It will feel harder

You’re taking a class and it’s deadlift day. Your coach gives you a new cue to try because you’ve been feeling some pain your lower back.

You drop your butt and make the lift, but it feels like you added 100 more pounds to the bar.

Your coach says, “great job. I’ve never seen your back position stay so neutral. Keep doing that.”

But it felt much harder. How can that possibly be right?

So you decide to go back to your old form because it feels easier.

And then you’re injured for eight weeks when you throw your back out.

The unfortunate truth is that most form corrections are going to feel harder before they feel easier. Much harder.

You’ve been doing some of these movement patterns for years, which means that making any kind of change is going to require different muscle recruitment and coordination. Of course, it’s going to feel more challenging to work muscles in a squat that you’ve never worked before, but does that mean that you shouldn’t make the correction?

We see time and time again how challenging it is for people to “start from scratch.”

I get it—I had a huge fear growing up was that I would hand in a paper and my teacher would would say, “let’s start over on this one.”

The longer you exercise, the more you realize that you’re going to be “starting over” a lot in order to stay healthy.

Wasted time and energy is infuriating. And yet, sometimes it’s the only way to progress.

When training for the half ironman, I realized that I was pointed my toes on the bike—and this was utilizing my calves too much. I’d get to my run and completely cramp up. I worked with my coach to try a more flexed position as I was pedaling so that I could have more hamstring engagement at the the bottom of the rotation, which makes complete sense to my brain. The hamstrings are a huge muscle group, so of course, I want them to be doing most of the work on a 56 mile bike.

But when I started training this way, it felt impossible. How was I supposed to bike for four hours when just twenty minutes with this new technique gassed me completely? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have the thought, “maybe I’ll figure this out after the ironman.”

Because that’s how it always is, right? I’ll figure this out later. I just want to go as heavy as possible today. I need to get a good workout in. If I try to fix my imbalance on the back squat today I’m only able to lift 95lbs and I won’t see any gains.

“And yet, sometimes it’s the only way to progress.”

The longer you exercise, the more you realize that you’re going to be “starting over” a lot in order to stay healthy.

Part of sustainable health is continuing to improve your technique even by the smallest degrees. And this requires a lot of maturity and patience. Most of the time, this will require you feeling like you’re starting from scratch.

And almost inevitably—it will feel harder.

That’s part of the process, and almost anything worthwhile doing will feel harder before it feels easier.