The Concept of Hardworking 

Too often the concept of hard work in the gym is confused with who has the most kilos on the barbell or who spends the most time in the gym. I think hard work is the genuine effort that is put into the reps, sets and the training sessions. Just because someone is lifting ‘heavy’ doesn’t mean they are working hard. 

The challenge is that the idea of hard work can be very hard to understand. What you think and what others think is hard work is very different. Quite simply what is a 10/10 session for you may be just a 5/10 for someone else. 

This poses the great question: What is a 10/10 session? For me this does not mean RPE 10 every set. For me this means you have overall intent, effort and adherence to your training plan.  

There is an easy yardstick to check your score on how hard you train. Within the four walls of the gym no doubt there are those that inspire you. Lurk in the shadows and watch how they train. Don’t just pay attention to top sets, watch their auxiliaries and how they train them. Do you ever see these humans skip things? For me it’s my training partners Lily and Kev. When it’s time to lift big nothing stands in their way, and when it comes to auxiliary or light training sessions, they bring that same intent and adherence to the sessions. They don’t just rely on the fact they are strong to stay strong, they are constantly pushing everything they do. 

With our human body and minds always seeking the challenge of hard work and then responding by getting better at it, the next challenge that arises is that you get acclimated to 10/10 sessions. You will find very quickly that they are no  longer a 10/10. You will need to continue to challenge yourself harder every training run to ensure you can maintain this 10/10 mindset. You should be able to look back on sessions you did six months ago (the ones you thought were hard) and think, ‘Dang that looks easy now!’.  

This concept of working hard brings another huge opportunity of improvement to your progress without spending a second more in the gym. You will exponentially move yourself closer to your goals just by continuing to strive for 10/10 sessions and not accepting anything less.