Was Isaac Newton a Rescue Swimmer? 

Cody Wright

July 27, 2020

Ever heard of inertia? If you took physics in High School, you may remember it as Newtons First Law of Motion. According to Wikipedia, inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its velocity. Simply stated, an object tends to keep doing what it’s been doing. An example of this would be a bowling ball rolling down the lane. It has some amount of inertia, depending on its mass this value changes. If it’s heavier, it’ll have a higher inertia and if it’s lighter the value will be lower. Before you read any further, I think you should know that I failed my college physics class! However, I think my rudimentary understanding of the concept will go a long way in getting you to work out more often and with better results. Keep in mind that inertia is tied directly to the mass of an object. So that light bowling ball will never have a chance of increasing its inertia to the value of the bigger ball.

We can apply the concept of inertia to training in order to figure out how to get the most out of training. When we think about training for any goal or specific skillset, the concept of inertia can be used to determine how likely you are to continue on the path. The path being the set of steps needed to accomplish your goal. The good news is your inertia isn’t fixed like in the bowling ball example. You can increase your inertia as your motivation and intention is directed towards accomplishing your goal. As you apply more energy towards training, your inertia will increase and you will experience less resistance when you are about to train or in the middle of a training session.

I understand if you just read that and your eyes glossed over. Let’s face it, none of us are training to be Rescue Swimmers, SEALS or PJ’s because of our love for basic physics. So, let’s go through and highlight a few ways to increase your internal inertia and make your training over the next year more efficient.

1. Make a list the night before. Write down your workouts and everything you need to do related to training and life the night before, I do this right before I go to bed.

2. Have a set workout plan you follow. You shouldn’t be thinking of what workout you’re going to do the night before. You should be following some sort of workout plan that you wrote or that you purchased to decrease the chances of skipping important exercises or missing a workout.

3. Tell your friends and family your goals. If you tell friends and family what you’re training for, it makes you more likely to follow through. This ties back to a psychological concept called consistency.

With these examples, I’m sure you can see the types of things that can increase your inertia. Try to think a few more that you can apply to your training and write them down. Remember, the goal of this concept is to increase your likelihood of training more consistency and with less internal resistance. If you can do this well, you stand a much greater chance of getting through your chosen school.