What doing burpees teaches me about systems

For about a year and a half now I have been doing burpees as the core of my fitness regime. For most of that time I have been following the Busy Dad Training program; though latterly I now do a modified version. Here is an overview:

• There are only two movements to learn.
• You need no equipment - only a floor.
• You only need to commit to 80 minutes in total per week: 40 minutes of 6-counts and 40 of navy-seals. Typically, this is broken down into two 20-minute 6-count burpee sessions and two 20-minute navy-seal sessions, but you can structure it how you like as long as you cover the full 40 minutes for each movement per week.

The program works amazingly well due to its flexibility and resilience to external influence. I try to get my exercise done each week as soon as possible by doing one 20-minute session per day from Monday to Thursday at lunch times. However, when life happens its flexibility really shines: If I have to take the day off to look after a sick child I can do my exercise in the evening or another day: If my family is hogging the downstairs I can do the whole routine in my bedroom upstairs (you only need a floor). It doesn't really matter what the weather is doing - you can do it inside or outside.

As a software engineer I am always thinking about how to make software systems (and systems in general) resilient. I think there are some key lessons we can take away from this and apply elsewhere:

• Modest effort done consistently wins.
• To be consistent, a system needs slack to provide multiple paths to success:
  • In terms of time: each week I have a large number of alternative slots I can choose to exercise in.
  • In terms of resources: I can pretty well exercise anywhere with a floor.