Leverage and Cycle Your Effort
Read on kevferrell.com
Welcome to Rewire | Reboot, a weekly newsletter where I share reflections from my ongoing personal growth journey and provide tested ideas, frameworks, tools and practices to help you create the life you want.
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In this issue:
- Falling Off Track (and Getting Back On)
- Periodization - Cycle the Effort
- Applying the 80/20 Rule
Rewire
Falling Off Track (and Getting Back On)
This week I’m going to do something a little different.
I want to share a personal story, which stretches me out of my comfort zone. But it’s a real example of how I actually apply the principles I write about. And it’s a reminder that no matter how disciplined or consistent we think we are, we all fall off track sometimes.
This is about what happens after the miss.
It was a Friday night after a long, tiring week. To cap things off, I was trying to back my car out of the garage during a snowstorm, blocked in by a growing snowdrift. There were plenty of signals telling me to stop. I ignored all of them and kept forcing it.
The result? Damage to the garage and a full swipe down the front bumper and quarter panel of my nearly brand-new vehicle. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy in that moment.
So I did what a lot of us do - I blew off some steam. A bad meal, a few (too many) adult beverages and a late night. It was fun at the time and definitely took the edge off.
The next morning, I felt a little rough. I thought to myself - you have three options:
- Pull the covers over my head and sleep in
- Reach for a little hair of the dog
- Get back at it
There wasn’t actually a decision. It was only option three.
I got up, downed my hydration cocktail, followed by heat and then cold exposure. Coffee with collagen as I cleared my inboxes. Then off to the gym for a steady cardio session followed by some high intensity work, a bodyweight strength circuit and a mobility routine.
Did I feel amazing right away? Physically - no. Mentally - absolutely.
Because discipline isn’t about feeling motivated. It’s about doing the thing anyway. Especially when it’s hard. Especially when you don’t feel like it.
I call this kicking my own ass. But the workout wasn’t about punishment. It was about proof that I can bounce back, that I’m resilient, that I can still do hard things even when I’m not at my best.
Here’s the bigger point: nobody is perfect. Not a single one of us. We all fall off track. We all slip. And honestly, that’s not only normal, it’s necessary.
You can’t be 100% on all the time. You’ll lose your sanity. We all need to indulge once in a while and enjoy all things life has to offer. Too much rigidity makes it harder to stick and to develop adaptability and flexibility - both of which matter far more in the long run.
Even when I dieted for bodybuilding competitions, I had to schedule cheat meals. Not just to stay sane, but because they actually improved results. Re-energizing training, ramping metabolism and restoring focus. The small break made the system stronger.
Life is no different.
As a starting point, if you aim to be on track at least 80% of the time you’ll make progress. You will have great days where you nail it 100%. You’ll have bad days where you’re just trying to get the minimum in. Most days fall somewhere in between.
This isn’t an excuse to lower standards or justify avoidance. It’s a reminder to cut yourself some slack when you miss. And to respond decisively afterward. What matters most isn’t the miss. It’s how quickly you get back on track.
Remember the Drift Principle: stay within shooting distance. Miss once? Fine. Just don’t miss twice.
Over the course of a year, these misses are tiny blips that are insignificant in the long run if you course correct quickly.
We’re not chasing perfection. We’re after consistency. Something you can sustain long-term.
I’m not trying to become an influencer. I’m striving to be an exampler - living the principles I share including the moments where I struggle and fall off track too.
We all do. It’s human.
The goal isn’t to never fall off track.
It’s to respond fast and get back on.
Reboot - Health & Longevity
Periodization - Cycle the Effort
Training works the same way life does - you can’t go all-out all the time.
Most of us can’t and shouldn’t push at maximum effort every session. Progress depends on cycling your training. This is the Periodization principle.
Periodization is a systematic approach to training that deliberately varies intensity, volume, and focus over time so you can keep progressing without burning out, stalling or getting injured.
This means that most of the time, you’re training around 80%.
