Useful Heuristics in Health and Performance
Some helpful mental models for you to navigate the health and performance headlines
Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi
Navigating the health and performance headlines is an absolute mine field, in fact at times it feels like it’s not much better in the scientific literature (are eggs good or bad for us this week?).
As someone in the space, I get asked the equivalent of “what’s your take on…” weekly, maybe more frequently and talking to colleagues, I am not alone here. Some of us are more niche than others, so having competence over the area of question may be easier but the more general you are the harder this can be. Truth be told, part of the reason for this newsletter is answering some of these questions to be able to point people to, rather than repeatedly articulating ‘my take’ on a certain topic or question.
Before we go any further, as a preface to this article, I recommend readers are familiar with a previous article I wrote on misunderstood dichotomies, which serves as a great partner to, and a primer for, this piece.
Below are some heuristics I have found useful in the field when faced with a new question. Note, the term heuristic is quite diverse in its meaning(s) but in this case it’s a “good enough” decision making tool and/or “rule of thumb.”
Not Either/Or, Both And
Zone 2 vs HIIT, Blood flow restriction training vs traditional lifting, High rep or low rep etc etc etc. When these sorts of discussions come up, “best” this or”not doing” that, the answer is almost always a “both and” rather than an “either/or”.
What this means is, neither zone 2 nor HIIT is a panacea, we need both for optimal health and/or performance. The same goes for injury prevention, the nordic hamstring curl has a long history of research in injury prevention (much done by a previous boss of mine and his research group) but even they agree that it’s more about the principles than the details. That is, eccentric strength work is important for injury prevention, but you may want to use other exercises or perhaps even do some concentric work too.
Change is a Stimulus
I touched on this concept recently to a degree in this piece and in the piece on misunderstood dichotomies above.
When we see interventions in the health and performance space, the details may be less important than the fact that a change is being made. Said differently, the change is the impactful stimulus more than the details of the change. Sounds a little like “a change is as good as a holiday,” no?
This fact should bring into question some magnitudes of research findings, but also serve as a useful tool when facing plateaus (mental or physical).
The Truth is Grey
This is not a vote in the Meredith Grey vs Gregory House debate of TV doctors (the answer is alway Lupus anyway). It is reference to something a mentor of mine once said to me: “the beginner understands in black and white, the expert in shades of grey.”
This speaks in part to the first heuristic in this article or at least resembles it to a degree.
The piece I would add on, though, is that generally black and white messaging is what’s used (maybe required) to create change. Messaging the grey won’t create much movement for folks behaving in one of the extremes, so to move them to the grey usually people adopt the opposite messaging. This is to say, that the ‘everything in moderation’ messaging may be true but not particularly helpful in creating change unfortunately.
Addition by Subtraction
You sometimes here this phrase used when discussing team cohesion and performance of teams, particularly post removal of someone considered ‘toxic’ for the locker room.
In this case, however, it is referring to some of the effects we see when changing a behaviour in our lifestyle, some examples below:
Cutting out some type of food or part of food, think meat, gluten, dairy or sugar for example. The benefit you feel may well be as a result of removing that factor, or maybe it’s what you replaced it with…
Adding in some type of activity, think meditation or walking for example. The benefit could well be what you’ve been doing, or removal of the social media scrolling you’d do instead perhaps.
I think the point is probably clear, when changing behaviour, it’s rare that this happens in a vacuum. It’s more likely something else has changed, so in evaluating these interventions it may be worth considering if this is a factor.
So keep these in mind when evaluating the next big thing in the health and performance space. Be it a new training type, dietary pattern or anything else. Let me know if I have missed any you like, either in the comments section on Substack or vie replying to this email.