“If the world’s best do ______, then I need to do that too.”
Not only is that a common quote, it is a complicated quote as well.
It is complicated because it is not entirely wrong or entirely right.
Training methods, biohacking, and optimization saturate the health and fitness landscape nowadays. Knowing what to do is tough to decipher because there is conflicting information around every corner.
Do I need to do only zone 2 training?
Do I need to ditch eating carbs?
What ice bathtub should I be looking at?
If you pay any attention to the conversations on social media, you know that these above topics (among others) are all the rage and confusing for the layperson. I am only now making my escape from the dogma, and have spent much of my past few years as confused as anyone.
A main driver of feeling that you need to train, eat, recover, live, optimize like the best is the fear of missing out. It looks good so it must be good and is worth using, even if using it in your daily life has no impact, or worse, a negative impact.
Yes, I have seen this stuff backfire.
To add to the complication, you aren’t in the wrong for thinking this way. Employing the latest trends in health and fitness is logical and can work for you, but the reason it may work is likely different from what is advertised.
I replied to a fellow follower on X who was talking about how he saw a popular swim workout, shared by an Elite, and was discouraged about how it was advertised as easy when it was not within his easy zone:
This small example poses an important question that served as a revelation for myself:
Are the protocols of the best effective because of what it is or because of how they approach doing it?
I am starting to think that it is the consistent day to day operation that makes the flashy, trendy things appear to work for these experts, gurus, and professionals.
It is not so much the thing as it is the lifestyle through which the thing is being applied.
The good news for an amateur like myself or like you is that we can act on being more consistent in everyday life and grabbing control of our surroundings.
Is there a guiding principle from this “trend” that fits my goals and aims?
What is the real reason why this can or cannot work?
Those may be better questions to ask.
From there you may be able to make that “world beater” strategy more tangible, tweak it to fit your needs, and work on being your best, not necessarily the best.