I learned something new about myself this week. I was in the gym, and before you question it, no, I’m not the girl just in there for cardio. Instead, you’ll find me living and breathing in the weight room.
If you’ve been following my journey getting back to health after starving myself (which by the way, I don't recommend!), you’ll know that it’s been really tough getting back. At this point, I’m a lot physically stronger than when I started trying to get back fueling my body well.
In all of this, it turns out I was stagnating in my progress, especially in the gym.
At first, I intentionally limited the amount of weight I would use to build back up from a solid foundation in the gym. It is also what you’d want to do if you were in the same place I was, so it was good. However, the problem is I got comfortable there.
It wasn’t until a friend walked up to me in the gym this week, asked me what workout I was doing. After I responded, my friend looked at the weight I was using and then back at me again, and said “you’re underestimating yourself.”
After I got over the fact that I was called out and caught off guard by the directness of that comment, I went on to increase the weight I was using in 3 increments. AKA, I added additional weight 3 times. It was tough, but I was most certainly doing it, and with perfect form, of course.
I then went to bench for the first time in a long time because I was avoiding it thinking I wasn't ready to get back to that just yet. I ended up doing 8 sets of 10-14 reps increasing the weight each time again. And yes, I mean 8! It was intense, but again, I did it.
During that week, I went on to push myself in every other exercise I did, and hit multiple new Personal Records (PR’s). I learned that I am a lot stronger than I thought!
Notice that it took someone else to see it in me before I did.
I want to challenge you to ask yourself where it is that you are underestimating yourself.
Where, what and how can you do better? You’re a lot stronger than you think you are. I promise you that. You might not believe it, but push yourself and you'll see.
Thank you so much for sticking with me for this one. Hope you got to learn some new gym lingo. Remember, that you can do only what you think you can, but if you expect better of yourself, you'll do better. You're a gem!