Flexible Consistency


Feb 4, 2025

 by Josh Thorn
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Happy Friday, All,

In the past, I made a regular practice of writing fitness-themed pieces for the gym membership. I kept it up for at least a year, but then I fell off. I’ve decided to pick it back up again! You can expect about one email per week—it’s not spam, not a schedule announcement, just gym thoughts and themes.

This Week’s Theme: Flexible Consistency

When we think of the gym, we think of discipline. And when we think of discipline, we often picture rigid, unyielding, never-miss-a-day, super-consistent training. But that’s unrealistic. It’s important to factor flexibility into our concept of work ethic and goal-setting. Flexible consistency is actually much closer to the reality of high-performing athletes.

Instead of beating yourself up for missing a couple of days, feeling guilty for letting sugar and chocolate slip back into your diet, or shaming yourself for staying out late, recognize that the larger trend matters more. Just get back on the horse in small ways. Discipline is a linear concept in a non-linear world, and true development is rarely a straight line from A to B.

A while ago, I got really into studying Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV measures how well your nervous system can speed up and slow down your heart rate in response to external demands. Research spanning athletics, longevity, and mental health suggests that a high HRV is ideal—you want to be able to elevate your heart rate to sprint for a bus, then quickly return to baseline to chat with the person next to you. Elevate again to take the stairs, then settle in for a meeting. Flexibility.

Elite athletes talk about having "the memory of a goldfish." Win a point? Forget about it. Lose a point? Forget about it. Flexibility is key.

How to Practice Flexible Consistency

Here are a few ways to set yourself up for success:

  1. Remove barriers – Keep a pair of workout shoes in your car. That way, if your plans shift and you suddenly have an extra hour and a half in your day, you can hit the noon workout.
  2. Build your ecosystem – The gym is just one hour of your day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are just a few more. The stronger your overall ecosystem, the more flexible you can be. Luckily, Vashon is built for that. Too icy for a run? Take a forest walk. Don’t feel like cooking? There’s meat & veg, bone broth, kombucha. And, of course, there’s a gym with classes all day and coaches who program the workouts so you don’t have to think about it (OMG, what gym is that!?).
  3. Let yourself take it easy – Flexibility means showing up and adjusting intensity. There’s a time and place to go 100%, and there’s a time and place to go 50%.

We want to be flexible enough to bend and snap back, not break.

Best,
Josh