How many times have you been doing something physical and you have heard someone say, “It’s all in your head!”? When it comes to exercise, it is true. The thing is, many people are capable of much more than they think they are, thus they limit themselves on what they are able to get done in the gym. Your mind is what helps you overcome obstacles because if all exercise were easy for you to do, then you would probably get bored really fast! Learning how to access your mind and body link is the best possible way for you to grow stronger and lose weight faster than you could ever imagine.

Mental Fear is Your Enemy

Everybody has exercises that they do not enjoy. Planks, burpees, squats, push-ups; these are a few of the many hated exercises you will encounter in the gym. Here is what you need to understand to accomplish your goals: that fear is only mental. Straying away from certain exercises just because you think you are bad at them is simply your mind’s way of letting you get out of the hard stuff without feeling bad for it. Trust me, those push-ups that you hate? Your body is completely capable of doing them, or some variation of them. Since your mind is not convinced that you can do them, your body falters.

Let me use myself as an example. I really used to hate pull ups. Do you know why I hated them so much? Because I sucked at them! I gave myself every single excuse in the book, you know the ones:

• I am not strong enough
• My hands hurt too much
• I am too tired to try right now
• I didn’t sleep well
• The sun is in my eyes

Blah, blah, blah the list goes on and on. What I eventually learned was that my fear of pull ups was holding back all my progress in the gym. I gained control of my mind, I made it work in a positive manner, and I started doing pull ups. At first it was one at a time, then it was two, then three. It was a slow process but you know what? I didn’t let pull ups beat me.

Self-Efficacy

Simply explained, definition of self-efficacy is confidence. It is the belief in your own abilities to help you succeed. Next time you are in the gym I want you to think about that a little bit. What are you scared of? What is holding you back? Is your self-efficacy working for you and making you a confident, weight lifting machine, or is your mind holding you back from going to your limits and meeting your full potential?

Do not let your fear of what you think you are capable of get in the way of what you are truly capable of. Get in the gym, be confident, and be proud. Work hard and do not be afraid of failure because the only thing failure should be to you is a future success!

By: Tanner Porter