Perceived Limitations

[Patrick Laughlin]

I’ve wondered for awhile now what makes for an accurate perception of one’s own limitations. Taking weightlifting as an example, this can be really difficult. I’ve caught myself twice lifting beyond my “limits” due to error. I log my workouts in my phone by exercise. Sometimes, I get silly and tap the wrong exercise and lift that weight (think push pressing when i really tapped bench pressing). Laziness of attention aside, this has caught my attention because i still completed the higher weight. Accidentally pressing 110lbs for 10 reps instead of 90lbs, my latest amount, makes me think i’m not pushing myself enough. This error gets further complicated when I am following a program that asks for a 70% effort for 10 reps.

If everything is based on a 1RM, that places a lot of importance on a 1RM. How are you sure that you truly could not perform another rep (with good form) ? My hunch is that this is impossible to answer for someone and that this is the whole point of long term weightlifting experience, but i’m curious. What do others know about dealing with this feeling?

[Red Finn]

I think a linear progression provides a decent education in learning to push oneself.

[BareSteel]

Finn starts to make a good point about a novice's perception of maximal exertion. What you consider 'heavy' as a novice is probably just a weight you've never moved before. Later, you start to learn what a real heavy 5 is like, what a 5RM is like, and (perhaps) what a failed 5th rep is like. Then you have a basis for comparison.

Another example is a trainee who is mentally afraid of how 315 looks on the bar versus 310. The mindset of 'this weight is heavy, but I can do this' is a different one than 'crap this looks heavy, I wonder if I can do it.'

I think that just feeling prepared in general is a great start.

[sbhikes]

There was a video posted of a guy with Down syndrome who lifts. People were saying that these folks lack that limiting thing in the brain that keeps you safe, so they give everything they do, whether it's bagging groceries or bench pressing, 110%. I don't know if that is true, but I think the opposite may be true, that we tend to self-regulate a little more than necessary at times.

When I was on the Pacific Crest Trail it took a while to break the 30 mile in a day mark. One day, instead of adding up all the miles I'd done that day, I counted down the miles remaining to my next resupply. When I got to where there were only 20 miles remaining, 20 miles sounded like nothing and I put in enough additional miles to make it a 35 mile day no problem. I realized then the 30 mile barrier had always been only a psychological barrier, not an actual physical barrier.

[Adam Skillin]

And it was once believed that it was impossible to run a sub-4 minute mile. Then someone did it. Then a whole bunch of other people did it, in pretty short order. Get the very idea of limits out of your mind. I constantly lie to my one lifter about how easy his squat reps look. They don't, a lot of the time. We add 5 lbs the next session and he grinds through them. I tell him they went up fast and easy. We rinse. We repeat.

[Miro]

[...]
I constantly lie to my one lifter about how easy his squat reps look. They don't, a lot of the time. We add 5 lbs the next session and he grinds through them. I tell him they went up fast and easy. We rinse. We repeat.

*Christoph Waltz voice-over*

You silver-tongued devil, you.

[Kyle Schuant]

I have these little 0.25kg plates, together on the bar they make 0.5kg.

I dunno what you can do eventually, but I know you can do 0.5kg more than you're doing now. And really that's what it's all about.

[guyonabuffalo]

This is so true. I thought for a long time that I had stalled on progression. Then I read about "over-warming up" then backing off to your work weight. I added 15 extra pounds above my last squat session and blew 5 reps out becasue it felt so good. Well, it felt good mentally and I was sore for the next workout!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Some people say you have to actually experience failure to know your limitations. I thought that for a long time. But if you are being honest with yourself you can tell if you have the next 1-2 reps in you. Failure does not occur at uncomfortable. Failure occurs when you know to a certainty that the next rep is impossible. Even then, keeping that next grinder in the tank for the next session is often a good idea. You keep moving up. Maybe not as fast as you might think you want, but it's better than frying your recovery and CNS by going to the wall every time.

[Mugaaz]

I think I know where youre coming from, but I think the direction the discussion is going is wrong. I have noticed a lot of perceived limitations, not in ability to do a specific weight at a specific rep though. It's more a mental limit of when you become no longer comfortable with the discrepancy between your actual strength and perceived strength. You think of yourself as weak, then one day you load up the bar and think thats a lot of weight, only someone who is strong could do that, and I'm not strong, so i cant do that. I notice a lot of people quitting at this exact point where in order to continue progressing you need to change your self perception. People get very uncomfortable with having to change this view of themselves and then quit. Theyll quit in some dignified way, theyll say they want to work on their conditioning, or work on hypertrophy with more reps, but whatever it is they say it means the same thing.