Compounding Returns In Your Training 

‘Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.’ – Naval Ravikant

‘Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it, he who doesn’t pays it’ – Albert Einstein  

The association of compound interest with wealth creation is undeniable. As pointed out by Naval Ravikant in the quote above, all returns in life come from compound interest. 

The older I get, the more obvious this has become. 

Why? 

When you’re 25yo that’s not a lot of time to have personal experience in decades of compounding compared to when you’re 45yo, 55yo or 65yo as an example. 

How does this relate to your training? 

Outside of any genetic gifts inherited from your family tree, compounding applies to your training equally as it does anything else.  

Therefore I find myself repeating ‘compound the stimuli you want in your life’ to newer clients. The longterm clients are examples of this.  

Let’s assess this from a physical qualities point of view. 

There are four physical qualities: Endurance, Flexibility, Speed and Strength.

Now check out the requirements for a Strength and Conditioning Coach at this Australian University: 

Two things immediately stand out. Firstly, the omission of a physical quality. Unsurprisingly only three of the four physical qualities are worth mentioning according to this position description. 

Secondly, the irony! ‘Injury rehabilitation and return to play protocols’. This University position know’s players will get injured so they need the job candidate to be versed in nursing players back to game condition post injury.  

Ironic because in my view flexibility is the most under trained physical quality in sport and has the greatest contribution to injury prevention of all physical qualities. Imagine ignoring it completely…  

When it comes to compounding, it’s no wonder these players are getting injured. All of their training is shortening and tightening connective tissues. This is not optimal. When a player gets injured, I’m confident the injured player will be exposed to a more optimal and balanced approach to connective tissue health. Then thrown back into the same environment that created the injury in the first place.

Ian King said ‘time magnifies errors in training’. This applies to great training decisions too. Whatever you do most of is going to be magnified over time. This is key. Your past decisions have landed you where your are now. Your current decisions will determine your future outcomes. Good, bad, sad, glad, happy, mad, compounding doesn’t care. 

We decide the stimuli our mind and body are exposed to and time amplifies our choices. What an opportunity!

Choose wisely.