The 80/20 Theory – A lesson for the body, the brain, and life.

Time for another guest article. This time we're lucky to have a distinguished triathlete, whom I met on holidays, talking about training. 

Guest Blogger: Calum Pinder

One thing which replicates itself again and again in training literature is the advice that you should do 80% of your training at a low intensity and the remaining 20% at a high intensity, purposely missing the middle.

The argument goes that if you train in the middle you are repeating the same workouts at the same pace at the same distance and seeing no improvement yet introducing fatigue which hinders your future gains. If you polarise then it means you can smash the hard stuff (20%) which creates potential for improving fitness, then carry out the easy stuff (80%) well, which both creates an endurance base and allows your body to adapt to the 20% you’ve previously put it through.

I’d been considering where this repeats itself across non fitness related ventures for a while. In economics there’s Pareto’s law, whereby 80% of the spend relates to the “low value” purchases and 20% to what you could class as “high value” or strategic. In society the same law should apply – 80% of the wealth to 20% of the people and vice versa. Even when we sleep we naturally spend 80% of the time doing the easy stuff (stage 1,2,3 and REM), and 20% on the hard stuff (stage 4).

Mess with that balance too much and things start to go wrong. Society of course sees “the 1%” who have created such significant disparity between themselves and the poorest. If we miss out on sleep then we do less of the REM stuff leaving our minds tired and functioning poorly. In training if we do the easy stuff too hard we can’t recover and if we do the hard stuff too easy we won’t get fitter.

After being in the company of Declan and Claire for a few days, along with my partner Katee at the triathlon training camp, I started to notice some patterns. I also learnt significant amounts about TBIs which I probably would never have learnt, along with understanding just how much the brain actually does for us.

Declan talked in depth about the plasticity of the brain and its ability to create new neurotransmitters from the brain tissue which remained. The work he puts in can definitely be split into the two camps. A lot of the time he does the easy stuff by not focusing on much then every now and then he’ll stare – picking a point in the distance to train the brain to see the two pictures as one. When he sits he’s doing the easy stuff again by trying to create some movement – then sometimes he’ll walk with his cane for a few hundred metres – the hard stuff. His trip up the Algarve hills as a passenger in the car was easy, but the focusing on the road in front, walking to the summit stone for a picture, and waving (I think Declan actually gave me the finger but he swears he waved) as we cycled past was the 20%.

Reading the blog it’s clear that Declan started out intense – the aim to do 300+ squats and other exercises per day clearly showed that – but his body and brain ensured that he slowed it down in order to recover. Perhaps this was conscious, perhaps unconscious. Again after reading the blog and understanding Declan and Claire are freewill deniers, maybe it was neither and both!

Every now and then you think you meet an exception to the rule. In Claire’s own words: “I don’t like not being at the front” is definitely her life mantra. Claire cooks, cleans, she pushes a wheelchair, she acts as support and leverage for Declan when he gets up or when he walks, she concentrates on his body position and movements pre-empting when he’ll fall so she can rush to catch him, and she also trains. She really trains, refusing to let the pace setters move away from her, giving her full effort to stay with the fastest runners, riders, and swimmers in any group.

The 80/20 rule in Claire’s case in fact looks like it’s more 50/50, or even 20/80. Yet whenever you speak to her she’s ready to go, always seeming refreshed and energised. Supporting Declan seems to bring her happiness when he achieves even the tiniest of improvements, there’s a noticeable change of energy when he takes to his feet then successfully makes it to his destination unscathed. Perhaps Claire really does do the 50/50 or perhaps she’s just re-baselined what’s easy and hard. Whatever the answer she is always at her best and ensures that Declan is too.

It was a pleasure to meet and train with them both.