In strength training, that often means using loads in the 70–85% range of your one-rep max and stopping just short of mechanical failure, leaving one or two reps in reserve. Enough stress to stimulate adaptation without grinding yourself into the ground.
In endurance training, it usually looks like doing about 80% of your work at low-to-moderate intensity, with only 20% reserved for super hard efforts. You build the base so the intensity actually works when you apply it.
Just like you’re not always going to be 100% perfect with your nutrition or daily habits, you can’t push your body at maximum effort all the time either. Progressive overload, which I wrote about last week, doesn’t work indefinitely. If it did, we’d all be world champions.
Eventually, you have to pull back.
It means reducing load, intensity or volume long enough for your body to recover, adapt and come back stronger. During these phases, you keep doing something, but you allow your body to reset before pushing forward again.
This applies to every training discipline.
Powerlifters don’t train at their one-rep max year-round. They typically push hard for a few weeks, then back off with a de-load phase before building up again. Peaking happens briefly - for a meet - not indefinitely.
Bodybuilders follow the same logic. The contest prep requires extreme discipline to achieve ultra-low body fat, but it’s not sustainable. They peak, compete, then intentionally pull back to recover before pushing into a building phase again.
I love training in Krav Maga, but I found three to four times per week takes too much of a toll on my body so I have to keep it to one or two.
If you play tennis five days a week, eventually your elbows, shoulders, hips or knees will start talking back.
Hockey players who are on the ice seven days a week often see their progress stall, or even reverse, if they never cycle their training.
Different sports. Same principle.
The solution isn’t continuously doing more of the same. It’s doing something different to balance out your training: mobility work, complementary sports-specific or strength training, aerobic base building or simply less volume.
You can’t redline all the time. No one can - not even a machine.
Push the redline constantly and something eventually breaks. Progress requires periods below maximum effort. That’s how adaptation actually happens.
When you train all-out all the time, you hit plateaus faster. A short de-load, reduction in intensity or even a week off once in a while can do wonders. You return rested, recovered and suddenly able to push past previous limits.
Some of your best growth comes from periods of rest and recovery - physically and mentally.
Personally, I don’t like taking complete weeks off from movement. But I absolutely de-load, cycle and vary my training. Periods of heavy training offset by lower loads, more cardio and additional flexibility and mobility work. When I return to heavier training, my body responds better - stronger and more resilient.
It can be hard to step back from something you love. But longevity in training, sport and life depends on knowing when to push and when to pull back.
That’s the 80% rule in action.
The long game always wins.
Toolkit - Something I'm Using
The 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)
Keeping with the 80% theme, one of my favorite tools is the Pareto Principle, often called the 80/20 rule.
It originated with economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that a small portion of causes often drives the majority of outcomes, commonly expressed as 80% of results coming from 20% of inputs.
In practical terms:
- A few key actions drive most of the progress
- Most effort delivers diminishing returns
- Focus matters more than volume
How I use it: I seek to identify the 20% of actions that produce 80% of the results and double down on those.
That means:
- Focusing on the few tasks that create the most output
- Eliminating, automating or delegating the rest
- Avoiding the trap of “busywork” that masquerades as productivity
Applied to life, training and business, this concept isn’t just about doing less. It’s about doing the right things consistently. Identify the small set of actions or behaviors that create most of the benefit and stop wasting time and energy on the noise that doesn’t move the needle.
It’s about doing what matters most and letting go of what doesn’t.
Inspiration
“Success comes from doing, not declaring.”
— Derek Sivers
Let your actions do the talking.
One Action
Apply 80/20
Find one area of your life where you can apply the 80/20 rule. Double down on something that drives outsized results. Or eliminate something that doesn’t.
Let me know how it goes - just reply to this email.
Reader's Corner
Ask Me Anything
Have a question about something in this issue? An experience you'd like to share? A topic you'd like me to cover or dive deeper into in a future newsletter or article?
Or if you’re interested in seeing examples of my actual weekly training routines, let me know by replying to this email.
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Until next week,
Kevin
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