You're Stronger Than the Number in Your Head

At the Unstoppable Games, I kept a secret from a lot of our lifters.

They'd step up to the deadlift, the squat, or the bench press and ask me what was on the bar. I wouldn't tell them. Not until it was over.

I had a reason. I've watched this happen more times than I can count: someone hears the number, decides it's too heavy before their hands touch the bar, and then either asks me to take weight off or gives a half effort that proves what they already believed. So I kept the number to myself. And people pulled, squatted, and pressed weights they would have sworn they couldn't.

Ever since, I've been having the same conversation with members. They're surprised by what they can lift now. And almost every time, the strength was already there. They'd just talked themselves out of trying.

What a 1979 Study Found

There's a study I love from 1979. Two researchers, Ness and Patton, tested college students on their max lifts over six weeks. Some weeks the lifters knew exactly what was on the bar. Some weeks the labels lied to them.

Every single lifter did their best when they thought the weight was lighter than it really was. Same bar, same muscles, same person. The only thing that changed was what they believed.

A study in the 1990s with people who had never lifted found the same pattern, plus something I see on the gym floor all the time: the people who were tricked into thinking the weight was heavier walked away less confident in themselves.

So here's what I can tell you honestly. There's no switch in your brain that shuts your muscles off. But when you step up to a bar expecting to fail, you hold back. You brace a little less. You push a little less. You quit the rep the second it gets hard, because you'd already decided how it would end.

It Doesn't Stay in the Gym

"I'm never going to lose this weight" works the same way. Say it enough, and you'll find the easy exit every time one shows up: the skipped session, the "I already blew it today," the reason this week isn't the week.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how the way you talk to yourself shapes what you do (read that post here). This is the other half of it. Negative talk drags you down, and it also keeps you from finding out what you can do in the first place.

Missing a Lift Is Information

Trying something and not getting it is not a bad thing. A missed rep tells you exactly where you are and what to work on next. That's useful.

The only way to really fail is to never try. If you never test your limit, you'll never know where it is, and I promise you it's further out than you think.

I've Been the Guy Who Talked Himself Out of It

When I decided to learn to ride a motorcycle, I was sure I'd never get it. Throttle in one hand, front brake in that same hand, clutch in the other, rear brake on one foot, gear shift on the other. Every limb doing its own job at the same time. I talked myself into taking lessons just to get started.

My instructor basically told me to smack myself, shake it out, and try it, one step at a time. So I did. Today I'm a pretty confident rider.

Before I coached, I was a musician, and I had the same kind of ceiling in my head. Nobody could play faster than that. Then I'd hear players who did exactly that. Or I'd go back and listen to Steve Gadd, who can have all four limbs playing different patterns that somehow lock together into something that sounds effortless. Somebody always proves the ceiling wasn't real.

Sometimes You Need Someone in Your Corner

A big part of what my team and I do is believe in you before you believe in yourself. Sometimes that looks like cheering you on. Sometimes it looks like me yelling that you can do this and to stop doubting yourself.

One important note: when I didn't tell people the weight, I picked it based on what I'd watched them do for months, and a coach was right there with them. Please don't go load a mystery bar by yourself. Find someone who knows what you're capable of, and let them push you.

Yes, this stuff is hard. It should be. But hard and impossible are two very different words. One of our core values here is Impossible Is Nothing, and I've watched our members prove it on the platform over and over.

Greatness is in all of us. Sometimes we just have to get out of our own way and let it out.

Mike

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