What is the 85 Percent Rule?
Steve Magness, athletic coach extraordinaire in the US of A, was talking about this 85 percent rule recently on a podcast. Apparently if you ask a top notch sprinter to give 85 percent and then 100 percent on two separate sprints, the 85 percent effort will be the better of the two. Why is this and what has it got to do with us mere mortals?
How Does It Work?
Well, first of all, it works because if the person is thinking 85 percent, he or she is relatively relaxed but as soon as you say 100 percent, they try too hard, tensing up and not allowing the movement to flow.
How Can We Use This?
And how can we use this in our quest to be healthy and happy? If you tell yourself that you are going to “eat clean” and exercise 100 percent of the time, you are immediately causing tension in your mind.
What are you going to do when you are invited to a friend’s house for dinner? What happens if the toddler is up sick all night? What happens if you have to go away for work meetings? This mismatch between 100 percent and real life is definitely going to cause you stress - not good for overall health at all.
Don't Add Stress To Your Life with 100 Percent
Imagine you have a health coach in your mind who tells you that, yes, healthy eating is very important, and, yes, moving your body is very important, but just try to stick to this 85 percent of the time. Immediately you feel “okay I can do this!”
Dinner party next week? No problem - eat what’s on the menu without fuss or guilt and enjoy! The very next meal you can get back on track. The same with your exercise regime - feeling poorly for whatever reason? Rest and recover, knowing that you only need to nail this thing 85 percent of the time.
Let Improvement Come Naturally with Consistency
As your body becomes more and more accustomed to a healthy lifestyle you’ll probably be performing well 90 percent of the time or more and you will feel great and sleep better.
So don’t try too hard - it leads to stress and burn out before you have gotten anywhere with your healthy lifestyle goals. Life will throw curveballs all the time but learn to accept them, respond right and then use a good dose of determination to get back on track asap.