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People spend their entire lives trying to figure out how to be more successful or do better at a sport or just simply do better in life. All of these often have to do with one thing. Fighting your inner demons. Now, that might sound stupid to some, but consider this, if I am not driven will I succeed? Where does that drive come from? Everyone has a voice in their head that is the driving force behind what they do. For some of us it’s right at the forefront and screaming super loud. For others it sits there quietly like elevator music. For the vast majority of people that inner monolog drones away and tells us what to do and we happily comply with it… until we want to change.
One of the biggest battles we face in the fitness industry (as your Trainer) is to try to teach you how to drown out that inner voice when it is being self-sabotaging. We try and empower you to fight that inner demon. A human’s body is phenomenally good at seeking the easiest (or what seems to be the easiest) way of doing things. Does this mean it naturally does what is best for the body? Absolutely not, but our inner demons latch onto this and keep us seeking the “easy option” even once we have recognised there is need for change. For example, every long period of time spent in a poor postural position reinforces poor mechanics in the body which will eventually lead to some form of pain or injury. We often come to recognise there is an issue, but attempts to correct it are sabotaged by that inner voice, those inner demons. “It’s too hard”, “I’ll worry about it tomorrow”, “Someone else can fix me”, “I’m too busy to deal with it right now” and so on.
Let’s translate this across to your workout. 3,2,1 GO! You start doing thrusters, it starts to hurt in your lungs. Your legs start to hurt. Your shoulders are burning. Enters the voice of the inner demon… “I need to rest”, “I can’t pick that bar up yet”, “I need more air”, “I just can’t” … and it will continue until you reach a tipping point where you can can quell the voice and eventually pick the bar up and keep going. It is often during this time you have your Trainer in front of you telling you to pick up that bar or encouraging you to move faster. You might think your trainer is fighting with you or hating on you. But what is really happening is your trainer is fighting with your inner demons. We are showing you how to beat them.
Another way we see the inner demons affecting people is when they have had a period of time out of the gym and want to return. This is when excuses (ie the voices of the inner demons) kick into overdrive: “I’ll start on Monday”, “I’ll fix my diet first”, “I’m too tired today”. You get the idea. For every scenario that involves fighting the inner demons such as changing diet, starting exercise, changing something that isn’t routine for you, you will have a conversation with yourself (sometimes almost an argument) in your head.
So here is the big secret to fighting that inner demon that no one tells you… There is no secret. That inner voice is good at keeping you the same. If you want to stay the same then listen to it. If you want to change then acknowledge it and then ignore it. It is that simple. If you want to get fitter, want to lose weight or improve your life and you have been telling yourself that Monday is a good day to start for the past few months, then call your gym right now and get the first sign up available. If you’re doing a workout and you put the bar down to breathe because you told yourself it hurts, do one or two more reps first or ignore the voice until you physically cannot keep going. A human’s body is capable of far more than what the brain will let it achieve, especially in training.
Find your demons and wrestle with them. When you do it enough you can start to see some real results in every aspect of life. What’s life without a challenge?
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