It doesn’t have to be “No pain, no gain”. The body is surprisingly good at adapting to the tiniest stimulus. Just doing slightly more than what you normally do will trigger the body to change.
Here is an example of how you can get well by just giving your 60% effort.
Let’s say you want to start walking to improve your cardiovascular health. Your 60% effort allows you to walk 10 minutes for two times a week. This change in behaviour may seem very insignificant. But as long as there is a slight effort, the body adapts after each session. After keeping this up for a few weeks — with the accumulation of many micro-adaptations — walking for 10 minutes will start to feel like 50% effort.
Then what happens to your capacity at 60% effort? It’s got to be higher — maybe 11 minutes of walking per session. Now you will be able to walk 11 minutes for two times a week, without exerting greater effort. After a while, this will start to feel like a 50% effort again, and you will be able to walk even longer at 60% effort. This cycle can continue indefinitely, and you can keep improving your fitness by only giving your 60% effort.
If you can give a greater effort consistently, that’s wonderful. But if doing more increases the occurrence of skipping workouts or quitting, then it’s counter-productive. There is nothing wrong with doing less. Everybody’s circumstances are different. What holds most people back is the all-or-nothing mentality.
You’ll get much further working at 60% effort for a year than someone who works at 100% effort for a few weeks and stops.
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