If you follow our Instagram page, then you’ve probably seen our “Takeover Tuesday” stories that we post each week. Sometimes it’s a few helpful tips regarding form or technique. Sometimes it may be our interns giving helpful information. Or sometimes it may be one of us dropping beneficial life knowledge. I would like to think that my recent takeover falls into that category, but I’ll leave that up to you to interpret. My most recent takeover involved the lessons of the barbell and how they can relate to our goals in life.
A few months back, Cody Miller and I were doing a squat session together. We decided to do sets of 20 reps with the SSB bar. If you’ve ever used this bar, you know how challenging it can be. And if you’ve ever done 20 reps on squats, then you know how equally evil that can be. After our second or third set, I racked the bar, looked at Cody, and said “I don’t think I can do another rep.” Cody looks at me and says “Doing reps is like taking steps. You can always take one more step, no matter how bad you feel.”
This resonated with me, as I’m the type of person that always sees the similarities between training and life. If we were to approach each day the same way that we do each rep, of each set, of each workout, then our goals would be much more attainable. In today’s society, we think that we always have to have something right now. If we set a goal, we think that we have to achieve it instantly, or we’ve failed. That’s just not accurate. A better way to think of it is by taking one more step, doing one more rep, checking off one more box each day. If we focus on the smaller victories each day; checking off each box when we wake up, throughout the day, and each night before bed, we will ultimately get to the big goal. But if we only focus on the end result so much that we paralyze ourselves from seeing the smaller wins, then we’re going to have a hard time getting there, and we may even get frustrated before we give ourselves a chance to get to that point.
As I’ve said multiple times, this applies to training as well as to life. They are exactly the same. The best lessons I’ve ever learned are from the barbell and the weights inside of the gym. It taught me how to take these steps, how to progress, how to believe in myself, and how to be patient and hardworking. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it often takes much longer than you would like. But if you continue taking one more step, doing one more rep, and checking off one more box, you will ultimately get to exactly where you want to be.
-Curtis Miller
