Overcoming Self Doubt With Strength Training Principles

Mindset

23 Sept

Training, exercise, movement.

All terms I often use interchangeably to describe the act of exercising.

And despite my history in classic commercial gyms since the start of my journey, I'm genuinely not too concerned what poison you choose in regards to your exercise. As long as you choose something.

But my background is strength training, and I do have a fondness for it.

In fact, it's a part of who I am.

And a strong part of my routine. An anchor habit I call it. A habit which I build other habits and my day in general around.

So it's no surprise that much of what I talk about is learned from my time in gyms, lifting weights.

The world of "training" has become mostly focused on fat loss in my opinion.

The result is a flood of poor programming, singular training methods and short term thinking.

I know there are those who fight the good fight. Those coaches who understand being strong, having some muscle mass and being well (properly) conditioned is important as well.

But they're overwhelmed in numbers I suspect.

Again, I have no major problem with any of it (as long as it trying to be good). My issue is that the training has become solely about the body.

Lose fat, look great.

Not bad things, but it leaves so much on the table in terms of the full benefits of proper strength training.

And strength training has many benefits.

One I have found is overcoming self doubt.

You see, losing fat and looking great makes you feel confident. And confidence is brilliant for overcoming self doubt. Except...

Except, training for 12 weeks to lose fat, is such a short term fix, that any confidence gained from it will likely be short term as well. Especially when for so many people, these short term programs don't work as well as they like.

And often the idea is to train as hard as possible each session, follow a somewhat strict diet, and then once it's done, it's done. Results or not.

Strength training on the other hand, always felt like a long term project. It was about building capacity.

And it didn't require you to go as hard as possible all the time. The key to it was pushing j u s t beyond your limits. To increase that capacity, only a bit for that week.

How does this help us overcome self doubt?

Genuinely, something as deep rooted as self doubt will not be solved quickly.

It requires patience. it requires stacking up the evidence that suggests yes, you are good enough. Yes you can do this or that, if you can only be patient with it and improve slowly.

And strength training is exactly that and more.

It's requires you to push through the pain, if only for 30 to 60 seconds (less sometimes) before you get a break. Pushing just beyond what you did last week, looking for small, positive improvements.

If that's not a road map and analogy for overcoming self doubt, I don't know what is.

The most common fat loss/boot camp/group training programs and groups these days are borderline controlled chaos. Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, in a classic 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest model, with no care on progression of anything except fat loss.

The goal each session: train as hard as possible, which usually leads to not training as hard as possible over time.

This doesn't mean everyone should stop going to their boot camp or group training sessions. Not at all, do what you enjoy.

But I 100% believe that people should also be doing a structured strength training program, using the good old barbell, dumbbells and kettlebells in a classic sets and reps scheme with a focus on progressive overload.

And not only will this provide a positive physical benefit, it will also provide the lesson and blueprint to overcome self doubt and build our mindset to a point where we are truly proud of ourselves.