“Winning the Workout” – Excerpt from Chapter 6, “Fitness without Fear”

I first picked up a copy of Vern Gambetta’s book, Athletic Development, in February of 2011 at the recommendation of a fellow coach. I had started training my kids and some of their friends, and I was looking for ideas for designing workouts that would be both fun and have some carry-over to whatever sports they were participating in. The book contains practical training advice on everything from what exercises to choose to how to condition different athletes for the demands of their sport. The practical advice was great and helped put a lot of training practices into context; however, a very important aspect of the book was the psychological importance of approaching training with the correct mindset.

One of the core concepts described in this book was the idea of “winning the workout.” This surprisingly simple trick is one I still use while training to this day. Gambetta initially heard this concept from swim coach Wayne Goldsmith and describes it in his own words as follows: “Winning the workout consists of high-quality work done with intent and purpose. Remember that quality is a measure of perfect. The goal is always high-quality work coupled with perfect effort looking toward preparation for competition. We always aim to own the finish.”1

The idea behind this is simple. When we are prescribed a workout, there are several different ways we can go about executing it.

• We can just go through the motions—floppy, apathetic, disinterested in the outcome.
• We can go in with the throttle wide open regardless of the purpose with pain and fatigue as the ultimate goal.
  OR
• We can focus on accumulating a higher volume of good quality work that will lead to our long-term improvement.

If you recall from Chapter Two, that last bit was the crux of Stephen Seiler’s research into polarized training. It is the high-quality, higher-volume, lower-intensity work that brings the greatest changes. If you want to do it right, think about the purpose of the workout and how you can get the most out of it while doing the least damage. As a trainer and coach, I know that this approach is the most ideal, but is often the most difficult when it comes to getting clients and athletes to follow suit.

1 Vern Gambetta, “Win the Workout,” HMMR Media (blog), June 1, 2020.