Garmin’s TV ad tag line- “Beat Yesterday” is foolish and physiologically impossible!

Isn't part of the job of a coach to help people improve? To "Beat Yesterday"? Or do coaches just say "well, that number isn't bad, so just maintain"?

If I do x steps in a day, should I just be happy if I do x steps a day, or should I push for doing x+ steps a day and "Beat Yesterday"?

"Beat Yesterday" doesn't necessarily mean you have to run further or do one more rep. It also means to train smarter, which can be done daily beating yesterday. I don't have to have daily PR's to achieve gains.

Isn't part of the job of a coach to help people improve? To "Beat Yesterday"? Or do coaches just say "well, that number isn't bad, so just maintain"?

If I do x steps in a day, should I just be happy if I do x steps a day, or should I push for doing x+ steps a day and "Beat Yesterday"?

Getting fit and staying fit doesn’t have to reflect being “better” everyday. My coaching philosophy is grounded in making folks life long athletes. You won’t find very many athletes- runners- who seek improvement daily hang with that philosophy very long. Hard, easy, rest days have worked well for many folks I have worked with. Talk to runners who have amassed over 100,000 miles and see how many are beating yesterday. I often include my street creds so people can consider the source.
Patience for long distance runners is a key to them being life long runners. I ran for about 10 years and got most of my PR’s in my early 40’s. Closing in on 75, I can tell you that my continued running has been a gift. Not trying to beat yesterday has worked for me.

"Beat Yesterday" doesn't necessarily mean you have to run further or do one more rep. It also means to train smarter, which can be done daily beating yesterday. I don't have to have daily PR's to achieve gains.

You are right. My point was training smarter means avoiding the idea that each day has to be an improvement. I use to lock up some of my runners shoes so they would cut back, rest,recover and allow basic physiologic exercise principals to work. One of the reasons we see so much obesity here in the US is people doing too much, too soon,too fast, too far, they get injured or burn out- or both and return to a sedentary lifestyle. Nick

Isn't part of the job of a coach to help people improve? To "Beat Yesterday"? Or do coaches just say "well, that number isn't bad, so just maintain"?

If I do x steps in a day, should I just be happy if I do x steps a day, or should I push for doing x+ steps a day and "Beat Yesterday"?

I am no expert on this, but I know that a lot of experts say the resting periods are extremely important.

Training is a process of break down muscle - build up muscle - break down muscle - build up muscle, etc. If you skip the build up periods, you are only breaking down which will do nothing good for you.

By having the motto "Beat yesterday", you advocate skipping the build up periods.

I guess "Beat last week" would be a slightly better motto since it allows for appropriate resting periods within every week. But then again - the experts also have variations over the year in their training plans, so even trying to beat last week may be a bad idea in the long term.

P.S. It is somehow funny that my Garmin watch calculates a Recovery Time of several days after a run while Garmin says "Beat yesterday". Very self-contradictory.

... that strategy will only end up with disappointment and injuries to anyone who thinks that is a prudent way to train.

Frankly, I never heard of anyone - no matter how inexperienced or dumb - who would follow an ad slogan as a training strategy. "Beat yesterday" doesn't really mean anything in terms of training strategy because it isn't one. Don't be affraid that anyone will suffer as a result.

Runn is absolutely right that trying to beat yesterday is an awful training philosophy, but that isn't the context in which it's being used. Garmain's "Beat Yesterday" is an add slogan and as such it is meant to be aspirational and promote their devices as something that can help you in your search for continuous improvement.

You can argue about how effective or logical it is as a slogan and compare it to slogans from other fitness related companies but I don't think it makes a lot of sense to argue about it's value as training advice.

Frankly, I never heard of anyone - no matter how inexperienced or dumb - who would follow an ad slogan as a training strategy. "Beat yesterday" doesn't really mean anything in terms of training strategy because it isn't one. Don't be affraid that anyone will suffer as a result.

I've seen plenty of people in various online forums who ask questions about how to improve their running. Usually this question comes after they've hit a plateau, or become injured, and when asked what they've been doing to that point often the response is that they tried to do the same route faster every time they ran it.

It's a combination of the societal hype of "No pain, no gain" thinking and a lack of understanding about basic physiology.

P.S. If I ever start a Tejano band I'm going to name it after the captcha for this post.
Mexolina Maxima :)

Ok, but how many did that after looking at the "Beat yesterday" ad? Would they otherwise take a different training approach?

It's an ad slogan to inspire and motivate. Nothing else. If someone were to over train and plateau or injure themselves, it's because of a lack of knowledge on how to train correctly, not anything a slogan caused. Now if you'll excuse me, I just got my wings from drinking a Red Bull and I have to fly to work.