Micro vs Macro
Seeking macro change with micro actions will always fail
I read some old correspondence recently. One email to a fitness magazine editor whose name I can’t remember delivered some points that remain relevant today. I pulled those points out as a framework and wrote the following essay, which has a much different tone than the email that sparked it. And will likely have a different outcome as well.
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While working in the so-called training space I often encountered people whose field of view had narrowed to the point of being blind. They focused on micro issues at the expense of the macro. Tricked by a culture of quick fixes and the promise of easy resolution, they expected one workout, one supplement, one whatever would cause meaningful change. Magic sells, and the illusionist preys on hopefulness. But one activity (or supplement) alone can’t overwrite decades of behavioral build-up and it certainly isn’t enough to change who we are, which is the root problem.
Of course, one can increase physical activity as a means to improve health but until behavior during the remaining 160 hours of the week is assessed and addressed, those eight spent moving — as mindfully executed as they may be — won’t change one very much at all.
As a trainer I tried to work against this micro-focus by using the accumulation of effort to manipulate overall behavior: I assigned enough work, on a consistent basis to make clients naturally sleep more, which they wouldn’t do on their own because, “How can adequate sleep possibly influence the hormonal condition that affects body composition?” But without proper recovery they couldn’t keep coming to the gym to do the work they were certain was the key to losing weight or gaining mass so they slept more and better. I used more, and more frequent work to trigger changes in dietary behavior, which came naturally because being sore and feeling flat all of the time gets to be a drag. Once chronic soreness or fatigue set in the client was always more susceptible to dietary education.
Details don’t matter until one understands the overarching concept; work changes behavior.
