“Overthinking.”
“Closet Perfectionism.”
“Failure To Launch.”
“Paralysis By Analysis.”
It goes by many names, but boils down to the same root: You say you’ve got to get in shape; eat healthier; lose weight; but haven’t found the “best” program. And you can’t start until you know you can do it right. So you end up talking a lot about exercise, reading fitness forums on the web, or plowing through countless diet books in search for the Truth.
You or someone you know may have this problem. If this is the case, you’ve got to do yourself (or your buddy) a big favor and tell them to stop talking (or thinking) and start doing.
At some point, the theorizing has to stop, and you’ve got to get under the bar and lift the damn thing. No amount of understanding of how intramuscular pH drops as H+ ions accumulate as a by-product of contraction will prepare you for the exquisite pain this phenomenon presents when you’re on rep 19 of a set of 20 rep breathing squats. No amount of conjecture of the exact forces on a joint complex at turnarounds makes driving that bar off your chest any easier.
And no amount of pontification over whether it’s better to limit carbs to 63 grams per day over 89 grams per day is worth a damn if you’re still eating Oreos.
Don’t wait for the perfect program. Get started now, make your mistakes early, and get on the right track as soon as possible.
Yes, it’s best you get educated first. Yes, it’s important to know what you’re doing so you don’t veer down the wrong track. But the path to achievement is never a straight line. And every day you don’t do something, it’s worse than standing still - you’re regressing.
A great insight from the book Art and Fear (via Kevin Kelly’s blog):
“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot -albeit a perfect one - to get an “A”.
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”
Of course, it’s not a “curious fact” at all. Life rewards doers. As for the thinkers, wishers, and dreamers…well, life can be a cruel mistress as well.
Go to the gym. Lift something - start small, start light, but do it. Build up (progress) over time.
Change your diet. Even a little thing - like drinking water instead of pop. One thing at a time.
Start doing. It’s ok if you don’t understand how insulin both helps and hurts you - I’ll explain it as many times as you need me to - but you will understand it better (and faster) if you drink the recovery brew after your workout and stop eating cereal for breakfast.
On the one hand, I can see why it’d be distressing: Culturally, we see images of fitness models smiling while pumping away at a 3 lb weight, form (and make-up) perfect. While you, on the other hand, are barely keeping the bar in your hands; sweating, cursing, and trying not to think of how wonderful it would be to drop this ridiculous load onto your trainer’s foot.
