THE MOST IMPORTANT 60 SECONDS OF YOUR DAY

We get 24 hours to make it happen. Each day, by the time you open your eyes – even if you’re an early riser – we’ve lost precious hours. And unless you go to sleep at midnight, you’ll lose even more when you hop into bed. Many of us spend time each day searching through social media, watching our favorite shows on TV, mowing the lawn, taking out the trash or doing dishes. Life is full of these mundane tasks. As we make our way inward, from the less consequential uses of our time to the most meaningful, rewarding and productive, we begin to realize just how critical each waking minute of our day really is. We see that each minute is an opportunity to stay the same, get better, or slip in the wrong direction.
Nobody is perfectly efficient. Nobody can ensure each minute is fully maximized, nor should this be the goal.
Down time is healthy, and useful in its own way. But when it comes to your health, milking each minute for every ounce of efficacy is a must. And among the minutes you actually spend getting stronger, faster, healthier, leaner, happier – one minute stands out as the most important of all.
Based on my observations as a coach, there are two types of people in this world; those who see the final minute of a workout as the downhill stretch, an opportunity to coast through the finish line, and those who see the final minute as a challenge to go into the deepest part of their reserves, who know it’s a finite experience and who want to get all they can from it.
Here’s a tip, be the latter.
The first goal of each Alchemy workout is to help you feel more a live. After that, the goal is to help you get fitter. Fitness is physical, sure, but it’s mental too. And by turning your intensity dial all the way up for the final sixty seconds of your workout you’re able to improve in both areas. The intensity of that final sprint will undoubtedly cause you that special kind of pain that accompanies maximum effort but it will help you get more results than if you coasted. More importantly, the mentality you’ll have after burning through the finish will leave you feeling accomplished and exhilarated, and will help you to understand your true capacity as an athlete. We use that final minute as a reference point for what we can do in the future. It helps shape our next session.
The final sixty seconds of your workout is a crossroad for you to navigate each day you train. To the left is the easy way, the one that feels good and meets the status quo. To the right, all the obstacles in the world. But as the Roman stoics might tell you, the obstacle is the way. It’s the way to the good stuff, the good feelings, the good results, the you you want to be. It won’t feel good, but over my years in fitness and coaching I’ve learned – slowly and inexorably – that the saying is true: no pain, no gain.
Tomorrow, when you come to the end, take it to your limit. You won’t regret it.