Challenge yourself
Challenge yourself, a very easy principle to think of, yet often a difficult one to accomplish. I have seen it a lot recently, given three options choosing the lesser of the three. Now I realize often those three exercise options are based on the band system that we currently implore here. However it never happens that we have a band restriction in every station with every series of exercises. Obviously pain can be a factor, I understand and fully appreciate that. Getting better, getting healthier, getting stronger involves a need to challenge yourself. If you look at a set of three exercises and always choose the easiest one, in a situation where you could realistically do all three, you will not get to where you want to be as quickly, if at all. It’s the sign of other factors, if you aren’t willing to challenge yourself while exercising, then you may be less willing to challenge yourself by breaking other unhealthy habits. Make no mistake, when it comes to being healthy there is not halfway, if you eat super healthy but have absolutely no exercise you will run into problems. Just in the same way that if you try to come 4 days a week here, and go running or spinning the other 3, but eating junk and getting no sleep. You are going to run into issues there as well.
Improving the body’s ability to exercise, whether it be strength or endurance, is based on mechanics known as “Progressive Overload”. Not to get into the science too deeply but it basically boils down to this, you challenge yourself, your body responds to that challenge for next time. You do 2-3 more squat thrusts than you did last time, your body adapts to be able to do those 2-3 more every time (up to a point of course). Lets say on a squat day you have been picking up 45lbs every time for months, well you aren’t progressing, your body is staying stagnant. Now lets say you step it up to 55 lbs, yes it is going to be more challenging this time obviously. However your body learns, it learns how much effort it takes to lift that weight and it adjusts accordingly, either by increasing the strength of the muscle fibers or by increasing the strength of the signal from the brain. That cant happen though if you never pick up something heavier, if you never push it a little longer, if you leave 1 or 2 or 3 in the tank.
You are all capable of more than you give yourselves credit for. So Challenge yourself, don’t pick the easiest exercise just because you can. Even if you can only do two reps of a more difficult exercise compared to 10 reps of what you would normally do. The more you work on that more difficult pattern the more you will progress and eventually the more you will gain (or lose depending on your goal). So don’t sell yourself short, challenge yourself and Make it Happen.
-Coach Adam
