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Consistency vs Intensity
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline
“Go hard!” “No pain, no gain!” While others say, “slow and steady wins the race.” “Do only that which you can do repeatedly.” …Well, which is it?!
As I call it, “C vs I” was all over social media a few months ago. The C stands for consistency, and the I stands for intensity. How do these two factors work together? Or don’t they?
Intensity sometimes gets a bad reputation. You’ll hear this when it comes to nutrition choices, we often want to avoid “intense” nutrition choices, or you’ll hear me harp on what’s sustainable. Truthfully, intensity can be incredibly powerful. When it comes to exercise, we often say that intensity changes the body. Intensity creates a challenge for us which is tremendous for growth. Yet, there is a downside to intensity — maintaining it.
Generally, the more intense something is, the less likely we are to be consistent with it. Think about it. An intense workout might require two hours at the gym which isn’t easy to find daily. A super intense workout might be incredibly exhausting and harder to motivate, feel energized, or recovered enough to do it daily. An intense nutrition plan which doesn’t allow for holidays, parties or much enjoyment is less likely to be long-term. We can try to white-knuckle it and use willpower but that often sets us up for…
