Keeping it honest in the gym is the simplest yet most challenging thing.
There is always going to be someone stronger than you. Bigger than you. More jacked than you. More experienced than you. Someone who lifts more than you. Someone who makes it look easier than you can. And someone who can make it look simpler than it is for you. They can get away with eating a lot more junk than you can. Or the eating well part comes more naturally for them than it will for you. The allure of parties and friends is less attractive for them. They’re geared and wired differently.
And every single person who steps foot in a gym will face this dilemma.
What you have is your progress. Your adherence. Your discipline. And whatever it is that drives you to make the choices you make.
Keeping it real and being honest is simple. At any point, you should have some handle on how well you are moving. If could be video logs of training or a training log. Are you squatting as low as you can. Is your form on your pull ups or chin ups as good as can be. At a minimum, are you making some progress? Or are you blissfully unaware on the ways in which you are getting better.
Worse yet, are you delusional enough to believe you are progressing when all the evidence shows otherwise? This happens a lot! Especially when you have coaches and a community validating your lack of progress as great work!
I’ve seen people walk in with all kinds of baggage. I am this old and my recovery sucks. Or I used to lift in college, it’s been downhill since. The most popular delusion is: I am a former athlete, but it’s been downhill since.
The beauty of training or any other athletic endeavour is simple: The proof is in the capacity to do and show rather than tell and proclaim.
Honesty and clarity matter. Only if you know what you are doing, can you know why you have what you have to show for it.
