Many people have recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers”, where they’ve learned of the “10,000 hours to mastery” theory Gladwell outlines and describes with his typical brilliance. Prior to hearing this theory, one of my professor’s in Acupuncture School (TCM – Traditional Chinese Medicine) and co-founder of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Alex Tiberi told me about the ancient Chinese version of a “10,000 theory.”
The story goes like this: “From the One (the Tao) comes the Two – Yin & Yang. From the Two comes Three. And from Three come the 10,000 things.” In this case 10,000 represents the infinite, mastery – all things. That story always stuck with me for some reason. I appreciate the power of metaphor and symbolism to convey profound meaning, where literalism often falls short.
So back to Gladwell. 10,000 hours actively engaged pursuing an endeavor is a lot of time, but it is the only way to achieve mastery and true greatness. With exercise, 10,000 reps (which takes considerably less time to execute that 10,000 hours) is when you reach a level of muscle memory for that particular exercise (or movement), and it starts to become second nature. Discoveries are made after 10,000 reps that lead to breakthroughs, where real creativity can happen.
Today (actually last night) I decided to embark on a 10,000 rep journey Rolling the Monster Ropes. 300 reps a day (in both directions, right & left – so 600 Rolls if you’re counting both) for 33 days gives you about 10,000 reps. Within the next 33 days, I will have Rolled the Monster Ropes 10,000 times in each direction. Perhaps I’ll do even more, but 10,000 is my minimum goal. I’ve Rolled Monster Ropes before, but not a concentrated quest for 10,000 reps like this.
Today I’ve Rolled my “300″ reps both ways. I’m tempted to do more, but I will wait on this until I get a few days of 300 under my belt. I Rolled the big 4-inch Monster Rope and will see if I can continue to keep up this pace with the big Rope. I’ll be doing all of my other training on top of this of course.
Will be posting as I go…
DW
Filed under: Daily Thoughts Tagged: | 000 hours, 10, BOSU, BOSU Balance Trainer, BOSU Fitness, Dave Weck, David Weck, Exercise, Malcolm Gladwell, Martial Arts, Monster Ropes, Outliers, Rolling Ropes, Yang, Yin, Yin & Yang, Yin and Yang
