Physical therapy rewards the boring, consistent patient over the impatient, intense one. Life does too.

Bodies adapt to load applied repeatedly over time, and they do not respond well to being hurried. The person who does the small dull set five times a week overtakes the person who does one enormous session and then needs three days off. Intensity feels like commitment and often works as impatience. Consistency is the slower-looking option that actually adds up.

Make this week’s sessions small enough that you will definitely do all of them, then do all of them. If you feel like doing more, add a day rather than adding weight. The same arithmetic quietly holds for studying.