The Power of Incremental Gains

How many of you are okay with incremental gains from gym or martial arts workouts?

Surprisingly, at 59, I’m fine with the idea of small gains. Like most folks, I was unsatisfied with mere incremental gains in my younger days. It was either substantial gains or bust! Let’s be honest, my strength gains were quicker and more substantial when I was younger.

I’m being Captain Obvious here, but I ain’t no spring chicken anymore. I’m not as strong. My recovery is slower. I’ve been quite inconsistent with lifting over the years. I started all over again after recovering sufficiently from my hip replacement to return to the gym. Frankly, I was at the bottom of the barrel when I started lifting seriously in mid-August.

I have progressed nicely but slowly. For example, warming up with 135 lbs on the bench press was a piece of cake in my younger days. Just put two 45-pound plates on the barbell, and I was good to go.

Ahem, when I resumed lifting in mid-August, I had to start with 115 lbs as the warmup weight and even then, it was challenging. Blimey!

It took me two months to return to my baseline of 135 lbs—two freaking months. But I was okay with it due to my age and my physical condition. Just need to keep grinding!

Now, I warm up with ten repetitions of 135 lbs. Then I do two sets of 140 lbs. At the beginning of November, I could do six repetitions of 140 lbs on the first set. I’m now up to nine repetitions on the first set. In other words, it has taken four weeks to progress from six repetitions to nine. The story is the same elsewhere in my lifting routine.

My approach is if I cranked out nine repetitions of 140 lbs in the last workout, I will shoot for ten repetitions the next time—ditto for the other exercises.

Boys and girls, can you say “incremental?”

If you are not able to view this video, go here.

The video above argues that “having better systems” is better than “setting goals.” I can’t entirely agree with this. Setting goals is very useful and is a powerful motivator. However, this is a minor disagreement in the grand scheme of things. I prefer to pair “better systems” with “goals.” I love the emphasis on continual improvement, especially concerning “1% improvement in nearly everything you do.”

That is precisely what I’m doing with my lifting routine. Let me backtrack here. Any improvement in martial arts (outside of the competitive arena) is subject to “eyeball assessment.”

“Oh yeah, Sammy’s forms look sharper than six weeks ago.“

There are no measurement devices or metrics for assessing a martial artist’s progress. It’s mostly subjective.

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In contrast, measuring one’s improvement in the gym is easier. I alluded to my improvement in the bench press from August to the present moment earlier in the post. You’re lifting more today than you did six weeks ago. Simple as that.

Additional Reading

• Incremental Improvement
• How Hard Do You Really Train?
• Going Back To The Gym
• A Look Back on 2023
• Book Review: “Martial Power” by Steven J. Pearlman

I constantly evaluate my lifting routine, diet, and other daily habits. If it looks like I’m plateauing in one area, I need to figure out the reason for the lack of progress. I have slightly changed my diet to speed up my recovery, increase my strength gains, and reduce my body fat. It’s nothing new. All I did was decrease my carbs and increase my protein intake. We’ll see if this slight change works.

What I have realized is that incremental tweaks lead to incremental gains.

In other words, continuous improvement and tweaks in EVERYTHING you do will lead to lasting incremental changes. There is no way to have incremental gains without incremental tweaks/constant improvement.

Note the importance of “continuous.” This means training consistently, not occasionally or sporadically. It also means constant evaluation of my routine. What’s working and what doesn’t contribute to my fitness?

Another crucial tweak I recently made was incorporating more supersets into my routine. All I did was tweak my existing lifting routine and combine a few exercises for a more intense workout. Among the three workout routines, I have just two superset exercises. I may add more as my body adapts.

How do you apply the above concepts to martial arts training without metrics?

How a friend of mine approached a kata competition may be illuminating to you. Instead of practicing the entire kata hundreds of times, she practiced every move hundreds of times to obtain a 1% improvement in every single move.

For example, she practiced the first move of her kata 100 times. She then practiced the second move of the kata 100 times. She then practiced the first two moves 100 times. You get the idea now. She paid attention to detail in every movement.

I bet you would not be shocked to learn she won the kata competition. She aimed for a 1% improvement in every kata movement, which paid off big time.

How do you approach continuous improvement in your martial arts? Can you give me examples? Let’s hear your feedback!

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