I find myself saying this to athletes and clients a lot. It is easy for people to get lost in the nitty gritty details of training.
“Was that hard enough?”
“Should I be doing more?”
“How was my form?”
I’ll reply, “It looked challenging but doable, and that’s good enough.”
There is a lot of information on training out there. That is a good thing. But the most important piece of learning to train is actually showing up and doing it.
If you want to get better at squatting you can read articles, watch videos, and agonize over how tos. Or you can go to the gym and practice. Yes, good guidance and structure will be helpful. The point is you aren’t going to get better at squatting without doing it.
The mantra “challenging but doable” works really well for a lot of stages of training.
When you’re a beginner just showing up is challenging but doable.
As you learn the ropes and build consistent technique we want the loads you use to challenge you, but we ultimately want you to be able to be successful to build confidence. Keep things doable.
As you get further and further along on the training journey the timelines where you make progress will lengthen. But showing up consistently to do challenging but doable work will lead to better results than trying to constantly optimize and agonize over a perfect path.
Finally, there will be times when your body gives you feedback. Pain and injury happen when we use our physicality. But rehabbing should be just like any other training. Find a good place to start, build up slowly, and progress as you can. It should be challenging but doable with pain as a guide.
