Low Hanging fruit vs marginal gains
Sir David Brailsford coined the term ‘marginal gains’ with the British Cycling Team. He was the performance director of the team and his influence changed the sport and made Team GB a dominant force for many years winning many gold medals in the Olympics.
He obsessed over the very smallest of details, such as teaching the cyclists how to wash their hands better so they got sick less and therefore didn’t miss training. He became the director of Team Sky and led them to 6 Tour de France titles in 7 years, overhauling everything from the saddle, to the suits and even rubbing alcohol on tyres for grip purposes.
The marginal gains theory was taken beyond cycling and into the business world and even into political elections. The idea is to improve 1% in every area of operations, which would lead to huge improvements overall. The fitness industry has also been influenced by this theory.
The theory of marginal gains is sound and has proven time and time again to make huge impacts in performance. The problem with it is that it can only work in certain environments. The British cycling team were in a ‘bubble’ where everthing was taken care for them. They also had 90% of their foundation taken care of when they started to implement the marginal gains theory.
The opposite of this theory would be to look for “low hanging fruit”. Instead of looking to gain 1% in lots of different areas, by finding the low hanging fruit we are looking for the one thing that will make maximum impact.
Most of us do not have the 90% foundation taken care of when it comes to fitness, health & performance. Nor do we exist in a bubble where people take care of everything for us outside of the gym.
I find that there’s far too much focus placed on marginal gains and not enough on the low hanging fruit. In my years as a fitness professional I’ve had conversations with thousands of people about their routines and we all have so much to gain by looking for the low hanging fruit.
Instead of worrying about the best fasting routine, focus on getting enough protein to support your muscle mass and enough calories to support your lifestyle.
Instead of taking supplements to help you sleep, make sure you have a regular bedtime. Go to bed early and wake up early, consistently.
Instead of worrying if you have the best gear (shoes, belts, etc) for the workout – just do the workout, regularly.
And before you start looking at anything, stop drinking alcohol – it will ruin every other thing you do to improve your health & fitness.
Once you’ve taken care of all the low hanging fruit, you can narrow the focus a bit and start looking for those marginal gains in particular areas.
Until then, train hard and do what you know you should be doing!
