The ego. I could literally write essay upon essay about the ego in a very Alan Watts-esque way, describing its very reason for humanities setbacks, and at times, humanities destruction. However as much as a part of health and well being philosophy and enlightenment is, I’m instead going to briefly talk about why your ego is holding you back and possibly even driving you down the path to injury.
If there’s one thing that is guaranteed to destroy all your gains and hard work in the gym it is your ego. Going too hard when your body is tired, all the way to throwing that extra 20kg plate onto the bar when your already at your 1 rep max limit, making your deadlift form similar to that of an angry cat, nothing will break your body faster.
I’m not saying perfect form with next to no weight is the way forward. It isn’t. We have to push our body, within the realms of safety, in order to expose our weak links so that we can strengthen them. This requires intelligent planning, knowledge and training experience, not gym ‘bro’ know how. It also requires you to check your ego at the front door.
Sometimes you just got to know when to back off and when to fight through and this comes with time, but there are some obvious hints and clues that spell out what your doing as a bad idea, with a potential trip to the chiropractor in the not too distant future. Just think and be mindful about what your goal is and how best to achieve it. The obvious ‘Slam another plate on there bro’ or ‘Another 15 more reps’ is never usually the right answer.