28/04/2022
This idea is a major roadblock for sooooo many folx I work with.
Fixated on ‘measurables’ and looking for simple ways to know how their body is changing (or not), many people tend to gravitate toward the easiest-to-measure metrics…
…like what you weigh, or how many reps you did, or what kind of weight is on the bar.
But as Goodhart says (not sure who that is actually 😂 , just appreciate their ‘law’), beginning to skew your training toward those EXTERNAL measures *always* makes them crappier measures of anything really important (like your health, strength, or satisfaction—all complex, hard-to-measure qualities most of us are trying to improve).
Instead, we need to “keep the goal the goal” and focus on using our training to guide *long-term, systemic* improvement.
That also means we need to let measures be exactly what they are—indications of progress—without becoming our actual training.
I used to ascribe my sense of self-worth to how much weight I could lift, and it just about broke me. 🙋♂️
What’s a sh*tty measure that you’ve pledged allegiance to in the past?
