The gym is a video game and you’re stuck on easy mode.

When you beat a game at easy mode, the next obvious progression is to try hard mode.

Most people are scared of doing that. Most people don’t want to deal with the discomfort of hard mode.

They’re comfortable with easy mode; Comfortable with easy in general. They fear losing. They fear failure. They fear transformative pain.

They’ve beaten the game on easy mode or so they believe. And that’s enough for them.

But we all know what lies at the end of easy mode…

Absolutely nothing.

You have not beaten the game. The game has beaten you. Gave you a false sense of pride and allowed you to “win one” because you so desperately need it.

The “broken” body and easy training is something that’s being pushed a lot these days.

Everyone’s following physiotherapy accounts that instead of encouraging people to work out and exercise, they instil fear of movement in them.

“Don’t do this or you’ll break your back.”

“Do these activations for 30 mins before touching a barbell.”

“This exercise will give you a hernia, this will make your shoulders pop out of their sockets.”

“Warm up your feet, ankles, calves, thighs, hips, core, scapulae and neck before your training session…”

Somewhere along the line, the activations and warm ups have become the actual workouts.

Walk into any gym and see everyone rolling around on foam rollers. Lifting tiny dumbbells.

Only doing single leg work because they’re “too broken to squat”. Or so they’ve been told and made to believe.

They’re defeated. They think they’re a mess, their bodies are tattered and torn. Busted. Broken.

They pay for personal training and physical therapy only to get their biases confirmed. 

“Yes your QL is bothering you. Do not deadlift.”

“Your knees are aching? Yep no squats for you.”

“Your shoulder hurts? Do these banded dislocations and retractions and you’ll be fine.”

“Take two years to build from an empty barbell to 135lb and stay there for another year.”

Broken.

You see once you’re cruising on easy mode, you’re feeding your biases and believing the narrative that you’re not strong, you’re fragile and you can easily break.

But I don’t blame you.

I blame the personal trainers, the physical therapists, the chiropractors, and the doctors. They’ve convinced you that you’re fragile.

They love barriers and arbitrary movement standards.

They create exercise barriers and convince you that only they hold the key to help you break through them.

They are the gate keepers. And you SHALL NOT PASS!

More barriers = More fragility = More sessions = More money.

People could be very convincing, and you've been convinced that you're in constant need of repair.

Even “healthy” individuals are not pushing hard during training. No gasping for air, no muscle fatigue, no grunting, and no sweat because “I’m scared of getting injured”. Yet they expect their bodies to adapt and grow stronger with little effort.

The thing about feeling weak, achy, broken, injured is that these words resonate with low self-esteem and low confidence levels. Keep that up and you won't step into the gym without feeling like you need your hand held. Your reps counted. Your programming written for you, to feed your biases of being broken. All this, just because you're trying to avoid pain.

But once you realize that pain is part of the game that's when the façade falls. That's when you rid yourself of limitations. Rid yourself of imposed fear. That’s when you get stronger and that's when you start moving forward. That’s when you start playing the game and your self confidence is the best cheat code.

It's about time you stop feeling weak and stand up to the fear of movement.

Give yourself the permission to move forward.

Be courageous. Stop being an NPC, get in the game and choose hard mode.

Because you, my friend, are not broken.

P.S Respect to all the doctors, physiotherapists and trainers who are helping clients get stronger through excellent treatment, advice, programming and not imposing barriers to exercise. I salute you.

Nizar