6 Months of Smashing through Self-Limiting Beliefs
Monthly Fitness Challenges — how training phyiscal muscles is teaching me to have a growth mindset
I’ve blogged a fair amount about my fitness routine here, particularly how in the last year I’ve been focused on lifting weights and getting stronger, as opposed to killing it with cardio and simply being driven by the scale or aesthetics like I often was in the past.
Strength training has completely changed the way I see myself, both physically and mentally. I now train to practice different skills, get stronger, and improve my form, gain a better mind-muscle connection, or go heavier in different lifts. It is so much more rewarding and empowering than working out from a place of self-hatred and simply wanting to be smaller ever was. I highly recommend lifting weights to anybody looking to feel great about their exercise routine.
Part of my strength training programming that I like best is that my coach gives me “10 free minutes” at the end of every workout to do whatever I like. I’ve personally decided to use these 10 free minutes to work on different challenges each month that are intrinsically motivating to me — that is, they are rewarding for their own sake. Practicing these moves and postures is inherently enjoyable (practicing them is their own reward), and often, when I set a goal that feels unattainable at the start of the month, I am pleasantly surprised to find that it was not only doable, but I actually smashed through the goal I set early and was able to push even further than expected!
My Monthly Challenges from the past 6 months
December 2018: 10 pushups on toes with good form
This was a super humbling goal! I started by only being able to do 1 or 2 pushups with good form on my toes (leading me to wonder just how bad my form has been for the past few years since I was definitely doing push-ups on my toes before 🤔) before having to drop to my knees to keep my form perfect. I learned about aligning my shoulders over my wrists, and and as I did that, I realized that the push-up was training met o keep my wrists in the right position for bench press as well. Both my form and strength transferred from this body weight move over to a weighted lift and both improved. Side note: I still struggle with pushups! At my yoga class, my instructor often throws 10 pushups in for funsies between the 3,000 chaturangas that we already do. I often only do 5 or so and then go into child’s pose when I feel my form break down. I’d rather do fewer pushups, with perfect form, than start adapting to doing more with poor form.
Big Takeaway this month: Quality over Quantity.
January 2019: First Unassisted Chinup
THIS goal was super exciting. I had always wanted to be able to do an unassisted chin-up but it just seemed like one of those movements that was beyond me. Turned out, when I set it as my monthly goal for January and practiced it regularly, I met that goal on JANUARY 14TH! It was so empowering that I wrote a blog post all about getting my first chinup and challenging self-limiting beliefs! 🤣
Big Takeaway this month: You are stronger than you know
February 2019: 30-second L-Sit
With the motivation I had from January and getting my first chinup, I asked my BBB counterparts for ideas of what to tackle in February. I was wanting to work on something that would target the lower abs and build those muscles both for strength and aesthetics (note: there’s nothing wrong with having an aesthetic goal, but, it’s important to pair it with something meaningful, at least for me!), but, I also wanted whatever move I worked towards to provide a motivating challenge in and of itself in the meantime. Someone suggested working toward and L-sit and after a little research and finding some great support resources at GMB fitness for how to progress and build the strength to do an L-sit, I was sold! February’s bodyweight strength training challenge reminded me of my childhood love of gymnastics and was super duper fun.
Big Takeaway this month: An external (aesthetic) goal — like building visible abdominal muscles — is fine, but you’ll become more motivated to achieve it if you can find a way to work towards it that is a meaningful challenge, and rewarding for its own sake.
March 2019: Crow Pose with Control
Once I remembered my gymnast past and realized how much joy it brought me to reconnect to that part of myself, I decided to try an advanced yoga arm balance that I’d never successfully mastered before: crow pose! I thought perhaps the core strength I’d build through my L-sit the month before would help with this posture, too, and it turned out it did! The hardest part of this move was simply trusting myself. It was so difficult to lean wayyyy forward and look forward — I felt like I would fall on my face every. single. time I practiced. But, bit by bit, I learned how it should feel to put weight on my forearms, I eventually picked up one foot off the ground, then the other, first from a block, then on their own, holding at first for just a milisecond, then for a few seconds, and eventually a solid 20–30 seconds by end of month! It was sooooo much fun!
