Wondering why you feel like you're not making any progress in the gym?
With more and more people joining the fitness industry every year, it's inevitable that there are going to be some people who make great progress and love it in the gym, while others struggle to see or appreciate the gains they've made.
The truth is, lots of people don't feel like they're making progress in the gym, and this causes their motivation to drop steadily before eventually, they don't feel like going in anymore and end up quitting.
If this sounds like you, or you simply feel like you're not making enough progress in the gym, then I've got a new perspective to offer you today that might help with this.
Maybe you're spending too much time on social media!
I know it's cliché, but there's more and I'll explain it to you below.
How Does Social Media Affect How We View Ourselves?
With the huge rise of social media and influencers, we're now all more exposed to the sights of incredibly fit, strong and healthy athletes from all over the world.
Everywhere that we scroll, we're seeing guys with shredded six packs benching upwards of 140kg (315lb) and deadlifting over 300kg (660lb).
We see guys doing clean muscle ups, single arm pull ups, and showing off their insanely veiny arms that we all dream of having.
We see girls showing off seemingly perfect bodies, with incredible fitness and the healthiest diets we've ever seen.
The point is, we're ALWAYS looking at the top 1%, or the tiny fraction of people who've been training for years and years, sometimes decades.
We're always looking at how strong this guy is, how big his arms are, and how fit that girl's stomach looks.
Constantly seeing this stuff every day, every time we scroll on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and all the other platforms certainly does start to allow it to get into our heads.
We start to think that bench pressing 100kg or 225lb is an easy task, as every guy that we follow on social media can do it.
We start to think that achieving our first pull up is no impressive feat, as every guy and girl on social media seems to be doing them in their sleep!
In reality, even these very normalized achievements in fitness are wildly impressive, if you think about what the average person in society is capable of doing and could achieve.
For example, it's a widely accepted idea that less than 1% of the entire global population is capable of bench pressing 100kg or 225lb.
And for a 140kg (315lb) bench or higher, that number is going to drop even further.
Yet we see every guy on social media doing it!
That's how social media is impacting the way we view ourselves.
It's skewing our perspective in fitness to the top 1% of people, when in reality everyone else falls into the remaining 99% of the entire population.
You're comparing what you've achieved to what the top performers have achieved in their years and years, or decades and decades of training.
And who is to say that you're not going to become a top performer yourself?
If you stick at this for as long as all these other people have, who is to say that you won't be able to look like that?
There's a good chance you will!
But for now, the most important thing for you to remember is that you, and what you've achieved is impressive if you think about what everyone else across the entire population is capable of doing.
You need to remember that not everyone can do a pull up.
You need to remember that most other people are overweight, unmotivated and unable to make any sort of efforts to change that.
As long as you're getting in the gym consistently and are putting in the good work, you're doing way better than most people ever will, or even could.
So What Can I Do Instead?
Well, you certainly can still follow your favorite influencers on social media, because at the end of the day it can be very motivating and inspiring to see others at a point that you want to reach.
However, moving forwards it's going to be wise for you to keep in mind that these people have likely been training for several years, and sometimes even decades on end.
So don't feel bad about yourself, or feel like you haven't made enough progress when you've only been training for a fraction of the time they have!
Learn more:
And certainly don't let the capabilities of these people take away from your happiness, satisfaction and sense of achievement with your own goals!
If you set a goal to bench press 80kg (175lb) or get your first pull up and you've recently reached it, don't let yourself think that this is nothing to be impressed of!
Always just remember that you're looking at the top 1%, and not the average person that you should be comparing yourself with!
Be Proud of Your Achievements...
No matter what you've accomplished in fitness, if you did it safely, properly and worked hard for it, then it's something to be proud of and you've got every right to be happy with yourself.
Even if someone else has done something that's more advanced than what you're capable of at the moment, remember that everybody is starts somewhere, and that we're all out here on our own journeys.
Your biggest competition should be your own self, and nobody else.
I recently heard a quote, and this topic reminded me of it.
It goes like this: "Comparison is the thief of joy."
The point is, don't let somebody else's success take away from your achievements!
Conclusion
We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with others who've been working hard in our space several years or even decades more than we have.
That's simply a recipe for demotivation and unfulfillment.
Again, the most important thing that you can do for yourself is realize that we're all fighting our own battles, and that we need to focus on ourselves more than anyone else.
If you found this article helpful, remember to share it with your friends so we can reach more people and help more stay knowledgeable in fitness!
I'll finish off with another awesome quote that I think is relevant here:
"Be so focused watering your own grass that you don't have time to check whether someone else's grass is greener."
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