If the best you can say about your training is “it’s a good workout,” “it kicks my ass,” or “it makes me tired”…you can do better.

In a recent blog post on his site, Stuart McMillan used the analogy of making chili to the training process. “Coaching is cooking – we want to make chili. Just because people like mint ice cream, does not mean it’s good in chili.”

This goes for athletes as well as coaches. Yes, there is a place for activities, drills, and exercises you like to do, but on the whole, it needs to be about the things you need to do to get better. Coaches many times operate from an “exercises” standpoint, rather than a training one. They worry about “what exercise do I use to do X,” or “where can I fit in Y,” as opposed to taking an inventory of what needs to be accomplished, and picking the right tools to achieve it.

It’s not about what you like or want – it’s about what’s necessary.

Find a recipe for chili, get the ingredients, and get to work.

A bottleneck is simply a limiting factor. What’s holding back your performance? This isn’t always identifiable, and it may not be easily fixable, either. But if progress isn’t being made, it’s important to figure out where the bottleneck is, so that actions can be targeted. The answer for many is simply “work harder,” but a lot of work at random isn’t going to fix specific problems. Figure out what the issue is, and aim at fixing it with the right work.

Apply this idea to all aspects – nutrition, sleep, recovery, training, you name it. Not eating the way you should? Why not? What can you do to fix it? Not sleeping enough? What can you do to fix it? And on down the list.

Sometimes it’s going to result in answers you don’t want to hear or changes you don’t want to make. Then the question to be asked is, how badly do you want the result? I’m not saying you should necessarily re-organize your whole life to achieve it, but if you’re not willing to make some sacrifices to achieve it, then most likely you don’t want it too badly anyway.

People often surround themselves with motivational sayings and posters and the like. And this is perfectly fine, but it must result in action.

This goes back to what I talked about in the hard work post – can you really muster up the energy to train with the fury of 1,000 Viking warriors day in, day out? Probably not. What is needed is the motivation to show up, and do what is necessary every day. “Showing up” doesn’t necessarily mean at the gym – it means all aspects necessary for improvement. Sleep, nutrition, school if it applies.

Unfortunately, much like the current slacktivism culture (retweet this to end war!), all the motivational tactics and sayings end up being the closest people get to success.

Of course, Zig Ziglar has said, “they say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing, which is why they recommend you do it daily.”

Sometimes that motivation is simply to get started, but I’ve found the best motivation for getting started on anything is action. No matter how big or small, doing anything that gets you started toward your goal gets the ball rolling. And just like Newton’s first law of motion, objects in motion stay in motion.

In any endeavor, sporting or otherwise, keeping metrics are important for tracking progress. However, it is important that the coach and athlete understand which metrics are actually important to track.

It is commonplace to see boards with best weight room lifts for many athletes, however, it must be realized that weight lifting success is not a prerequisite for success in sport (outside of powerlifting and weightlifting). An athlete’s squat numbers may go up, but was it because their output abilities increased? Or because they simply got better at the skill of squatting? If it is the latter, it is important to remember that the skill of squatting is not vital for success in court and field sports. Squats are a part of the training – they are not the purpose of the training.

The weight room numbers shouldn’t be chased for the sake of it. They provide decent metrics, but they can also be easily manipulated. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be progressing in your general work, but it shouldn’t be done at the expense of what actually matters. Keep it in context.

What are you measuring, and does it matter?