Once again, this article is inspired by experiences in my own life. I’m not much of a risk-taker myself, but I fully recognize that you cannot achieve anything without taking some risks. Tom Platz puts it very aptly in an interview: “Even crossing the road, getting from one side to the other, means taking a risk!”
I believe coaches and people who train will be familiar with hearing someone who exercises, a parent or simply an observer say that “you should take it easy when you train and not overdo it.” Or that “I’d like to train, and I’m willing to work hard to improve, but without getting injured.” There’s nothing wrong with that: training certainly needs to be sensibly structured, informed and controlled. All true. But if you think you can get anywhere without testing your limits, you’re mistaken. In many cases, the people who reach the top are precisely those who test their limits and push them further. In fact, it’s not even about reaching the top. Absolutely any progress requires you to push your limits. Perhaps only a little at a time, but these small steps beyond what you’ve adapted to add up and translate into noticeable progress over time. Training theory addresses this too: if the training load is something your body can handle easily, it has no need to build new structures.
“For training to improve your capacity for physical work, its demands must exceed the limits of your current adaptations. Put simply, training must be tiring and sometimes even painful, and it must cause moderate damage to the structures that support the function being challenged. Only then does the body recognize that its abilities do not match the demands of its environment, and that the only solution is to build new, more capable structures.”
“Human adaptability” by Kristjan Port
“I don’t really want to hurt myself; I don’t want to overdo it” is probably another familiar refrain. Talk of holding back for fear of potential injuries is quite common too. Again, it’s clear that recklessly battering yourself and “tearing yourself apart” cannot be considered sensible either. You still have everyday life to get on with. At the same time, you need to understand that any progress means moving beyond the state you’ve adapted to. That is, if your goal is to make any progress at all. And leaving your comfort zone always involves some risk. If you’re unwilling to test how much weight you can squat for a set of ten, or how you feel after an hour-long pull-up workout (and how it affects your back development), reaching your goals won’t be easy if you’re aiming to shape your physique. These are just a few examples from everyday training. You have to take risks! How much risk is another question, but you have to take some. If you’ve been squatting 170 kg for a set of three and you’re eager to find out whether you could manage a set of five with that 170 kg, then that’s what you need to work toward. Obviously, injuring yourself needlessly cannot be considered sensible, but you have to push your limits. And eventually, you have to attempt a set of five with 170 kg, even if your back tips forward a little on the last couple of reps. You could put it this way: “you have to overdo it without overdoing it”.
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You have to overdo it without overdoing it
This philosophy applies to every area of life and to training for every sport. Progress usually means trying “something new,” and new, unfamiliar “things” always carry certain risks (dangers). You cannot make progress without testing yourself and challenging your current abilities. But challenges come with risks. Anything can happen. We know our bodies, but we never know them completely. I’ve done a set of ten squats to failure. I know how it feels to perform the final reps of that set. My body survived it, and I feel I want to attempt a set of fifteen with the same weight. I feel this is necessary for development and progress. I can only imagine how it will feel to do a set of fifteen with a weight that took me to failure at ten, but what I will probably never be able to predict is what side effects (injuries) this might bring. Yet, for the sake of development and progression, you have to take these risks. You have to take them often, make these decisions week after week, and overcome challenges large and small on a fairly constant basis. In fact, every progression, even the smallest increase in weight or the number of reps in a set, is a risk. The only question is how much at a time.
But of course, the easiest and most risk-free option is to do nothing at all…
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
