The ego is ones belief system; your unique understanding of yourself, your personality and your talents. Your reality needn’t be either arrogant or humble, however the state of your ego will get to work in altering that reality and placing your personality someone within that spectrum.

It’s important for everyone to be confident in all pursuits, with low confidence and lacking self-worth you’d struggle to get out of bed in the morning. But there are certain scenarios in life when if the ego and the reality of your talents and abilities aren’t congruent, then you’ll likely cause a lot of harm to yourself and others.

Ego in the gym

The gym is a fairly unique setting where a lot of what’s going on can be measured by the naked eye; raw data on display showcasing the entire room who is the strongest and weakest etc. Most level headed individuals will not even notice this, they’ll progress through their workout, understanding their own unique ability and get through a workout largely unscathed.

On the flip-side if the ego is inflated and interprets this information as an immediate challenge it can cause some issues, namely injury. The sudden urge to forget your Strength capabilities and Training pedigree and get to work trying to keep up with the strongest guy in the gym.

It’s important to remember that you can never fake strength, so there’s no point trying. Exposing your muscles, tendons and ligaments to weights that exceed your maturity of the aforementioned variables will almost always lead you down a road to injury.

The ego-lifters antidote: The log book

There’s a popular saying that floats around popular gym pages online that’s as cheesy as it is accurate:

‘it’s you vs you’.

Comparing yourself to others is commonly a fast-track to psychological hang-ups. It’s always sage advice to steer people to use themselves as a point of reference for success or failings in their life. The gym environment and training are certainly no different.

One of the best things about weight training is that there is no ambiguity with the whole process. The weights you lift and you progress both in strength and physical stature can all be easily measured and this is something that you must do to fully determine your own progress. By understanding what you’ve lifted in previous sessions; the set and rep ranges, you can then ensure you’re always operating within your own, unique circle of competence, whilst continuing to push your body to develop.

Having and utilising a log-book will help you remain driven with your fitness goals, whilst keep you on a safe path.

Training longevity

Depending on your starting point and ambitions within fitness, it’s common that a goal can sometimes take a matter of years, making Training Longevity a crucial variable in your quest to success. So guarding the muscles and joints from injury and the body and mind from over-training is something that consciously needs to be addressed.

A great way to ensure training longevity is met – asides from injuries – is by setting yourself some smaller goals along the way, i.e. 1 month strength goals that will allow you to meet your yearly strength target.

Summary

Speaking from experienced, it’s easy to get side tracked with your unique goals and ambitions, especially with a world that is so well connected through social media, perfectly demonstrating the enviable lifestyle and talents of others. However, said individuals’ journey to that point is unseen, you only see the end result, unaware of their ‘supplementation’ regime and years of hard work they’ve dedicated to reach that point.

Ultimately time spent trying to replicate and compete with others is not efficient in this context. Work closely with people more experienced than you to draw out their insight, but ultimately strength levels and physiology is unique to each individual.

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