Find the Keystone

Training, at any level, and of any kind, is about making some change in something. Weight loss, health, strength, feeling better, a deadlift PR and a faster mile are either subjective or objective markers that, based on our goals, we want to move one way or another. This brings us to the first objective of training, establishing a goal. Having a goal doesn’t drive the direction of our training specifically, but in a global sense it helps inform us of where we want to go, what levers we need to pull, and what, physiologically, are we trying to influence. 

Having a goal, unfortunately, is the easy part because wanting to do something is much easier than doing what you need to do to “get there” or at least be heading in that direction. In order, however, to know which direction to head in, we first need to know where you are right now. Sometimes this is easy, right now you deadlift 185lb and you’d like to deadlift 225lb, right now you feel worn out and tired and you’d like to feel more energized and improve sleep quality. Finding where you are requires only one thing, honest, hard, self assessment. Facing this reality can be hard. This reality is the reason so many people that wish to lose weight or improve their body composition are so afraid to step on the scale, or get their body fat measured. They do not want to know the truth. At the same time, self delusion might lead someone who wishes to squat 400 at a powerlifting meet, to believe their goal is much closer than they think because they’ve convinced themselves that their 365 half squat will “be there on meet day”. Reality can be humbling and finding where you are in order to know where you need to go can be disheartening , yet it is a necessary step in this process to change.

We have, at this point, created two points on the map. Where you want to go, via you establishing a goal, and where you are now, via some sort of honest assessment related and specific to said goal. The path, however, is where the magic really happens. Sometimes, for the uninitiated, just storming into the unknown in the general direction of their goal can and will get them most of the way there. You want to lose weight? Eat way less food. You want to get stronger? Go to the gym every day and train as hard as you can. These brute force tactics can be a great place to start, and due to their nature are loaded with tons of failures and learning opportunities. At some point, however, we need to take a step back, both from our goal and from our current location, and query the best path forward. What are we really lacking? What are our biggest and easiest levers to pull? If you’re trying to improve body composition maybe exchange some of those full sugar sodas for diet sodas, or better yet, water. That may well be all you need to move the needle and not burn off all your muscle in a massive scorched earth style diet. Maybe you don’t need to hammer squats anymore to get that last 20 pounds on your PR, because you upper back is so weak, doing extra rowing work on your squat days will push you over the edge to the PR. These single pinpoint items are like keystones in the arch of the bridge between where you are and your goals. There may be just one, or many, of these low hanging fruit that can be directly and easier addressed to elicit a marked improvement.

The issue isn’t in doing what you need to do to improve them, it is finding them in the first place. You need to know the right questions to ask, how to ask them, and similarly to our first assessment, they require honesty in order to be effective. 

Finding these keystones greatly depends on your goals and your specific strengths and weaknesses. We are all different and will require a different level of assessment and understanding of ourselves in order to determine what is the best use of our attention. After years of brute forcing your way through the unknowns of training towards your goal, your many failures will bring you to some of these issues. My bench went up the most when I did this tricep exercise, my run felt the best when I did this much mileage a week, I felt and slept the best doing this style of training. Trial and error is the best teacher, but it is not the fastest or the safest. It is at this point that training partners, trainers, coaches, nutritionists, and other experts related to your goals can greatly accelerate your path forward. These people, hopefully by a combination of their own failures and unrelenting curiosity for their craft, have learned how to identify these keystone qualities related to your goals. They know the questions to ask, how to ask them, and what the answers really mean. Regardless of how you plan to establish a route toward your goal, you must know that there’s always a lowest common denominator; there’s always a keystone waiting to be placed on your next arch. You just need to find out exactly what that keystone is, and then put it there