The ‘Power of One’ Rule Is All You Need To Get Stronger In Your Workouts

Photo: courtesy of Peloton
Have you ever done a workout and felt like stopping in the middle of a set or cutting a run short because you're just not feeling it? If so, it's completely normal, and instead of beating yourself up about what you didn't do, Peloton instructor Ally Love says to shift your thought process and focus on the "Power of One," which challenges you to push yourself to go one more minute when you want to quit and reassess how you feel after that.

"It's an ideology that many people know, but it's so powerful and we often forget [it]," says Love. The Power of One concept translates to all aspects of life, including training, and Love has begun to incorporate it into her Peloton rides.

When the feeling of giving up arises during a workout, Love says, "I strongly encourage you to give up." We're constantly told the opposite, to push through any mental or physical blocks, but it's also important to honor what you feel, even if it means cutting a workout short or logging fewer miles than you intended. Love encourages people to give up because, in her opinion, most people don't like that feeling. "We don't like how it feels afterward, but if we don't ever give up and if we don't ever put ourselves in that position, or we aren't reminded of what that feeling is, we actually live in this very ambiguous state of doing okay that doesn't always feel good."

When you're wanting to slow down or outright quit, Love says the Power of One concept comes into hand. "Because most times we think we have to eat the entire elephant, we have to do all the miles right now. It's just one step at a time, one minute at a time, one pedal stroke at a time. It's slow, digestible bites with a compound effect." She describes it as a tool-kit you can tap into to be more present and take whatever you're doing one minute at a time.

The Power of One concept allows you to establish your metric of success for a given workout, says Love. So once that minute is up, it's up to you to identify if you've hit your goal, if you can keep going, if you should slow down, or if you should stop, she says. And the best part is if you don't necessarily want to stop but don't think what you're currently doing is sustainable, you can always modify and scale back the intensity. "If that is still too much for you, identify what works for you and feel good about what works for you because it's different for everyone." According to Love, the Power of One is "all about trial and error."

Instead of beating yourself up about cutting a workout short and stopping when you need to, Love says to remember "It's not that this one workout will change your life forever. It's that this one workout will add to the many workouts that will add to the lifestyle you are trying to create when being the best version of yourself."

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