What's our Minimum Effective Dose (MED)?

The MED is a principle that simply asks the question - what is the smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome?  

Anything beyond the MED is deemed wasteful. For instance, to boil water, the MED is 100°C at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it "more boiled".  Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.  Tim Ferris has explored this in his book the Four Hour Body and a brief overview is worth reading and can be found here.  The whole book is definitely worth reading.

The MED ties in nicely with the 80/20 Principle.  So when we apply these principles to the world of exercise it makes for an interesting discussion.   Pavel Tsatsouline is quoted "doing the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99% of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there".  

Yes training for specific outcomes is where things start to become complicated.  We're interested in the MED of key exercises for fundamental quality of life as it relates to the everyday person.  What's the simplest version? This applies to the vast majority of our members. 

So what are the key exercises that deliver 80% of the desired outcome?  And what is the MED of those exercises? 

For us, Bouldering in itself is the key exercise - our kettlebell swing.  The MED in most cases is around one hour (excluding excessive conversations of course).  The more advanced you are the more you can physically handle but boiled is boiled.  Recognizing your own boiling point is important but the one hour rule is a solid rule of thumb. 

Rest. Repeat. 

15 Feb 2022


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