Thursday, December 2, 2010

Paretos Principle 80:20 Rule




So todays a rest day but on the advice of someone I respect very highly I'm going to start blogging abit more about the goings on outside of training.

It's quiet an amazing Journey with A LOT of sacrifice I'm about to go on so on Thursday from now on I'll be posting a bit about other things in life other than the training... So today I'm going to talk about Pareto Principle and how it has shaped my training/life since discovering it.

Pareto's Principle is simple. In life we get 80% of our results from 20% of our effort. Conversely we get 20% of our result from 80% of our actions.. So looking at it further:



Gym
If I spend 100minutes in the gym out of that 20mins of what I do will give me the most results, for example if I'm training my upper body then basically the first 2 exercises I choose are what will give me the greatest outcome.. So this is the exact reason my gym workouts are 45-50mins. The first two exercises usually are the biggest bang for buck and then the next 3-4 are covering another training aspect.

For example my upperbody workouts

A. Compound Pushing movement - Activates most of the anterior upper body muscles

B. Compound Pulling movement - Activates most of the posterior upper body

C1-C2, D, E - assist getting the A/B exercises stronger OR focus on a weakness (i.e. grip strength/lower back)

So based on using this methodology I'm basically 'cutting out the crap'. A lot of people waste time doing things like Cable Crossovers or 35 different variations of bicep work and usually that doesn't yield much result.

Now conversely when we flip the equation we see how the elite get better because they put in that extra 80% of work to get the 20% extra... So if I was an elite bodybuilder then sure I'd be doing the rest but my purpose in the gym is to get better for Judo, not look good, not be a bodybuilder/powerlifter, but to get strength for me to use on the mat.

Judo

So now when we apply this principle to Judo is simple. 20% of what I do should cover 80% of the most important aspects of Judo.. So simply put its the Techniques I do, the Tactics to win fights and Conditioning. So the way to cover all of that is variations of uchi-komi/nage-komi, grip fighting & Randori.

However, as above, because I'm trying to be the best I can I need to put in the extra 80% to get the 20% further results. So that's the extra hours of uchi-komi, the repetition of techniques, the studying of film.

Life

The great thing about this principle, which is derived from the financial sector, is it applies to most areas in life. I'm currently learning to play the guitar. Now when I started it I got a course which began at the very beginning, reading sheet music etc.. etc.. Now while this is an important part I found that I could get where I wanted a lot quicker by learning 4 chords.. From this I can now play about 8 songs (very poorly I must say!) but again by spending my effort into learning 4 chords (out of around 60) I'm getting 80% of the results that I want. Obviously to become a great player I have to put in that much more effort but the principle holds up well again!

In closing

I guess the take home point about this 'principle' is it makes you examine why we do things and if there are ways to be more efficient but yield the same, or greater, result...

If would be great to hear your guys thoughts for this or anywhere you've applied this concept in your life (possibly without knowing it) so please throw a comment below or on facebook

Tomorrow's going to be another big training day so I'll post the workouts once they're done :)

1 comment:

  1. Yip I whole heartedly agree. Esp with training, right on the button. I also applyied to basketball......instead of trying too learn the behind the back under the leg left handed finger roll or 80%, i concentrated on the basics 20%. Therefore making it easier for me to gravitate into harder moves. So instead of being able to master just one complex move and go in one general direction, i was able to take the basic move ans take it too multiple directions. Which means i now am only limited too my imagination and not just that one skill set.

    Good Shit

    JOE H

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