Overthinking Causes Acceptance Of Limitations :
Robert Heinlein’s book “Stranger In A Strange Land” has the concept of thinking yourself fit in it.
Having first read the book as a teenager that scene stuck with me nearly word for word, years later to very much weave itself into my training philosophy.
The tall fit blue eyed brunette who had went from 240 to a smoke show 160, when she told me her story she spoke a lot of “then I thought I can do better than this” starting at jogging and crunches and progressing to running a couple miles every morning (5-6x week) at a fast pace and becoming addicted to heavy squats, lots of lunges, leg/glute training in general going hard at them every day after work (5x week).
It was noticable in her telling the story how at each progressive step of the way she said she had thought “then I thought I can do better than this”, and had the epiphany three or four times over a year and a half of going from obese to extremely attractive by the time I met her.
It was extremely noteworthy that she’d do research, but never seemed to have come across anything speaking of limits.
She had just kept thinking “I can do better than this” til she found that she enjoyed running miles for time, and squatting heavy.
I remember that she was lifting heavy weights for a girl, squats and deadlifts at least 225+ for reps, and her mile PR/PB was mind blowing to me, competitive track fast, better than the large majority of both sexes will ever do, and she was built like a heavier, wider hipped volleyball player not a miler.
The girl just hadn’t taken in preconceived limits, and therefore was doing very well physically.
Most don’t ever combine her level of squatting and running.
She hadn’t taken in anything on that note as limit.
I’ve met a woman who at first glance you think “anorexic”, and then at second glance you think “used to be”.
I’ve seen this woman squat more than double bodyweight. She pulls a similar number to her squat. She’s a woman who benches more than she weighs. I don’t recall her exact military press, but I recall it being up there, around bodyweight.
(I’ve also seen a college age bodybuilder/crossfit chick rep out strict pullups and press around bodyweight.)
Her story as far as I know is “I used to be anorexic, then one day I stopped and thought I’m sick of being sick”.
She like the aforementioned tall brunette kept progressing to higher and higher performance levels either without accepting the limitations she either read and ignored, or like the brunette hadn’t come across in her research.
There’s some publication floating around the internet of natty muscle building limits. It claims to know how much lean body mass is the limit one can put on without steroids.
Myself and my buddy both force fed past this supposed lean body mass number as teenagers in high school.
A natty can have more lean body mass than military weight regulations. I’d know, I’ve been walking around like this for years.
Everytime someone says there’s a limit to the muscle you can put on ask them just how much muscle is under that fat on a sumo wrestler.
It’s extremely high amounts!
You can think yourself fit.
Just decide how you’re becoming.
You can add to that process with training and/or diet.
It’s not necessary, though that’s based on belief.
Belief is why I stress turning off the brain in the gym.
Overthinking causes over acceptance of limitations.
Off the top of my head I just rattled off a few examples of girls I’ve come across who’s physical abilities blow everyone, guys included, out of the water.
Don’t accept a limitation, and do your best to not hear of it in the first place.
Prime physical performance is readily available. It’s there for the taking.
Persistence & Tenacity