“Post Baby Fitness…”
Shared by Breanne Smedley
“Post baby fitness…”
Six weeks after having Charlee, I remember wondering “will I ever be fit again?”
I had been going back to CrossFit for about a week.
The workouts were hard for me. Mentally and physically.
I couldn’t lift as much as before.
I couldn’t run as long as before.
I couldn’t jump over a rope without having…err…issues.
I was constantly the last one to finish the WOD. The one that everyone else cheered on as they sat and recovered.
I would find myself looking back at what I was capable of just a year prior and think that there was no way I’d ever be that fit again.
The gap was too big. I had lost too much.
But, the real problem was that I wanted it now.
No matter that my body had just spent the last 10 months growing and birthing a healthy, beautiful baby girl. (Instead of PR’ing my push press).
Or that it was now using energy to keep this baby girl alive and healthy. (Instead of lowering my mile time).
I had been going back to the gym for a week, I should see improvements by now!
I’ve learned a lot of lessons from this experience.
A lesson about seasons of life, and accepting the ebb and flows that come with the changing stages.
Babies. Volleyball seasons. Sicknesses. Holidays. My fitness looks different in each of these stages. I’ve embraced this.
But I also learned an important lesson about the power of marginal gains.
Slow and tiny gains don’t sound appealing.
Big and fast gains. Now that sounds more like it!
We often underestimate the value of making small, daily improvements.
Merely showing up. Completing the reps. Maybe trying to go a little faster, add tiny bit more weight.
These things aren’t notable, or even noticeable sometimes.
However, the difference that a tiny improvement can make over time IS noticeable.
It’s called The Science of the 1% Rule.
It’s based on the premise that if you can make just 1% improvement each day, over the course of a year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better than when you started.
These small improvements compound, and eventually you end up with a very big gap between where you are, who you are, and what you can do now compared to where you started.
We often think that if we want to achieve great things, we need to take big action.
Get more fit.
Start a business.
Win State.
The truth is that the most significant events in our lives aren’t really stand alone events.
They are the results of daily habits.
Small actions taken over time.
Slightly better choices made now that lead to large gains later as they compound on each other.
For me, there is still a large gap between where I am and where I want to be in my fitness.
I’m not focused on that though.
Instead, just like I am doing in many other areas of my life, I’m focusing on the 1%.
I’m mastering the daily, boring, seemingly insignificant habits.
Trusting, that over time, they will turn into what others typically define as “success.”
I know now though, that success lies in the 1%.
#MindfullyEvolving
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