Confidence Maintenance

Perhaps one of the most overlooked traits of strength training is building confidence. It slowly, quietly, builds in the background until all of a sudden one day you find yourself thinking things you never thought possible.

I’ll try skiing again this year, for the first time in 15 years.

I can handle all that walking on a family vacation.

I can get the kayak off my roof and carry it to the water by myself.

Get down on the floor to play with your kids or grandkids, no big deal.

Say yes to this hike invitation.

These small thoughts that enter your mind are actually huge wins. There’s no clear way to measure confidence, and it’s different for everyone. It’s a hard thing to boast about on a tabloid too.

Since it’s hard to measure, and can be hard to notice, it’s easy to forget it’s there. It becomes part of you when you’re training regularly, and getting an appropriate physical stimulus. The trap is that it’s finite. If you don’t keep training, your physicality will decline and your confidence with it.

Training never gets easy. But know that if you stay in the game and keep playing it, you’re unlocking benefits, obviously physically, but also in the way that you think and feel. In fact, there’s so many small benefits like that you probably don’t even realize they’re there until they’re gone.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain