The Amazing Power of Small Gains

The desire for progress is innate in humans.

If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have went from swinging out of trees in africa to dominating the world.

Dopamine is the molecule of more, to quote Daniel Lieberman. The hunt for progress is part of who we are.

But how does progress actually happen?

Nobody really knows. I certainly didn’t.

Not Understanding How Progress Works

If you think I’m patient with progress now, it’s because I have trained myself to be.

I was naturally very impatient. I wanted progress instantly like we all do.

The earliest memory of not understanding how progress worked was in my early teens.

I was at the desk in my room trying to build a little toy car, but it just wasn’t happening.

Nothing I tried was working.

I could feel tension rising in myself. I felt uneasy. I didn’t like it.

Soccer came naturally to me, but this didn’t.

I tried again – nope. I tried another way – nope.

The frustration started to boil over inside me now.

After a few more dead ends, I picked up the tool and hurled it towards the floor in a rage! I cut a big line into the floorboard.

I still see that cut on the floorboard when I am working from my family home.

It reminds me of who I used to be. How little control I had over myself. How little I knew about how progress worked.

Skip forward to now where I have patiently chased down my life goals over months, years & decades.

Enjoying the journey and my own evolution. The difference is night and day.

And one of the most pivotal concepts that helped me get there was the power of small gains.

It’s no exaggeration to say it completely changed my life.

It can do the same for you.

The Amazing Power of Small Gains

I will bring you through the timeline & process of how I learned about the small gains, and implemented it in my life.

1) Evolution

“You are living proof of the amazing power of small gains”

When I started to become obsessed with the human body to overcome my chronic pain & injury, I stumbled upon evolutionary biology.

This led me to realise the story of the human body: why chronic pain was inevitable in this modern environment, and how to finally overcome it.

But it also led me to stumble across this concept which I coined ‘small gains’ for myself.

Which was the understanding that there literally is no such thing as massive jumps in progress. With nature, with our bodies, with anything in life. It’s all small gains.

I realised a fundamental truth that changed how I viewed progress forever:

“Big gains are an illusion. Any big gain, is just an accumulation of small gains over time”.

But we don’t understand this. We think there are big gains.

So when the big progress doesn’t happen quickly from our misguided expectations, we naturally lose motivation and drop off.

Now we subscribe to the idea that ‘it didn’t work for us’ or ‘there is something wrong with my body’ etc. Pick your poison.

This is not the truth. It’s a narrative, a story you tell yourself.

But it doesn’t matter. Because if you believe this, then it will become your truth. It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Even just think of the word ‘evolution’. It means ‘to evolve’.

And what does ‘evolve’ mean? To ‘develop gradually’.

Develop gradually.

This is the only way change can happen. In humans. In nature. In the world.

With mobility, strength, skills, sports, business, relationships, life.

Progress happens gradually and slowly. Progress happens in small gains.

Any big gain you see, is just an accumulation of small gains over time.

The bigger the gain appears -> the more small gains that are stacked up.

There is a tipping point when all the small gains start to appear like a big gain.

But there is nothing special or miraculous about it at all. It’s just small gains.

Think of it like an iceberg:

  • You only see the tip of the iceberg (the achievements/accomplishments of others)
  • You don’t see the 95% of the iceberg under the water. (All the small gains it took to achieve the ‘big gain’)
  • Now your perception of progress is distorted

The evolution of the human species is a perfect example of small gains in action.

6 million years ago, humans and chimps diverged from a common ancestor and went on different evolutionary paths.

On the human path: 200,000 years ago, after many species of humans, homo-sapiens emerged (the species of human we are today).

We are born into this modern world and think nothing of it. It’s all we know.

But in reality, it’s been millions of years of small gains that has led to you being alive today. To be the species of human that you are.

The truth is that you are living proof of the amazing power of small gains.

When I understood this empowering truth of small gains, more research led me to find out that this concept already existed.

It was called the power of tiny gains. And was already popularised by the book “Atomic Habits”.

2) Science

As you know by now, small gains are incremental bits of progress.

But most people don’t realise the amazing power it has over time:

If you get 1% better each day, you are 37% better each year.

The ironic thing is that you probably already use the power of small gains in other areas of your life without realising.

Your pension is a great example.

A few hundred euro each month is useless in terms of sustaining your lifestyle when you retire.

But compound that over 40 years of work & compound interest, and now all the small gains have turned into a massive gain that will sustain you.

It makes complete sense to use there, but unfortunately that logic & understanding usually doesn’t transfer over to other areas of our life.

We expect the quick fix and fast progress due to our many human biases that distort our thinking.

Another example that stuck with me:

A penny doubled every day for just 30 days ends up being over 5 million.

Don’t underestimate the compounding effect of small gains.

3) Perspective Change -> Behaviour Change

“Perspective change leads to behaviour change”

Perspective change is so important, because it leads to behaviour change.

And you behave your way to success or failure over time.

Once my perspective changed from distorted views of progress, to the actual truth of small gains, I was empowered.

Instead of settling and giving up on my athletic career after I was told I had no choice, I knew it wasn’t over for me.

I knew I could come back to some capacity if I got the right training and followed the process of just aiming for small gains each session, each day, each week, each month.

It was time to not settle and start making deposits in the mobility bank. I now realised it would add up like a pension over time.

I knew I was onto something, but I honestly couldn’t have comprehended what would happen:

  • 1 year later: I returned to Jiu-Jitsu & the gym
  • 2 years after that: I hit the front splits which I was told was impossible for my hips
  • 1 year after that: I hit the pancake and had access to nearly all movements possible for the human body again

It blew me away.

I was the one that people were calling the ‘flexible’ guy, thinking these ‘big gains’ came naturally to me?!

Now I could see why so many people settle and think they can’t get progress with mobility or anything else in life:

Because they just don’t understand how progress works.

4) Progress Is Inevitable In Time

When I had cultivated the don’t settle attitude, and paired this with the understanding of the amazing power of small gains:

I was a force to be reckoned with.

I used to think I couldn’t change, that I was the way I was.

I didn’t make it in soccer and I thought that talent was set in stone. That you either have it or you don’t.

I was weak, skinny, shy, unconfident, and many other things. I thought that’s the way I would be forever.

But now for the first time in my life: I knew any progress that I wanted was inevitable in time. The small gain train will take me there.

I started chasing down all my goals like our hunter-gatherer ancestors did their prey: endurance hunting.

I picked out all my goals like a kid in a sweet shop, knowing they are all inevitable in time if I don’t settle and keep chasing the small gains.

Nearly a decade later and I have:

  • regained my physical freedom and taken it to elite levels
  • became stronger physically & mentally than I ever thought possible
  • turned my passion to my career
  • came out from behind the mask, lived true to myself, and became who I knew I could be

I behaved my way to success, one small gain at a time.

All from a perspective change, which came from taking ownership & educating myself.

Which shattered the idea of big gains and showed me the truth of how progress worked.

Big Gains Are An Illusion

“Big gains are an illusion, it’s just an accumulation of small gains over time”

Humans are wired to want instant gratification, so we are naturally blind to the power of small gains.

But when you train yourself to see the truth, you can’t unsee it.

Big gains are an illusion. There is no such thing.

With our body, with our mindset, with business/career, with relationships, with nature, with anything.

Now you’ll go back out into the world and see others trapped in their limiting beliefs.

“I could never”, “why bother”, “you won’t be able”, “it’s impossible”, “how does he do that?”.

Settling protects your ego, but it’s the graveyard for dreams and the fertile land for regret.

Stay there at your peril.

When I look back to that moment where I felt like the tin man and was told by 5 experts in a row that it’s over for me, time to settle. Tha is where my initial drive came from.

I know what it’s like to hit rock bottom with your body and many other areas of life, and I know it doesn’t have to be the end for you.

Settling is a choice, not a pre-determined destiny.

You can choose to not settle.

You can choose to chase the small gains.

So many people give up on themselves because they don’t understand the amazing power of small gains.

But now you do. You have the secret of progress.

You know more about how progress works than 99% of the world.

Go wield this superpower to wage war on your goals. To make them inevitable in time.

It’s time to get on the small gain train.

All Aboard The Small Gain Train

The small gains are all I’ve ever got.

The small gains are all I ever need.

They are all you need.

So many clients and people on Instagram have thanked me for the concept of small gains. Telling me how it has changed their life.

I teach all my clients about the amazing power of small gains, and this is what arms them on their journey of progress from the start!

It’s tools like this that make you so much more likely to get progress than the average person.

Michael’s journey is a great example. Read this snippet around small gains, then read the full review. You can see how the understanding of small gains has been one of the main catalysts for his amazing progress.

Other clients that come to mind on the small gains are Peter O’Donoghue & Anna Cafolla.

If you are ready to get on the small gain train towards overcoming your chronic pain & injury, check out the Physical Freedom Program.

DM me on IG or send me an email to guywhodidntsettle@gmail.com.

Don’t settle,
Mark

A Simple Guide to Beast Level Cardio

My Vo2 max recently hit 55 for the first time ever.

Or at least since I started tracking it 6 years ago.

Who knows if it was this high during my soccer prime as a youngster?

Either way, it’s been roughly 53 for the last 6 years. This year I have got it to 55.

It was a shock to be honest. With my badly torn right meniscus, I haven’t been consistent with Jiu-Jitsu & kickboxing. Which were my main sources of cardio.

But after reflecting on it, it does make sense.

You know my don’t settle attitude by now. If I can’t do what I want, I’ll do what I can.

I can’t do martial arts, but I can do cardio on low impact machines.

So I have been working on the crosstrainer & assault bike for my cardio.

In this newsletter I’ll lay out the basic science behind cardio, and how you can take yours to beast levels with a simple guide.

Fatigue Forged Me

I was a fit kid.

If I had anything going for me naturally (as it certainly wasn’t mobility or strength!), it was cardio.

I could run all day in matches.

I would never be limited by my lungs, but I started to become limited by my body. You know that story by now.

I never actually knew the science around cardio or how to train it properly. I just did the training I was told to do by my coaches in various sports.

Years later when I was doing martial arts, I had a moment that sparked my interest in learning about cardio:

I experienced absolute & utter physical exhaustion.

I had never experienced anything like this. Not in any match or moment of life before.

It floored me, literally.

I actually didn’t think a human could feel like this. I thought I knew what fatigue was, but I had no clue.

It was during my first Jiu-jitsu competition as a white belt. I didn’t do any ‘competition prep’. I just relied on my training and natural ‘pretty good’ cardio.

I got humiliated.

Let’s just say I understand the saying “fatigue makes cowards of us all”. You can read that story here.

Instead of shying away from it, I turned this pain into progress.

I decided it was time to take cardio seriously and start learning about it.

You know my strategy: I follow the results.

So I bought Joel Jamiesons book “Ultimate MMA Conditioning”, and then his course “BioForce Conditioning”. He has experience training elite UFC champions in cardio.

It’s an extremely detailed course (still haven’t finished the full thing).

But I’ll give you one major piece of information from it, and 2 methods you can use.

After this newsletter you will be able to plug & play this into your own training schedule.

Cardio Condensed

There is so much information out there.

So many flashy objects to follow, leaving us chasing our tail and none the wiser.

The starting point for taking ownership of your cardio is learning about the 3 energy systems.

Then understanding the best bang for your buck way to incorporate cardio into your training.

1) Energy Systems

The energy currency of the human body is called ATP. (adenosine triphosphate)

Every cell in your body relies on this. From your muscles to your heart, lungs and other organs.

ATP can be created in 2 different ways:

1) The aerobic system
2) The anaerobic system (alactic & lactic)

The aerobic system can produce ATP slowly, but in a nearly endless supply.
(extremely efficient energy production)

The anaerobic system can produce ATP very quickly, but in a very limited supply.
(extremely inefficient energy production)

Once you understand this, you can see that the task will decide how your body will produce the energy required. Through aerobic or anaerobic pathways.

For example:

  • if you need a lot of ATP very quickly (sprints), then your body will utilise the anerobic system.
  • if you don’t need ATP quickly (low intensity exercise or everyday living), then your body will utilise the aerobic system.

The aerobic system can sustain energy output nearly endlessly. (think of how long you could keep walking for if you had to).

While the anaerobic system can only sustain energy output for around 10-60 seconds.
(think of an all-out sprint)

The best example to see all systems in action is a sprint (running or on the assault bike):

  • The first 5-10/15 seconds of blistering speed (anaerobic: CP system)
  • From 10/15-60 seconds of fast pace (anaerobic: glycotic)
  • 60 seconds onwards where they slow down and eventually stuck at a slow pace gasping for air (aerobic)

This is shown in the graph below. (ATP & lactic are the anaerobic systems)

Now you will realise why this happens & what the words mean:

– Aerobic (WITH oxygen)
– Anaerobic (WITHOUT oxygen)

When your body can no longer produce more energy without oxygen (anaerobically), it will force you to slow down and start heaving to try and get more oxygen into your system (as you can only produce energy with oxygen now: aerobically).

A practical example of this:

If I am sparring someone in Jiu-Jitsu and they start mouth breathing and huffing/puffing while I can still breathe through my nose, I know they are gassing out quicker than me.

If I push the pace, they will crumble first.

When you see someone panting, they are on borrowed time.

They can’t produce any more energy without oxygen, so to continue they have to either:

  • slow down and produce energy aerobically
  • stop and rest to recover the ability to produce energy anaerobically

If you are confused, don’t worry. It takes time for all this to make sense. You are getting a crash course here.

