Thank you for the detailed response! The ‘think less, do it’ approach makes a lot of sense, the “Karls” probably overthinks every rep before attempting it. The logging idea is something I’ll start applying immediately, hard to lie to yourself with data. Appreciate you taking the time!
Of course! It sounds painfully obvious but it comes down to consistently showing up and doing slightly better every time.
In the fitness community you generally have two perspectives:
1) Maximum volume (meatheads)
2) Science based lifting (efficiency)
Elements of both work but neither are right.
If you are a Karl, you would probably be better off following the meat head playbook for a bit to get out of your own head. Just choose exercises where your likelihood of getting injured is lower (chin ups vs say deadlifts)
Hi Alan, thank you for taking the time to read and comment, I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
It’s a great question and there isn’t consensus on the best way. From a fitness perspective a lot of people rely on external pressure by signing up for a marathon or hiring a very in your face personal trainer. This can work for a time but is not sustainable long term.
What works better is a mind shift change, going from fearing failure to chasing it. It’s like jumping off a large cliff into a body of water. Your body doesn’t want to do it, so trying to convince yourself won’t make you jump.
You need to think less, do it and force your body to follow. In a gym setting you make a rule to yourself every week you are upping your weight by X lbs. you need to run for 1 minute longer, etc. To keep yourself honest you need to log your performance somewhere (your phone, a notepad even ChatGPT) so if you aren’t doing it, you can’t lie to yourself.
Great article! I recognized myself as Karl while reading this. What are the first few steps to break that pattern?
Thank you for the detailed response! The ‘think less, do it’ approach makes a lot of sense, the “Karls” probably overthinks every rep before attempting it. The logging idea is something I’ll start applying immediately, hard to lie to yourself with data. Appreciate you taking the time!
Of course! It sounds painfully obvious but it comes down to consistently showing up and doing slightly better every time.
In the fitness community you generally have two perspectives:
1) Maximum volume (meatheads)
2) Science based lifting (efficiency)
Elements of both work but neither are right.
If you are a Karl, you would probably be better off following the meat head playbook for a bit to get out of your own head. Just choose exercises where your likelihood of getting injured is lower (chin ups vs say deadlifts)
Hi Alan, thank you for taking the time to read and comment, I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
It’s a great question and there isn’t consensus on the best way. From a fitness perspective a lot of people rely on external pressure by signing up for a marathon or hiring a very in your face personal trainer. This can work for a time but is not sustainable long term.
What works better is a mind shift change, going from fearing failure to chasing it. It’s like jumping off a large cliff into a body of water. Your body doesn’t want to do it, so trying to convince yourself won’t make you jump.
You need to think less, do it and force your body to follow. In a gym setting you make a rule to yourself every week you are upping your weight by X lbs. you need to run for 1 minute longer, etc. To keep yourself honest you need to log your performance somewhere (your phone, a notepad even ChatGPT) so if you aren’t doing it, you can’t lie to yourself.
Really liked and needed this one!
Glad you liked it thanks for letting me know!
Of coz!💯