“They don’t even know how to try.”  I said this about a group of high school kids that were in gym one day.  The kids were trying to get a workout in, it didn’t appear to be all that useful to my experienced eye.  To give these kids credit they were trying to do the right thing.  They just don’t know how to try, how to really work out hard, how to do what they are doing with intention.

None of this is their fault.  They are learning how to do these things.  I think us adults screw up, we tell these kids to try but we don’t teach them enough how to try.

Trying in the gym comes down to a lot of things.

Trying is not just trying at the thing you’re doing part of it is trying at all the things around the thing.  You can try hard at the exam to get a good grade.  Did you really try if you didn’t study hard a few days before the exam?  The things around the thing matter.  Warmups matter.  Sleeping the night before a workout matters.  If you don’t try at these things did you even really try?

Intention can come into play in weird ways.  As you develop, you have to learn how to apply some intention to what you are doing.  I use very light weight on a chest press machine at the gym.  Almost all my clients use more weight on that machine than I do.  I can bench press more than double what any of them can lift.  Why do I use less weight than them?  I have learned how to move weight with intention.  I can use this machine with a level of focus that allows me to concentrate on the muscles I want to work.  I really feel this machine in my chest where I want to.  This intention matters a lot.

Working out with intention is a form of elevating your state.  You are moving in a different way than others, it is not a normal movement.  This is an elevated state.  An experienced athlete knows how to elevate their state.  I know many people that are a completely different human being in the gym than they are outside the gym.  They elevate their state in the gym to do amazing things.  This is not how they are their everyday lives.

This is all part of trying.  You have learn how to do these things.  This takes time.  Few of us are born with the ability to just do all these things.  As a trainer its an amazing thing when I get to see a client start to learn these things.  You can guide them but they have to figure it out for themselves.  The good news is that you don’t need a guide, you can figure it out.

I suspect there is similar lessons out there about being a parent, being a business owner and any number of things.  I however am just a dumb weight lifter, so I can speak about that.

Useful Links                                                        

I am constantly on the search for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome.  Here are some of the best things I have found lately.

Strength And Conditioning

This article shows some options for cycling max effort exercises if that’s your kind of thing.  There are some real fun ideas here to play with.  https://www.elitefts.com/education/5-max-effort-cycles-to-break-your-next-pr/

Upper body positioning pointers for the squat.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=204r-KMg7a8