The easiest way to think of it for now is the following:

  • aerobic = the engine
  • anaerobic = the nitrous injection boost

The nitrious boost only lasts 60 max, and takes a while to replenish (3-5 minutes). The engine is what sustains the vast majority of your energy in sport & life.

The engine is also what replenishes the nitrious. The bigger the engine, the faster you recover between the bouts of higher output.

Now you probably see the biggest flaw for most people: working on high intensity while neglecting the engine. (hello HIIT training)

Majoring in the minors.

The way to build beast level cardio is through a big engine.

The high intensity stuff is the cherry on top of your aerobic cake.

2) Low & Slow

Low & slow is the aerobic work. Building the engine.

The good thing about the aerobic work is that it can be anything as long as your heart rate stays in a certain range for a certain amount of time.

The guideline is:

130-150bpm for 30-90 minutes.

So you can:

  • Run
  • Swim
  • Cycle
  • Crosstrainer
  • Sport specific movements

As long as you keep your heart rate in the right zone for the alloted time, you will get the positive adaptations.

Which are:

1) Eccentric Cardiac Hypertrophy (i.e bigger heart)
2) Capillary density (i.e more veins/capillaries to deliver oxygen)
3) Increased Mitochondria (i.e improve how tissues utilise oxygen)

Now that I have the menisuc issue, I choose low impact options for my aerobic work (swim & crosstrainer).

But before this & after, I will use Jiu-Jitsu & kickboxing too.

To me, doing 6×5 minute rounds on the bag working technique, is more fun than 30 mins on a crosstrainer.

But if you can’t do what you want, you do what you can.

I usually have an interesting podcast ready to listen to for the low & slow cardio so it takes my mind off the boring task.

I have worked up to 60 minutes on the crosstrainer.

Instead of smal gaining my way up to 90 minutes (for time reasons), I am upping the intensity instead.

Doing 60 mins on the crosstrainer at level 13, is much different than 60 mins on the crosstrainer at level 1.

So that’s important to note: you can improve your aerobic system by completing the same time at a higher intensity.

But remember, your heart rate has to stay in the aerobic zone. If my heart rate started spiking upwards, then it’s not going to work.

If you don’t have a heart rate watch or monitor to track, a good gauge is if you can:

  • still breath through your nose
  • hold a conversation

If you can’t do those things, chances are you need to lower the intensity for now.

Remember, it’s low & slow. It should be relatively easy.

We leave the hard stuff for the sprints.

3) Hard & Fast

Hard & fast is the anaerobic work. Upgrading your explosive power.

There are many different methods, but an easy one to follow is explosive repeats. This trains your explosive endurance.

The guideline is:

5-20 sets x 10s hard/60s rest.

I started with 5 sets, now I’m up to 12. I want to get 20 sets by the end of the year.

You can know what level you are at when you can’t complete the next set at the same high intensity.

Completing sets at a low pace (aerobically), defeats the whole purpose.

That’s aerobic training, not anaerobic training.

Now you are stuck in no mans land: not training the aerobic system properly (low & slow) and not training the anaerobic system properly (hard & fast).

Aim to stay out of the middle, which is unfortunately what a lot of people do.

The human body is incredibly adaptable. But you need to be specific in the adaptations you want to elicit from your body.

Think of a marathon runner and a 100m sprinter. What do they spend most of their time doing?

The marathon runner does mostly low & slow, the sprinter does mostly hard & fast. Go figure. They don’t float around the middle.

Also it’s important to note that this is brutal work. Very tough physically & mentally. I dread it.

But that’s the whole point: you can’t become a beast without going through this.

It will make you more resilient on all fronts.

There are many options for the explosive repeats, but the main two are:

  • assault bike
  • running sprints

I use the assault bike. I have noticed the rogue bike is tougher than other assault bikes too, so be aware of that.

A huge part of being ‘fit’ and having good cardio, is your ability to recover.

Once you can do many explosive repeats and recover quickly, you know you are becoming much fitter.

An easy way to know that someone isn’t very fit: when they can’t get their heart rate back down after an explosive sprint.

Bigger Engine, Beast Power

If you focus on building:

  • a bigger engine with the low & slow aerobic work
  • repeatable power with hard & fast explosive repeats.

You will have beast level cardio in time.

Not only will you perform better in your chosen sport & activities, but you will live a longer, healthier life.

A worthy endeavor for every human.

If you need help adding effective cardio into your training, send me a DM on Instagram, or an email to guywhodidntsettle@gmail.com

Don’t Settle,
Mark