Taking Constructive Criticism

On Saturdays, Nate and I sometimes go to my gym together. It’s closer and easier and my gym is pretty relaxed about letting visitors work out if the come in with a member. Normally, I just do cardio on Saturday. Something to get my blood going and get the day started, but for this Saturday I was lifting. My lifting schedule has been 100 shades of messed up lately and I have ended up lifting on Saturday (see photo for opinion on that) or lifting two days in a row more than one week in the last month.

Anyway, when Nate comes to the gym with me on lifting days I usually like to have him do a double check on my form. So I started my lift and he checked it. Bottom line, everything was kind of messed up.

I was super sore (back to back lifting is no good for me or my form) and I knew that I didn’t have great form on my overhead press and I also knew that my squats weren’t fantastic.

I will be the first to admit that I do not that criticism well. Especially if it is something new to me like lifting. I tend to get really discouraged and kind of upset if I learn that I am doing something incorrectly. While I logically know that when Nate corrects my form he is doing it to help me, for some reason my emotions always get the better of me first.

So...open apology to you Nate for being frustrated and upset about my lifting and directing those emotions at you.

The point I wanted to make with this post is that there are going to be times, especially with things like lifting, where you should seek out the advice and direction of someone more experienced than you. If you are like me, convincing yourself to ask for that direction is hard. Even more so if you know that you are doing something incorrectly but don’t know how to fix it.

I was eventually able to get a grip and actually take Nate’s direction and advice and put it towards doing good work and I am really glad I did. Because I am so new to lifting, making sure that I develop the correct form is vitally important to not only success in the gym, but also avoiding injury. I am still super careful on my squats after messing up my hip a few weeks ago so having someone knowledgeable look at form and help me fix it was good for me; even if I was kind of a grumpy cat while getting said advice.

What I am trying to say more than anything is that constructive criticism is there to help make us better, stronger, and smarter. We may hate it while someone is giving us said criticism, but at the end of the day, it is coming from a place of wanting you to do better. So the next time I am in the gym and Nate is adjusting my form, I am going to just take a breath and remind myself that it is making me better and I encourage you to try the same.