How to make your training limits vanish into thin air

Today I’m going to talk about limits, what they are, what effect they have on your weight training progress, and I how to completely toss them out the window.

First off, what are limits?

The question we really should be asking is, are they real?

I like to describe limits as completely illusions. Though there are such things as limits, the majority of people today really have no idea what they really are, so in turn, they create illusionary ones.

Let’s look at the following paragraph I took from Randall Strossen’s book, IronMind: Stronger Minds, Stronger Bodies, which will open your eyes but more importantly have you think about what limits really are and what role they play on us:

"In the early 1920’s Henry “Milo” Steinborn squatted with approximately 550 pounds, which-beyond being a record lift-was viewed as close to man’s ultimate limit. Even by the mid-1950’s
this standard had only been nudged up to around the 600 pound mark. Enter the Canadian superman Doug Hepburn, who squatted 760 pounds in the mid-1950’s, a prodigious performance in the history of strength, but one which Paul Anderson completely
upstaged by cranking out 1160 in 1957…The fact that no one-even with drugs, squat suits, super wraps and super belts-has yet come within a hundred pounds of Paul’s mark is further
testimony to his colossal squatting ability. Once Paul Anderson had completely redefined conceptions of leg strength, however, others followed him into previously untouched territory, and by the end of the 1960’s, there were a handful of 800 pound squatters."

As you can see, as soon as a record, or limit, is broken, suddenly there become much more people who can match the previous record.

So what the heck is going on here?

Once every blue moon there comes someone who completely smashes all previous records.

He or she is a what we call a leader, a believer.

When others witness this, they follow. The leader is one who believes in himself and has complete faith that he or she can accomplish anything, and then goes and does it.

The followers just stay back and wait for someone to lead them, with no belief or intention of surpassing any limits themselves.

The truth is, the limits you create in your own head are the limits you create in your own reality. Focus on what you want to do and the heck with what everyone else is doing and what
has or hasn’t already been done.

Whether you want to break a personal record or a world record, you have with you 100% of every single thing you need to accomplish it. It doesn’t matter if everyone in the world does or doesn’t believe in you. You just have to believe.

So what are your limits? Are they holding you back from your progress?

Next time you write out your weight lifting goals, which I suggest you do if you aren’t already, try not to limit yourself, especially on your long term ones.

If it is something you really want bad enough, such as bench pressing 300 pounds or weighing 200 pounds of solid muscle, you will get it if you believe you will. I believe you can. In fact, I know you can.

Keep a close watch on the little voice in the back of your head that may be telling you that you are shooting to high or that you will never accomplish this or that.

It’s nothing but gibberish. Evict your inner doubts. Make it a formal process if you have to, but whatever you do, don’t ever, EVER doubt your abilities.

Because the amazing truth is, you’ll only achieve what you believe. If you doubt yourself or you don’t think that you can achieve a certain goal or goals, then those thoughts and those thoughts alone are the only thing holding you back.

Think about that for a while. It may change your life and how you view everything about it.

I’ll talk to you again soon,

Your Friend,

Derek Manuel
How to Gain Weight Fast