Below is an excerpt from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear:
“Brailsford had been hired to put British Cycling on a new trajectory. What made him different from previous coaches was his relentless commitment to a strategy that he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
Brailsford and his coaches began by making small adjustments you might expect from a professional cycling team. They redesigned the bike seats to make them more comfortable and rubbed alcohol on the tires for a better grip. They asked riders to wear electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding and used biofeedback sensors to monitor how each athlete responded to a particular workout. The team tested various fabrics in a wind tunnel and had their outdoor riders switch to indoor racing suits, which proved to be lighter and more aerodynamic.
But they didn’t stop there. Brailsford and his team continued to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas. They tested different types of massage gels to see which one led to the fastest muscle recovery. They hired a surgeon to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold. They determined the type of pillow and mattress that led to the best night’s sleep for each rider. They even painted the inside of the team truck white, which helped them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes.
As these and hundreds of other small improvements accumulated, the results came faster than anyone could have imagined. Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycling team dominated the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where they won an astounding 60 percent of the gold medals available.”
Even if major bottlenecks are present (e.g., hormone imbalances), one can nonetheless apply the principle of marginal gains to improving vitality.
For example, whenever ambient temperatures are outside of my thermic comfort zone and warmer than I would like, I am, let’s say, 3% less patient, 7% more aggressive, and my mood goes down by 5% – usually without me being aware. Improving ambient temperature then has a significant but barely noticeable impact on how I feel and function.
Similarly, gentle enhancements can yield small gains in certain aspects of vitality. For example, using blackout curtains, fixing vitamin B12 levels, exposing myself to bright light in the morning, changing macronutrient composition, etc. are not game changers by themselves but at the end of the day, a 1-5% improvement in various domains is certainly not nothing.
And if a dozen or so of these low-hanging, gentle enhancements are layered on top of each other, decent improvements in vitality can be achieved. Obviously, this only makes sense if the implementation does not take time and energy after it has been implemented. For example, adding supplement XYZ to my stack may give me a small improvement in ABC but after it has been implemented it takes no time, energy, or effort.
A small list of gentle enhancements
Sleep
- Using blackout curtains or a sleep mask
- Using earplugs
- Using a cooling blanket or a mattress cooling device
- Exposing oneself to bright light in the morning
- Taking magnesium and glycine
Exercise
- Cutting out high-risk exercises if one cannot perform them with proper form (e.g., deadlift)
- Punctuating one’s day with “exercise snacks” (I particularly like pull-ups and kettle-bell swings).
- Strengthening common underdeveloped muscles such as glute medius and tibialis anterior
- Stretching muscle groups that contract with prolonged sitting such as hip flexors and quads
Diet
- Matching carbohydrate intake to leanness and activity levels
- Trying to figure out whether someone reacts badly to certain foods (common culprits are eggs, cashews, or dairy)
- Wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) once to figure out how one reacts metabolically to common foods
- Non-gentle enhancements (metabolic drugs) are discussed here.
Nutrients & supplements
- Vitamin D
- Magnesium (not the oxide form)
- Vitamin B12
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Phosphatidylcholine
- Salt
- Supplements are a prime example of the “marginal gains” principle. I share my supplement protocol in more detail here.
Non-gentle enhancements
- A list of non-gentle enhancements is discussed here.
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Disclaimer
The content available on this website is based on the author’s individual research, opinions, and personal experiences. It is intended solely for informational and entertainment purposes and does not constitute medical advice. The author does not endorse the use of supplements, pharmaceutical drugs, or hormones without the direct oversight of a qualified physician. People should never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something they have read on the internet.