"Energy: The capacity for work or vigorous activity; vigor; power."

~ American Heritage Dictionary

One of my favorite lessons from training my body (and helping others train theirs) is the idea that you want to focus on consistency over intensity. It’s not about getting all fired up one day and going off at the gym for an hour and a half…and then waking up the next day unable to move!

It’s much much much much much better to just show up. Put in your 20 minutes, your 30 minutes, your 40 minutes. Whatever. Just do it consistently.

Aristotle made it pretty clear: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence (aka Areté) then, is not an act, but a habit."

This applies to all aspects of our life. Quite simply, we are what we consistently do.

Sure, it's a lot more fun to jump into the latest fad diet or hit the gym for an intense workout once a week or go to a motivational seminar or yoga retreat, but the question is not how intensely we get into any given workout or week of dieting or weekend of yoga...it's all about whether we have the self-mastery to do the things we know we should be doing consistently--moment to moment and week in and week out.

An increase in intensity is required after the body adapts to the physical demands of a workout. The adaptation could occur over a week or a few days. I do agree, that consistently going to the gym along with increasing intensity leads to greater vigor.

yep! I agree. and well said.

I said something along those lines here

to consistently pushing ourselves! :)

-bri