It’s Memorial Day 2024 and I’m working on another edition from the gym.
Today I’ll cover a new concept that came forth as I contemplated how I would approach 4 sets of a heavy lower body compound movement for an 8,8,6,6 split.
Here’s the story..
My training program is designed to give me latitude in choosing which weights I use in each session.
I started this workout with 155 lbs for both sets of 8 before increasing the load to 165 lbs for my first set of 6. This was my first time ever using 165 lbs for this movement as I’ve gradually built up to it. Therefore, 165 lbs was plenty challenging to do.
As it’s prone to do, my ego kicked in before my last set of 6 repetitions – tempting me to increase the weight even further for that last set.
Fortunately, I paused for a moment and reflected on all of my years of experience in the gym and decided that I’d better play it safe and hold off on increasing the load too fast to minimize my risk of being set back by injury.
I was proud of myself and in reflecting on making such a good decision, the lesson for this article was born.
Raise Your Floor
There are two ways to get better in the gym which are:
Raise your ceiling. This is how I did it for most of my life and how I bet most people do it. In this approach we focus on the upside and obvious portions of our training such as the weight on the bar, how much we are lifting relative to other people, and whether we are always going up in weight.
This approach works, but is problematic because for one, it is not really sustainable – there’s a real limit to how much all of us can lift. Secondly, it increases our risks of catastrophe as we constantly operate at a level beyond our safe capacity
Raise your floor. This is a less understood, oft overlooked, and less prioritized approach to training where we focus on the foundational parts of our exercises while minimizing downside and risk. It’s a less sexy approach because it requires more patience. As a result, fewer people are probably willing to do it in spite of it offering greater long term results.
Visualizing Raising Your Ceiling Vs Raising Your Floor
Here a visual of what this looks like. This plot represents my lifelong capacity in the gym. At the far right we have my absolute maximum potential along with my absolute lowest potential on the opposite end. The box in between is where I am today based on my recent training history. Thus, it’s an ever shifting state.
Let’s assume I’ve been focused on raising my ceiling at the right side of the plot by hitting the gym as hard as possible, increasing weight each session, and competing with other guys who threaten my ego.
Because of this, I give into the temptation to go up by another 10lbs which requires me to work to the upper limits of my capacity… and I end up straining a muscle that sidelines me for 3 weeks.
Due to the time on the mend, I end up sliding backwards as my body loses its adaptation. Too much time off could result in a complete shift of my capacity toward my lower potential. I must now work to make it back to my pre-injury level before progressing forward.
Now let’s visualize the actual scenario of me opting to not increase weight. Instead, I prioritized raising my floor by maximizing my proficiency, efficiency, and technique with the lower weight of 165lbs. As a result, I avoided getting hurt while simultaneously allowing my body to adapt to 165lbs.
Thanks to these adaptations,165lbs slowly moves from a load that challenges my body to one that I adapt to and can eventually handle with ease. In other words, I’ve successfully raised my floor as depicted below.
Your Floor Is A Guarantee - Your Ceiling Is Only Potential
If you were to bet your life savings on someone’s ability to deliver when it counts most, who would you choose? I’d go with the second person since they offer much more of a guarantee.
I’d also take this sort of guarantee when it comes to my own money. As with my success stacking principle, it’s better to have a long term approach and lock in the small wins over constantly swinging for the fences and missing.
Examples Of Raising Your Ceiling Gone Wrong
I can think of several examples that highlight the hazards of trying to raise your ceiling. The underlying thread of each of these scenarios is that the individuals involved prioritized maximizing the top end of their capacity versus securing their floor.
Me Going Broke In 2018. By rushing and taking on too much debt, I ruined a good situation where I had a fully paid off property and a second property with a sub $100,000 mortgage. A better approach would have been to focus on securing my floor by going at the speed of cash.
Becoming A Manager Before You’re Ready. An old work friend told me a story of the time he became a manager and then voluntarily stepped down because he realized he wasn’t ready. He thought he wanted the esteem and money, but the demands of the job took him too far out of his comfortable capacity and he was much more at peace being an individual contributor.
Crashing Your Small Business. An old friend spent 5 years building a profitable small business before crashing it due to a series of risky and greedy decisions such as partnering with a scam artist who ended up conning my friend out of $200,000. He would have been better off focusing on raising his floor by implementing structure and systems to ensure his business remained viable for years to come.
Youth Ball Players Focusing On The 3. An observation during my coaching days was that players would prioritize 3-point shot mastery in spite of not being able to dribble well or make layups with their left hands. By skipping the fundamentals, they never developed their game’s well enough to make their middle or high school teams.
Don’t Rush, But Don’t Get Stuck
The final thing that I’d like to add here is that you also don’t want to get stuck. For example, I’ll work with 165lbs for maybe another week or so to lock in my proficiency before adding weight to the load and moving up.
Similarly, be sure to slowly and methodically push the boundaries of your potential because you want to avoid being someone who hasn’t grown throughout the years because you didn’t try.
The point of this post is just to say that you also don’t want to be in the same spot many years down the line because you made the error of only focusing on your ceiling.
Based on this, I’d say somewhere in the middle is where you will find your sweet pot for growing and achieving the things you want.
I hope you can find it!