I was training one of my guys the other day. He was performing a drop set of lateral raises and was at the point of form failure.
He was gritting his teeth, contorting his body, gurning, making Arnie noises, letting out the occasional butt chirp……10/10 for effort, but it had gone to shit.
I admired his determination and there are times at which to fight through and say f**k form, but today I asked him to stop. Take a breath. Stand up straight. Look forward. Relax your face. Go again in 10 seconds.
We broke the remaining reps down into sets of 2 at a time and got the rest done with near perfect form, and a much more settled energy.
It made me think about myself and how I approach life.
I have his same approach.
If I’m encountering struggle I bite down and go harder, try to fight through it.
This isn’t always the answer.
Sometimes all control has been lost and while we might still be getting the work done, it’s quality might be terrible and we risk causing more harm than good.
In the same way I wouldn’t let a client destroy themselves, why do I keep allowing it of myself.
How often do we behave like a tyrannical slave master to ourselves?
The key is to notice the difference between hard work and pointless work.
Have a great week,
GmfL
PS: I have a brand new Hybrid Athlete program launching this weekend on the Train Heroic app. I’ll shoot you a quick message later in the week with some details if that’s cool.