Big Takeaway this month: If you can’t think of anything that motivates you, think about what you loved as a child and do something similar! Also: Trust yourself and just keep trying when you are afraid. It’s normal to be afraid. But if you (literally or figuratively) fall on your face, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again.
April 2019: Advanced Side-Plank Progression
From crow pose in March, I decided to devote April to another yoga move that wouldn’t require any equipment, because we would be traveling through Japan to see the Cherry Blossoms, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find a gym or equipment for my traveling workouts. Another basic move that I’d always wanted to feel more confident about was my side plank.
I would go to yoga class and see these advanced yogis doing all kinds of fun progressions where they did tree pose or lifted a leg or even hooked their fingers around their big toes and held their legs up in the air. I wanted to be able to do the same, so I found some tutorials and started practicing. By the end of the month, I could hook my toes too!!! I also strengthened my shoulders and got some good hip opening practice.
Big Takeaway this month: Practical goals are good too — make sure your goal is realistic in your current context/environment (basically, set yourself up for success by being thoughtful in selecting a something doable).
May 2019: Headstand Hold with Control
Finally, in May, I decided to combine all of the core strength I’d been working on with building the fun of gymnastics and yoga to go upside down, and work on getting a headstand with control. By end of the month, I not only was able to easily pop up into headstand, but I could hold it for about minutes and play with all kinds of fun postures while upside-down!
Big Takeaway this Month: Don’t forget to just have fun and play sometimes! As adults we often forget this, but shouldn’t underestimate the joy we can feel from just 10 minutes spent doing something that we love.
The Power of Full Engagement and the Mind-Body Connection
Related to the physical monthly challenges I’ve set for myself the past six months, I’ve been reading a good book recently by author and performance psychologist Jim Loehr and co-author Tony Schwartz. It’s called The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.*
Here’s the book’s premise:
We are so caught up in time-management and optimizing our lives (especially through use of technology) that we fail to realize that it is our energy that is our most valuable resource. We must mobilize, manage, and balance four key sources of energy: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
The authors further suggest that balancing energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal and recovery, in the same systematic way elite athletes do, is the key to expanding our capacity in all areas of life.
We can do this by creating highly specific, positive energy-generating rituals that lead to lasting changes in our lives personally and professionally, becoming more physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.
The idea that you can intentionally train yourself to get stronger mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in much the same way you can train your muscles to get stronger physically strikes me as incredibly obvious in retrospect.
I’ve blogged about the importance of a growth mindset before. It’s a concept that fascinates me, because even though I fully believe in the importance of a growth mindset, especially for students, I so often catch myself operating from a fixed mindset, thinking thoughts like “I’m just not good at X” or “I could never do Y”. But then, in the gym, I set these seemingly ambitious physical goals for myself, and I practice, and boom, I can get there!
So why wouldn’t the same be true for me in every area of life?
We should apply a growth mindset to everything we set out to do in life, believing that we can change and improve over time. We are more than our physical bodies. We are more than our thoughts. We are more than our feelings. We are more than whatever spiritual beliefs we hold. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. We are complex, multifaceted individuals.
Your mind impacts your body, and vice versa. So let’s be strategic about that connection. Believe that you can improve — in any area — and you will. Set a concrete goal, practice regularly, and watch yourself grow and change over time. Then, with the motivation you gain from growing in one area, apply that energy and mindset to all areas of your life and smash through self-limiting beliefs you didn’t even realize you were holding on to. 💪
How about you? Do you find it challenging to believe you can grow or change or improve like I used to? Can you think of a goal, right now, that feels a bit out of reach, but which would push you to challenge yourself this month? I would love to hear what if anything you choose to pursue! ❤
*Note: This book link is an amazon affiliate link, meaning if you were to buy from clicking my link I would make a little money. I only recommend books I’ve read and gotten a lot out of or products I truly use and reccomend myself.
