Skipping the 95

I recently saw a photo I can’t stop thinking about. It’s a weight stack from one of the cable machines you find at just about any gym. Years of people sliding the pin in and out have worn a rust stain down the middle of the plates.

And for all of the statistically minded folks reading…the wear forms a very nice bell curve. Barely touched at the top. Worn bare in the middle. Fading again near the bottom.

Most people who see this picture get excited by the statistics lesson hidden in the plates. Fair enough. It’s a nice example of a relatively normal distribution.

But if you look even closer there are a few more things that jump out…at least to me.

When Good Enough Becomes the Standard

Some of that heavy wear in the middle is simply strength. That’s where most people are. All good.

But I suspect a good chunk of it is habit. Same machine. Same pin. Same plate. Week after week. It felt challenging once, so it became our number. Then it quietly became comfortable, and we never moved it again.

Heck, I typically bench press every Monday and since I simply work out to stay fit and am not concerned with getting stronger (like I used to back in the day) I use the same 185 pounds for several sets of 5 each time I bench.

Organizations do the exact same thing. The process that worked in 2019 becomes the process. The metric we hit last year becomes the target this year. The pin stays put, and the rust keeps building in the same spot.

Skipping the 95

Now look closer at the photo. The 95 plate is barely worn but the 100 plate has tons of use.

When people finally do move the pin, many of them skip right past 95 and jump to 100. Five pounds is a small step. One hundred is a milestone. One hundred is worth telling someone about.

I see this in myself. When I finally decide to change something, I don’t want the small step. I want the big, round, impressive one. Lose 20 pounds. Read 50 books. Transform the culture by Q2.
And that’s often exactly where change breaks down. The leap is too big, it doesn’t stick, and back we go to our familiar plate in the middle.

Kaizen Lives at 95

Robert Maurer, the American industrial physicist, makes this point beautifully in is book One Small Step Can Change Your Life. Big changes trigger fear and resistance. Small steps sneak past it. They feel almost too easy, and that’s the point.

This is the heart of kaizen. Not the dramatic leap…but the next plate. Five more pounds. One less handoff. One less click. One fewer minute of changeover time. Then repeat this process next week.

Anyone who has trained seriously knows this already. Strength comes from progressive overload, small increments added consistently over time. Nobody walks into the gym and doubles their lift.

They start at 95, then 100, then 105.

The small step isn’t the consolation prize. It’s the path.

Move the Pin

So think about your own weight stack for a moment. At work. At home. In your faith. In your health.

Where has your pin been sitting so long the rust has set in? And what would it look like to move it just one plate this week? And, who knows, perhaps I’ll even get crazy and add some 2.5 pound plates to my 185 load the next time I bench press!

Photo via Ed Burmila (2019)

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