When LESS CAN Be More

Talking with an athlete of no mean accomplishment recently, we hit on the topic of time in a workout.
Now, we hear every day about the hours spent in the gym'.
We hear 'Well, I go to the gym two hours a day, at least three times a week. I can't understand why I'm not getting the results I feel I should be getting. It's a problem.'

The problem is not the time spent in the gym'. The problem is that the person equates time in the gym' with time being productively active.

People go through a routine of 20 or more different exercises. They put the time in doing them all. They even pay some attention to technique. This can be verified by the amount of time they spent talking about the merits or otherwise of doing some particular exercise in a particular way.
The fact is that they spend more time talking than doing.
Which is why they're not getting the results that they should be getting, or could be getting.

We can all do it.
I have at times. 
And that brings me back to the gentleman with whom I'd been talking about time spent in the gym'.
I had suggested that he reduce the number of exercises he was doing, that he could work with five basic exercises, with more attention, more precision, and at a rate at which he could perform every repetition as closely as possible to perfection.

A few things happened over three months. He spent less time in the gym'. The precise training at first exhausted him and he had to rest a bit more in between workouts. That is, he learned to recover effectively.

The next thing that happened was that his muscles got noticeably stronger, his speed increased in the field, and a great advantage to him was that he had more power in his game,  won more ball and he found that he repelled many more tackles.
He was fitter, stronger, faster.

The less time he allocated to being in the gym' meant he had to make more use of the time he was there.

He was focused, more intent, more attentive.

The quality of his training improved greatly. Now, instead of just attending the gym' premises for nearly two hours, he was in and out in 45-50 minutes and making every minute count. I've seen this time and again over the years. And because the quality of the work improves in that area, it tends to wash over into other areas life as well. 

We become more conscious of our use of time and how we apply ourselves when we're attempting something. We develop the reluctance to waste time doing anything that isn't getting us closer to our goals.

The foregoing is a clear and indisputable example of making more use of less time, isn't it?
Give some thought to this and see  if it might apply to something in your own life.

It's one way of getting more for less. to edit.