Let me set a scene for you: It’s a late summer day at Breakthrough. You are a new member in your first few weeks of training with us. You are doing your own custom program, being guided by your coach, in the company of other members who are doing the same. You are working hard, learning new skills, and you wonder out loud, “Does this ever get easier?”
Before your coach can answer, a long-time member replies, “It does, but then they just make you do harder stuff.” And then several other members laugh and chime in in agreement.
If you’ve been training for a while, think back on some of the exercises and loads you used when you first started, and imagine doing that for your workout. You’d be pretty bored and uninspired. At the beginning of the journey, it can be hard to see that you wouldn’t want to just keep doing the same exact thing until it became easy. In order for us to get the benefits of training, easy isn’t the goal.
I talked about getting the right level of intensity to get results in my last blog, and it definitely got a lot of our members checking in with our coaches to make sure they are challenging themselves appropriately. While intensity is certainly a big part of the conversation, not taking the easy road doesn’t always mean lifting heavier weights. Sometimes leveling up comes from practicing things you are not good at, that don’t seem to come naturally to you, or that you have lost access to over time. And sometimes doing the hard thing means showing up even when you know you can’t challenge yourself like you normally could, like when you are working around an injury, or dealing with life stress.
I’ve certainly been in those situations myself. I’ve had injuries to work around, and forced myself to keep showing up for myself even if I can’t do all the things I normally would. I’ve gone through periods of stress where I had to not push myself quite as hard in training. And I’ve also had moments where I’ve realized I’ve been coasting and need to get out of a rut and start challenging myself again.
I’m not immune to feeling nervous, or having my mind trying to talk me into doing less. Humans are wired to keep choosing what’s familiar, even when it’s not what’s best for us. What’s known always seems safer than the unknown, and training often asks us to venture into the unknown. So we need to train our minds as well.
As I started writing this blog earlier this week, I had done a “rep max” day on my program. I was supposed to take a weight I had been using for several sets of 5, and instead do one set of as many I could. My mind started spinning stories, and my stomach got some butterflies. I just paused and I reminded myself, it’s not supposed to be easy. It will be hard, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. And I proceeded to lift 16 reps of a weight I had only done sets of 5 with before.
Doing something like that was a good reminder to me that I am capable of more than I sometimes remember, and it gave me an extra spark of self-confidence for the rest of the day. I’m often focused on the physical benefits of challenging myself in my training – like maintaining/building muscle mass, keeping my bones strong, maintaining/improving my mobility. And in addition to the self esteem boost and sense of accomplishment, I know I’m also keeping my brain sharp and improving my mood.
Maybe it’s because my birthday is next week that I’ve been thinking about this, but a big reason I keep challenging myself is that as I get older I want to keep my world as big as possible. I want to have as many options open to me as I can. When things are hard for me, I want to keep finding the ways to get better and try to work on them, instead of saying “oh, I guess I can’t do that anymore.” If we take that route, before we know it, the list of things we won’t challenge ourselves on, or won’t do at all gets longer and longer. And if that is happening in the gym, that’s what’s going to happen in life.
Training isn’t about taking the easy path. It’s about working on the things that need my attention, and getting better at the things that I’m struggling with. I train so that my life outside the gym can be easier. I participate in challenges so that when life throws something hard my way, I can more easily remember what I am capable of. Just because something isn’t easy, doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable, or satisfying.
The next time you feel tempted to talk yourself out of something, or lured onto the path of settling for less than you are capable of, pause for a moment. Check in with yourself and ask whether this really is a physical limitation, or your mind feeling uncomfortable with the unknown. And if it is just a scary mindset thing, remember that just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t do it.