Uncomfortably Comfortable

I remember one of the first times I went to the gym as an adult almost 15 years ago, it was a Fitness First gym and you know, when you join they give you one of those free PT sessions in the hopes that you’ll sign up their package or whatever.

Anyway, I remember the guy really clearly and him putting me through my paces.

We started with a 5 minute warm up jog, which I had to try and save face, I was dying a little bit but it was the warm up and I had to make it seem like I was fine.

We went through a few exercises, some of which I’d done before many years ago, some I had not. We eventually arrived to doing some deadlifts. I hadn’t really done these before, I don’t think they were quite as popular back then. 

Anyway, he grabbed the 40kg bar, It was one of those fixed weight bars, not the olympic type ones and asked me to do 10 reps. I did the reps, my legs were on fire, and I don’t think I did the reps particularly well. We did a few more sets and I walked away thinking I definitely don’t like those, give me back my bench press, I’ll stick in my comfort zone thanks.

Anyway, fast forward a few months maybe a year and my obsession with the gym, lifting and training was in full swing. I was reading as many article and books as I could and realised if I wanted to get strong and jacked (my goals at the time) I needed to be deadlifting.

So I rewrote my new training program, with deadlifts featuring on back day. It was a good split at the time to be fair, but I was kind of dreading the deadlifts. They felt uncomfortable and clunky and I wasn’t that strong with them yet.

But the point is, that in order to improve and progress I had to get uncomfortable. I had to sit in that space where the reps hurt, not a bad pain, an uncomfortable, oh my gosh this is proper effort type of pain. 

Rep after rep, I got better, I got stronger and in a short space of time that 40kg was now my warm up weight. How good is that.

I realised, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable in order to grow. Getting your heart rate up to the point where it hurts in uncomfortable, or working to a point where your muscles are screaming at you to stop is uncomfortable, but this is often where we grow and adapt, we just have to learn to do this.

I got to the point where I really seeked out the discomfort with certain lifts. I began some German volume training (10 sets of 10 reps) with the deadlift, that was a mental and physical battle but it really helped me grow stronger.

There is always a way to progress in the safest possible way, but unless we’re putting in actual effort that challenges us we won't get the adaptation we’re seeking.

It can be tempting to stay in your comfort zone, keep lifting the same weight that you have been on a certain exercise, the truth is, when you’re able to lift that weight for 12-14 or more reps, you can probably look at lifting the next weight up for less reps.

What I want for you is for that weight you are on now, to be your warm up weight, or to be your new comfortable. It can be scary and daunting picking up that size up, or adding another plate to the bar. There can be so much fear around it, what if I can’t lift it? What if I get hurt? What if it’s hard? It’s totally ok and normal to have those thoughts, and I’m NOT saying hey, go lift loads more on all your exercises, that is just reckless,, but every now and then it might be time take that next weight jump, to step out of comfortable and into uncomfortable on a certain exercise, maybe on a Skierg sprint you go 1000000% all out.

I often ask in a session ‘how is it feeling?, or how did that lift feel?’ and I think people can be fearful that I’m then all of sudden going to go get the next weight for them. That is not my style and definitely shouldn’t alway be the intention, I’ve seen other PTs do that and I think it’s nonsense. How are we meant to gauge how a client is going if they’re potentially going to lie about how a lift felt in fear that you’ll just go and make them go heavier.

Having that conversation a lot and a lot of client and lifting experience I can often tell when a client should go heavier. Also maybe the intention of that session is to lift that weight really well, feeling good, no need to go heavier, it just felt good. You can feel like yep, I own that weight on this exercise, this is my new normal, and maybe soon i’ll be ready to take the next step.

Anywho, enough waffling from me, I’m off to get uncomfortable with some interval running now. If you’re ever feeling ready to try that next weight up and need someone backing and supporting you,, all you have to do is ask and i’ll be your biggest cheer person!!!

Let get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Lawrence x