Suffering is caused through ignorance. This is a core teaching of Buddhism, and a very powerful philosophy to adopt in your strength training. In fact, you could easily rewrite the idea as, “lack of results is caused through ignorance.”
But this is not only ignorance in the sense that you’re not educated. The fact that you’re reading this means at least you’re seeking knowledge, which is a wonderful thing to do. This is ignorance based on a lack of self-reflection and awareness.
As a way to protect our ego’s it’s tempting to cover up the reality of our circumstances with vague descriptions or blame something that’s out of control (“it’s my genes fault that I’m skinny!”). While you may feel a little bit better about your self, you’ll still continue to receive the results you’re currently getting, and suffering in the same ways.
What you need to do is embrace the power of self-reflection. This is not a one time exercise. This is something you do on a regular basis at first, but eventually in becomes ingrained in your thought patterns, allowing your to easily reflect in real time. But let’s not think too far ahead.
Here’s why you need to reflect on your circumstances:
- Establishes the groundwork. How can you get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are? There’s the slight chance you can stumble across your results, but you’ll much more likely be met with success if you know where you’re starting from.
- Eliminates obscurity. You can’t work with data that is not definitive. It just doesn’t work. When you base decisions on incomplete or nonsensical information you’ll be met with equally incomplete results. Clarity is required for intelligent progress.
- Reduces the overwhelm. Reality is a scary idea; so scary in fact that we don’t want to face it. But, surprisingly, when we come out and say “this is the situation” and don’t try to hide the truth about where we are, it’s really not that scary. It’s actually soothing to truly understand our circumstances as it allows us to make genuine progress.
Sounds good doesn’t it? That’s cause it is. But how do you actually benefit from reflecting on your circumstances in the context of strength training and muscle building?
- Crunch the numbers. Where are you right now? How much do you weigh? What’s the most calories you can eat in a single meal? What’s the heaviest weight you can lift? Bring your current situation out of the dark to lay the groundwork for future progress.
- Quantify progress. Are you heavier than you were 2 months ago? Are you lifting heavier weights than you were 2 months ago? Are you doing more squats than you were 2 months ago? Pick the metric that’s most important to you, and track your progress. Forgoing crunching the numbers will likely lead to the feeling of making progress without actually getting anywhere.
- List your fears. The average ectomorph is notorious for having self esteem and confidence issues, encouraging the development of often irrational fears. For me, the fear of going to the gym held me back from my desire for strength and size. But once I identified this I was able to work from this idea and make significant progress at home, in my own time. Fear can be overcome if you share them with yourself.
- Identify background resistance. Everyone has thoughts at the back of the mind, preventing them from making important decisions or being completely aware of their situation. It could be bad relationships, unfulfilling job, lack of direction…but whatever it is, just like with your fears, list out everything holding your back, and then spend time simply reviewing these items; it won’t take too long before your brain calculates solutions.
- See with truth. Are you making progress? Or are you staying where you are? You don’t need to share the answer with anyone else, just yourself. If you are truly making progress, pat yourself on the back, but don’t lie to yourself. If you’re not making progress, sit down and write a list of 3 things you could do to change this.
Don’t train with ignorance. Don’t seek results with clouded perceptions of your circumstances. Understand with ultimate clarity where you are and where you’re going.
