Find the Sweet Spot

I have ridden my bikes hundreds of miles without getting a flat. I believe one of the biggest reasons I get very few flats is because I inflate my tires every time I ride. But I got a flat the other day, and as soon as it went flat, I realized what had gone wrong.  While I was pumping up my tire, I was trying to remember the maximum pressure needed for that bike. I didn’t check the tire (it says on the tire), guessed wrong, and overinflated the tire, which resulted in a blowout.

One of my grandsons was getting flats all the time. We checked his tires and they were very low. Underflated tires get flats and make the bike harder to ride. Too much or too little tire pressure is a problem; you have to find the sweet spot. The sweet spot will give you maximum efficiency and protection against flats.

For maximum efficiency in the gym, you need to find the sweet spot. I think a common problem in thinking goes something like this. If lifting twice a week is good, three times a week will be better. If 15 reps is good, 20 will be better, thinking more is always better. 

I had a gym friend who had been trying to bench 300 pounds for some time. He was in his 70’s and he lifted hard three times a week. I tried for a couple of years to convince him to switch to twice-a-week lifting to allow his body the rest it needed to get stronger. Finally, he agreed to try it, and after just a few weeks, he got his 300. He was so excited; he had found the sweet spot, and it felt so good.

The same issue happens with consumption. You might think  I cut my calories a bit and am losing weight, if I just cut more, I will lose weight faster. If protein is needed and good for you, more protein is even better. More or faster is not necessarily better.

With movement and eating, you have a sweet spot, and it might take a bit of trial and error to find it as we are all different. You can’t just do what your friend does and expect it to work for you. You also need to realize the sweet spot can change as you age, as your health improves, or as variables in your life change. So a healthy life involves continuous research with an n size of one, you.  How have you found the sweet spot for one of the Health Continuum strands? I would like to know.