An inch is a small, minute distance. An inch is only 1/36th of a yard. The word "inch" is often used as a description of microscopic proportions such as an inchworm or inchmeal. Phrases such as "The traffic is inching along," or "The post office moves by inches," refer to minimal distances and speeds.

Football coaches are often describing the game of football as a game of inches. One inch can determine a first down or a fourth down. One inch can decide whether a field goal is good or wide. One inch is the difference in a shoestring tackle and a long run. One inch distinguishes between a completion and an interception. One inch can win or lose a game.

In baseball, the strike zone is an arbitrary region, which varies with each pitch by a matter of inches. Balls and strikes will fluctuate by inches. The basketball player who is able to just jump one inch higher than his opponent will be able to lead his/her team to a championship.

The 1967 Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys in the "Freezer Bowl" by one inch in the final drive; and went on to win Super Bowl II.

In 1999 the Tennessee Titans came up one inch short of beating the St. Louis Rams on the final play of the game in Super Bowl XXXIV. A third period goal by the United States ice hockey team slipped under the Russian goalie by an inch and sealed the American victory in the 1980 Olympics.

Every inch that you move requires your body to produce more energy. Nerve cells then need more energy to interpret and transmit signals, muscles need energy to move your limbs, blood needs a power source to transport nutrients and release byproducts, the heart needs energy to contrast, and the cells need energy to decipher and comprehend and send impulses. Every inch has a price on your body. You need to make every inch count!

Without exception a more highly conditioned athlete is better athlete weather it is a basketball player, football player or soccer player. But for the wrestler strength training and conditioning are his lifeline. The champion wrestler has to work at conditioning year round: plus work on skill and technique not only during the season but off-season as well. There are numerous wrestling camps, Free-Style and Greco-Roman competitions to develop new skills and techniques at.

A strength training repetition is a series of inches placed alongside one another. By doing just one more repetition many inches of movement are brought about at great expense to your body. An athlete who could improve just one repetition every workout would experience phenomenal gains in strength. Let's say the athlete is working in a repetition range of four to six reps. Every time six repetitions is achieved the amount of weight being lifted is increased ten pounds:

DAY #1	100 pounds x 4 reps
DAY #2	100 pounds x 5 reps
DAY #3	100 pounds x 6 reps
DAY #4	110 pounds x 4 reps
DAY #5	110 pounds x 5 reps
DAY #6	110 pounds x 6 reps
DAY #7	120 pounds x 4 reps

Every four workouts the athlete has increased their strength ten pounds by doing just one more rep.

If the athlete improves one repetition a workout, three workouts each week, fifty-two weeks a year, the progress would look like this:

• 52 weeks/year x 3 workouts/week = 156 workouts/year
• Every 4 workouts = 10 pounds improvement
• 156 workouts/year divided by 4 (every 4 workouts is 10 lbs.) = 39
• 39 times each year the athlete will increase the 10 pounds or a
• 390-pound strength gain by just improving by one rep every workout!

Wow!

Is this possible?

I have yet to see any athlete increase one repetition every workout for a year. But…a rep is gigantic dimension, and needs to be broken down to…AN INCH!

Make every inch count. Don't waste an inch, there's too much energy going into it. Keep tension on your muscles every inch. Don't cheat an inch by using momentum. Try to get one more rep each workout. Run a little longer each day. Try to get one more half rep. Try to get a quarter rep more. Sprint one more rep.

Try to improve…an inch a day!