Reasonable vs. Tough Matrix
I was recently reminded of Dan John’s Reasonable vs. Tough Matrix. It’s a simple idea taken from one of my favorite strength coaches. You can use it to audit your own efforts to make sure they’r appropriate. Specifically, we’re going to use this to look through the lens of diet and exercise.
Dan John’s point is that a tough diet paired with a tough program is a lot of stress on the body, and if you are going to do it, you shouldn’t be stuck in a permanent cycle of starving and trying to exercise a lot, but rather, locking down for a few weeks out of the year, because tough+tough = unsustainable and maybe even unreasonable or unrealistic.
You can use the matrix to come up with the 4 options below, each of which could make up a portion of the year. For example, Dan John says most athletes live in the tough training + reasonable nutrition category. They’re working hard trying to improve, and that means properly fueling for these efforts, which means they can’t be on too strict of a diet.
Reasonable Training + Reasonable Nutrition
Reasonable Training + Tough Nutrition
Tough Training + Reasonable Nutrition
Tough Training + Tough Nutrition
Right now, as I typically do in February and March, I’m locking in my own nutrition. I’m eating in a bit of a caloric deficit, and because of that, the intensity of my workouts has changed. Most of them are “check the box,” workouts where I get in and get finished what I’m doing. It was unsustainable to keep going with hard workouts with the limited fuel. I’m on a tough nutrition + reasonable workouts. Sometime in the Spring that will change.
Sometimes your goals compete with each other, i.e., working out hard and dieting hard. There’s a time and place for both, but it shouldn’t be your baseline or norm. Perhaps you’re trying to put too many eggs in too many baskets rather than doing it right with one thing.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain