The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive

by James A. Afremow

a 2012 interview for my Psychology Today blog (Trust the Talent), Boyle shared several noteworthy insights into winning using mind and muscle for athletic success. Specifically, he described an intelligent approach for achieving one’s fitness goals, expressing his personal views on burnout prevention and much more. For Boyle, one major area of emphasis is learning how to make slow, steady progress over the long haul. As he explained: I think the most common misconception is that it is so hard. It goes back to the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. By slow and steady I don’t mean training slow, but progressing slow. Think about this. Start in week one with an empty 45 lb in the bench press and do 10 reps. Add 5 lbs per week for one year. That’s just 2.5 lbs on each side of the bar. If you didn’t miss a week you would bench press 305 x 10 (52 x 5 = 260; 260 + 45 = 305). To be honest, that is impossible. You would plateau. However, most people are in such a hurry they plateau in a few weeks.