Progress Isn’t Linear
Most individuals when starting a new activity begin with a simple plan. Run a little faster each week, cycle a little further each month. At the start, progress comes quickly. Distances increase and times improve, it’s easy to feel unstoppable in these early stages. Yet many times, often without warning, individuals hit a wall. No matter how hard they continue to push, performance stalls. Some days it may feel that you’re actually getting worse rather than improving. You begin to wonder whether you’ve hit your peak, as if this is as good as it gets.
It’s easy to assume that just by pure hard work only, it should produce consistent results - a straight line moving up and to the right without stopping. Pure progress. But in reality, progress whether in fitness, careers, or life, rarely occurs linearly. It’s far more akin to a winding road with peaks and valleys, detours and unexpected turns.
Consider the stock market. Investors know that markets fluctuate daily. Prices rise and fall based on a myriad of factors - some predictable such as quarterly earnings, others not, in the case of questionable tweets from an overzealous CEO.
Yet, over the long term, the general trend has historically been upward. Successful investors don’t panic during the downturns; they stay the course, ignore the flux, understanding that patience pays off.
Uber is a really interesting example. Having been founded in 2009, Uber didn’t soar to success overnight. Along the way, the company faced huge regulatory hurdles, legal challenges and stiff competition from pre-existing transportation firms. The idea that anyone with a car could become an Uber driver seemed insane on the surface. In some cities within the USA it was actually banned outright.
There were times when its future seemed not just uncertain, but a likely failure. But Uber adapted, restructured, and continue to move forward. Today it’s a global entity, reaching this status not because its path was smooth, but because it consistently navigated the bumps that occurred along the way.
Just like Uber’s winding path to success, our fitness journeys rarely follow a straight line. When starting a new workout routine, we often experience initial early improvements. Muscles become more co-ordinated, increasing in size and strength, our cardiovascular endurance builds, we feel more energised. But soon, these early beginner gains can plateau. We may even regress due to the accumulation of fatigue, mismanagement of stress, or other life factors.
It’s during these times that many individuals become discouraged and consider giving up, not seeing the rewards for investment that they did in the early stages.
But just like the markets, these fluctuations are normal. Our bodies are complex systems influenced by sleep quality, nutritional intake, stress levels, and genetics. Some days we’re full of energy, on top of the world; other days, even the effort of getting in the car to drive to the gym can feel like an insurmountable chore.
This is why most of our clients’ training programs incorporate varying intensities, volumes, and rest periods. The aim is to understand that complex systems, like the human body, mean not every day will feel the same—many factors are at play. Your RPE 9 on the Assault Bike this Monday might not produce the same output as your RPE 9 next week. And that’s OK.
Athletes at the top end of any sport understand this well. We see the end result where matches are won, medals are earned, and admiration acclaimed. We assume consistent, linear improvement. We don’t see the training that would have included intense periods of rest and recover, the injuries faced, the setbacks that may have occurred, losses and rejection along the way. But those individuals recognise that this is part of the process, not the end of the road.
One of the examples we see most regularly with clients is when working towards a weight loss goal. It’s very rare that the scale ticks consistently down by the same number week-on-week-on-week. Weight can fluctuate day-to-day due to a number of factors; water retention, hormonal changes, possible muscle gain in time. Focusing solely on the numbers can obscure the bigger picture of improved fitness and health.
Yet when we take a step back and look and the overall trend, the changes in weight can seem much clearer over greater time horizons.
It’s important to recognise that setbacks aren’t failures - they’re part of growth, inbuilt into the process. Muscles, for instance, grow stronger in the recovery periods after being stressed. Without rest, they can’t rebuild. Pushing relentlessly without pause can lead to injury or burnout.
J.K. Rowling famously encountered numerous rejections from publishing agencies before finding success with Harry Potter series. It would be easy to look at her journey and assume linear progress, without recognising that the fame and fortune she’s experienced was the result of multiple ups and downs that would have tested her resolve endlessly.
So how can we navigate the non-linearity of health and fitness?
Embrace patience and long-term thinking. Just as our investor example adopts a long-term strategy for greater overall outcomes, we should look to view our health and fitness journeys over a time course of months and years, not days and weeks. Progress may seem slow at times, or uneven in outcome, but consistency over time yields compounding results.
Adjust your expectations. Accept that there will be good days and bad days. Plateaus in progress are the norm. Recognising this helps with in preventing the discouragement when immediate results may not necessarily be visible.
Focus on the process. Aim to find enjoyment in the activities themselves rather than being purely fixated on the outcome. Be present. If you love what you’re doing, you’re far more likely to stick with it through those unavoidable ebbs and flows.
Celebrate small wins. It seems simple, but it’s so often something we ignore. Acknowledging minor achievements along the way does provide that sometimes necessary boost in motivation. Maybe you ran that extra kilometre, lifted the heavier load for the same number of reps as last week, or simply had a day where you felt more energetic, engaged and awake. Those are all signs of progress not to be ignored.
Learn from setbacks. Injuries or regressions in performance, whilst irritating, can teach us valuable lessons both about our bodies capacities and their limitations. Use them as opportunities to adjust your approach in response.
Diversify your activities. Just as a savvy investor or small business owner may have a diversified portfolio or revenue stream, mixing up a fitness routine every once in a while can prevent both boredom and the potential for overuse injuries. It keeps both your mind fresh and engages different muscle groups and movement patterns that may give you new opportunities to make progress with.
We’ll all be familiar to some degree with the analogy of climbing a mountain. The path to the summit is never straight up. There are ridges, valleys, and sometimes even descents that need to be made before the next ascent. But each step, whether up or down, does eventually bring you closer to the top.
Our bodies and lives are dynamic. Stress at work, in relationships, changes in sleep patterns, alterations to nutrition, or any other number of personal challenges can all impact our physical performance. Understanding that these factors played a a role allows us to be kinder and more considerate to ourselves when progress does stall.
Remember, the goal isn’t perfection but improvement. And improvement isn’t always measured linearly. Sometimes, staying in place whilst chaos ensues around you during tough times, is it’s own form of progress.
So next time you may find yourself frustrated by the lack of apparent progress, take a step back. Look at how far you’ve come in the past year, month, or even just this past week, consider the external factors at play, and remind yourself that the path to improvement is rarely a straight line.
The most rewarding journeys are often those with the most twists and turns. Learn to embrace them, control what is under your control, and recognise that with each step, no matter how small or circuitous, you’re moving closer to your goals.