The Law of Marginal Gains

Marginal Gains in Fitness

One of the people I most admire is Sir Dave Brailsford – the former head of the GB cycling team and current head of Team Sky cycling.

When Brailsford took control of British Cycling, he set about improving the teams performance by introducing the ‘law of marginal gains’ to their ethos.

Rather than make one large change that would drastically improve the teams’ success, he instead looked at the whole operation – the way the athletes trained, travelled, slept, ate, conducted interviews etc and analysed how they could be improved.

The law of marginal gains dictates that a number of small improvements added together results in a significant overall improvement.

Rather than try to improve one aspect of performance by say, 10 percent, instead try to improve 10 areas by 1 percent. It sounds almost too good to be true – we could all improve by such a small margin!

Famously the ‘Secret Squirrel Club’ was put together to improve the technology the cyclists used, but the law of marginal gains went beyond the equipment…

• Access to the athletes for interviews granted in set windows of time – minimises distractions and increases training time.
• Athletes took their own pillows away with them to help ensure a better nights sleep.
• All trained at the same facility – improved team morale as before athletes trained in separate facilities.
• The teams would eat together – again improves morale and training environment.
• Athletes were entered into both track and road events, widening their experiences and skill sets – helps in competition.

From the outside a lot of these changes may seem trivial, but the power is in their accumulation.

The marginal gains across all of the areas of performance added up, turning the GB cycling team into the best in the world. It isn’t a fluke either – the British cyclists have been the most successful at each of the last two Olympic Games and Team Sky have won 2 of the last 3 Tour De Frances‘.

A member of both teams, Sir Bradley Wiggins has 7 Olympic medals (4 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze), was the first British man to win the Tour de France and this evening (7th June 2015) set the hour record, covering 54.5km in an hour!

The Law of Marginal Gains in Fitness

Far too often people approach weight loss or fitness by trying to make massive, wholesale changes to their lifestyle – training every day, eating nothing but dry salads and removing all enjoyment in life.

As you’d expect, these people never seem to manage to keep this up. They could have made a series of smaller changes that would be far easier to stick to and just as effective.

There are dozens of ways you can improve your own health and lose extra weight by adopting the law of marginal gains. Take a snapshot of your life and see what you can do; these might provide you with a little inspiration…

• Walk to places where possible – extra calories burnt.
• Eat fruit for dessert – saves calories
• Only drink water at work – keeps you hydrated and reduces caffeine intake.
• Take food with you to work – don’t rely on canteen options.
• Get to bed half an hour earlier – extra recovery time.
• Write to-do lists to make your day more productive – reduces stress.
• Switch your daily coffee to a black coffee – saves calories.

Look at areas of your life where you can make small changes – those marginal gains will add up.

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