadmill is better, so you never hop on either. You worry so much about whether it’s okay to run on cement as opposed to dirt, and you never do either. Should I weight train or do cardio? Should I eat more carbs, no carbs, or…?
The 80/20 Rule And When It’s Time to Optimize
Let’s make a deal, me and you: Let’s not worry about optimizing until it’s time.
There’s this 80/20 theory, which is basically that 20% of your effort will go into 80% of a task. And that last 20% of your task ends up taking 80% of the effort.
This is VERY true with fitness.
I bought “micro barbell plates” for this reason. I put that in quotes because my “micro barbell plates” are big washers that weigh about half a pound each. You can buy more official micro plates, but they’re expensive as hell. Meanwhile, washers with a hole diameter that work on a barbell are cheap, come in packs of 10, and you get to feel like you’re beating The Man.
These plates let me take 1-lb. increases in the amount of weight on the bar, which is a tiny increase in any context.
And when you’re doing something like an overhead press, that’s what you have to do as you get towards your upper limit. You have to take smaller and smaller jumps, and it might take you longer to make each jump as well.
This is what you end up doing when you’re in that final 20%. You become a weirdo.
But you don’t need to be that weirdo until you’re scraping that ceiling.
You don’t need to get micro plates until you’re 80% of the way there. You don’t need to examine your running plan in a hardcore way until you’ve completed a few 5k’s and want to run a sub-20. You don’t need to take a hard look at your walking schedule until you collapse on your front steps, but you’d like to be able to go 2 miles further.
Focus On that 80
Let me encourage you to focus on that 80%. Put in that 20% effort, get 80% of the way there.
Because the truth of all this is that 80% is probably more than good enough for most of us.
If you had a weight loss goal, and you got 80% of the way, you’d probably be just fine.
If you had a weight gain goal, and you got 80% of the way, you’d probably be just fine.
And the real secret of this is that if you can get 80% of the way there, you’ll probably stick with it, whether that means maintaining that 80% or pushing to 85%.
My last fitness goal, believe me, I was not quitting at the 80% mark.
Good and Perfect
Don’t eschew a good result in hopes of getting a perfect result.
Doesn’t “eschew” sound like a nut? Like a premium nut you’d get in a mix, and there would be like 5 in the whole can?
I genuinely believe that a lot of people struggle with fitness because they don’t see a settling point, a maintenance point, a place they can reasonably see as “good enough.”
And that’s too bad, because “good enough” is pretty awesome. You feel good, you’re satisfied with how you look, you fit into your clothes, you don’t feel like shit because you ended up walking 5 miles in a day while on vacation. You don’t dread moderate physical activity.
Good enough is a great place to be.
Go there.
And once you’re there, THEN decide if you need to go further.