The Rule of Three (Fitness Version)

When listening to an audio tape, I once heard Brian Tracy explain “The Rule of Three”. This strategy is used to teach business owners how to maximize their priorities. Throughout this post, I have transformed and expanded this concept in a way I believe can greatly benefit people looking to improve their fitness. My words don’t represent him, but I wanted to give credit where it’s due.

In this article you will learn…

• There are a countless amount of things you can do that will help you achieve your fitness goals. However, only a select few of them will account for the majority of your results. The rest of your actions won’t generally matter.

• Today I’m going to give you a simple guide on how to both choose, and execute, what is most important when it comes to attaining your desired outcome. This will also help you filter out engagements that are of little to no significance or value.

• By answering the three questions below, you will discover what you must do, in order to acquire the success you yearn for. Without knowing or applying the answers, you will not receive results. That is, unless you implement them unintentionally or accidentally.

Here we go…

1. If you could only pick one activity to perform, which single achievement would have the absolute greatest effect on the results you desire?

By way of illustration, let’s say you want to gain lean muscle tissue.

In this situation, you must put at least some type of stress on your muscles to generate muscular hypertrophy or growth. How you do this, is going to depend on a multitude of factors. Nonetheless your goal will not be achieved in absence of this one action. 

My point is, your response to this question should simply stick out like a sore thumb. If you are the slightest bit unsure of what this is, do whatever is necessary to find the answer. This will be the factor that determines whether you will succeed or fail.

2. If you could only pick two activities to perform, which second achievement would have the absolute greatest effect on the results you desire?

If we stick with our scenario from question one above; we understand that first and foremost, you must apply some type of stress to the body for muscular adaptations, hypertrophy, or growth to occur. Nonetheless, how you decide to do so, is up to you.

Keeping things simple, let’s assume you decide to start working out. Along with this, your schedule allows you to attend the gym three days week, for forty five minutes each appearance.On the left hand, you spend the majority of your time performing movements that expend little amounts of energy like calf-raises, triceps extensions, and side raises. On the right hand, you opt to execute movements like lunges, squats, and push-ups, where you will expend greater amounts of energy.

In this scenario, the right hand’s conditions provide you with more suitable behaviors, that give you more bang for your buck. Partaking in anything is great, but if you go with the left hand’s philosophy, generally speaking it’s not optimal according to your original goal. Time and energy could be better spent elsewhere.

In the end, question two will direct you towards a more appropriate solution, so you are achieving maximum productivity, with minimum wasted effort or expense.

3. If you could only pick three activities to perform, which third achievement would have the absolute greatest effect on the results you desire?

I could go on an on with this list of questions, asking you what is the fourth, fifth, and sixth etc. achievement that would have the greatest effect on the results you desire, but by now I’m sure you get the picture.

The overflow of information, pouring in and out of the fitness industry, generates a lot of confusion about what you should and shouldn’t do to reach your goals. By asking these three questions, you cut out the hogwash, and put the more meaningful, worthy, and useful information into practice. All other actions can be sorted out, completed afterwards, or left undone.

Just because there are multiple ways to do things, doesn’t mean you should carry out every which way. The answers to these three questions put the focus on chief principles, while getting rid of the unnecessary tasks, that award you with minimal to no results.

Most individuals who acquire the success they want, tend to apply this material automatically, whether they know it or not. Give yourself a kick in the butt, make a list of things you need to do, and execute the three that are most critical. It doesn’t hurt to remind yourself of what’s most important, and by doing so you will achieve results the greater number of the population only wish they could.