How is meaningful progress made when pursuing our endeavors?

A counterproductive misconception about all learning is that one should work as hard as possible for endless hours.

Intuitively, this sounds plausible and is valuable advice to those utterly inexperienced with activities like weightlifting and studying. However, for the inexperienced, the material — whether academic or literal kilograms — isn’t weighty enough to cause any harm.

As a medium-to-long-term strategy, attempting excessive hours of high-level work will render one’s work no longer “high-level.”

Weightlifting or Studying?

This misconception is easily overcome in weightlifting if we move away from “bro science,” as it’s called in fitness circles, and toward the actual science that has systematically studied proper weightlifting methods for long-term progress.

In addition to lifting for several hours daily, typical gym lore recommends doing as many sets and reps as possible on as many exercise variations as possible, doing nothing more than increase a client’s perceived rate of exertion. And manipulating perception in this manner is a common trick personal trainers use to hold onto their clients for as long as possible. This is hard work, but what feels hard isn’t always helpful –and what is excessively difficult is seldom useful.

What makes something good is not having too much of it. And lifting, according to common gym lore, is a recipe for conditions like a dad bod at best and rhabdomyolysis at worst.

Indeed, this trick is the antithesis of all that promotes physique building through weightlifting. In any case, the actual (science-based) way to lift weights is systematic, takes far fewer hours daily of “hard work,” and promotes physique building.

“Gains,” — as it’s called — occur by promoting strength on crucial compound exercises over weeks, months, and years and by being in the gym no more than five times per week for 60 minutes.

An easy way to do this is by simplifying a program to build strength: learn how to squat, bench, and deadlift, and then add 5–10 lbs a week to it for three sets of 5 reps.

One is guaranteed to get stronger and more muscular this way when adequate rest, sleep, and nutrition (obtaining 0.8 grams of protein per lb. of body weight daily) are taken for granted. This –which, in a nutshell, is scientifically known as “muscle protein synthesis” — is a valuable generality anyone interested in fitness would be critically remiss to overlook.

Gradual Progress and Rest from Intense Bouts of Learning

These improved results hinge on doing less but better –i.e., more intense, focused, and science-backed- work, and backing off so much work can solidify itself in the body with rest and recovery. In what way could this possibly be like learning and studying?

Well, for one, the effect is identical. There are two standard methods of studying: (1) cramming before an exam or paper; (2) studying too many things at once. The former is due to student laziness. Unfortunately, the former is incentivized by undergraduate university programs’ typical layout.

The “identical effect” is switching from a commonly used but pointless and counterproductive method to an effective, scientifically endorsed, and less strenuous method.

The process of learning occurs at the level of neurons. In contrast, muscle building occurs at the level of musculoskeletal tissue –i.e., muscles, bones, and general lean (non-fatty) mass. Strength gains determine muscle gains, however. On compound exercises like squats and deadlifts, a considerable level of neurological adaptation is necessary to gain strength. These neurological adaptations are precisely the kind that occurs when learning through studying –a process known as myelination. Georgetown University computer scientist Cal Newport’s book Deep Work states that “myelin [is] a layer of fatty tissue that grows around neurons, acting like an insulator that allows the cells to fire faster and cleaner.”

Myelin’s role in learning –both in the bookish sense and the athletic — is the same as protein’s in muscle building. Focusing intensely on an activity for short bursts frequently is the scientifically-endorsed way to train and learn.

On the Science of Performance

Specifically, the “new science of performance argues that you get better at a skill as you develop more myelin around the relevant neurons, allowing the corresponding circuit to fire more effortlessly and effectively.

To be great at something is to be well myelinated.

Focusing intensely on a specific skill forces the specific relevant circuit to fire repeatedly in isolation.

This repetitive use of a specific circuit triggers cells called oligodendrocytes to begin wrapping layers of myelin around the neurons in the circuits — effectively cementing the skill.”

Neurologically, in an ideal case, studying and weightlifting have an identical effect –albeit toward cementing notably different sets of skills. Doing too much is incentivized by the “hustle and bustle” culture, but it represents merely the illusion of “hard work.”

Just as lifting weights like a maniac will lead to muscular stagnancy at best and atrophy at worst, trying to learn by cramming or studying too many things at once is entirely counterproductive.

Becoming muscular is a skill developed by focusing intensely on progressing on a few lifts each week, and becoming “smart” at some endeavor is, similarly, a matter of studying for 3–4 hours each day without a break in concentration on a singular topic.

Expertise does not happen when treating an exam like a sentence or college like high school.

Yet, these are the two most common examples of studying we have, just as all modern gyms are crammed with lifters who spin their wheels for years to no avail. We should be resting more, not “grinding.”

We should be encouraged to sink into our idiosyncrasies, not “branch out” as is excessively done in schools. This over-generality in “skill” concerns the destructive administrative over-bloat we see across all institutions –including academia.

Much would be better if we permitted more myelination in gyms and schools, as opposed to “bro science” and “cram for exam Adderall” culture.