I will be the first to admit that big shiny objects can steal my attention and send me into a Homer Simpson-esque state of mind. Ooh shiny!!! As Americans we are blessed with the latest and greatest, best and newest, shiniest and most attractive. At the same time we are cursed with having such an abundance of options as our focus, patience and perseverance. It seems we would rather make our judgments based on appearance and attractiveness rather than taking the time to consider something's true merit based off of its actual effectiveness.

 When it comes to exercise we often find ourselves judging the worthiness and value of the program by the intensity and amount of yelling, sweat/fatigue/soreness produced, fancy drills and equipment involved (the SHOW), rather than the long-term outcomes, objective improvements, results (the GO). If the goal of exercise is simply to get a "good workout," then by all-means knock your-self out with whatever you think is hard, cool and will make you sore. But if the goal is to actually get better at a specified performance skill (such as strength, speed, and muscle gain) then haphazardly "working out" will forever remain a fruitless effort.

You can make anything hard, if you do anything long-enough you will get sore and if you want fancy drills just combine a bunch of cones, ladders, bands, balls, hula hoops basketballs and circus monkeys. Get the idea, what is the point here? Is the point to fatigue and impress by the show or to actually legitimately improve upon a measurable quality or skill?

Remember fatigue always masks performance. It's not the athlete who can last the longest; it's the athlete who can perform the longest.