THE FREEDOM OF LIMITATIONS

In the past, I have written of “the tyranny of freedom”, and today I come to argue the other side of the equation in the freedom OF limitations.  Yes, once again I must clarify that, despite my propensity for typos due to the nature of how I write, I do in fact mean freedom OF limitations rather than from.  What, specifically, I mean to discuss in the fact that, in truth, it is the granting of limitations that ultimately give many trainees the freedom they so desperately crave in their training.  Oftentimes, trainees find themselves paralyzed and hamstrung due to the absence of limitations in their training, for without limitation they are given such absurd degree of freedom of choice that they feel a complete inability to make any decision and commit to any action.  Ultimately, these trainees feel compelled to make the BEST decision when given no limitations, and in their attempt to discover the best decision, they find they cannot make any decision.  Enter limitations.

They're telling you to keep calm when there are no limits because you SHOULD be panicking

Once limitations enter the decision making matrix, suddenly the trainee has MUCH more freedom, for now they’ve been obviated of the obligation to make the best decision.  They must NOW, instead, make the best decision for right NOW.  We’ve gone from Plato’s forms to Machiavelli’s realism, and the latter is FAR more easier to operate within than the former.  Once there are a few hardset rules of engagement that one MUST operate within, certain elements are removed from the table and we must instead work with what we have.  Sometimes this occurs in the realm of injury removing certain movements from our training, sometimes it’s a time constraint, sometimes it’s an equipment constraint, etc etc, but no matter what the situation, SOMETHING forces the training to adapt and overcome in their planning. 

And this is, in turn, where we experience so MUCH freedom, because now we are freed from the yoke of having to make the absolute BEST decision.  Instead of “how do I build the best program” it’s “how do I build the best program WITHOUT bending my knee” or “with ONLY 225lbs of weight” or “with ONLY 1 hour of training time”.  These massive, wide-swath cutting restrictions force the trainee into making decisions to operate the best within a certain paradigm, and from here, decisions are far easier to make.  No longer is it about making the best decisions in total, but simply the best decisions for that moment in time.

Like maybe deciding not to show up for the fight...

This is the BLESSING of limitations, yet so many trainees lament them as a curse.  How bizarre.  And fundamentally, it boils down to a complete unwillingness to alter one’s approach and one’s thinking.  How many times have you seen a trainee in a ridiculously overstocked gym only to go “My gym doesn’t have a reverse hyper.  HOW am I going to run conjugate now?!”  Or they complain about how they only have an hour to train, or only 3 days a week to train, or are injured, or only have so much weight available, etc etc.  Here they are, being granted freedom from the responsibility of training the absolute BEST, and they complain.  They wallow in misery and defeat, rather than maximizing the blessing of being able to train creatively.  NOW is your chance to have real freedom.

But why wait until you are FORCED into these limitations?  Why not enforce these limitations upon yourself in absence of external forces?  This, once again, IS the freedom that you enjoy as an autonomous being.  You don’t need to wait until you are injured or constrained in order to enjoy the freedom of limitations.  When designing your training, from the outset decide ahead of time on what your limitations will be and let that shape your training.    You need no other reason for these limitations other than “I have decided these are the limitations of the training”.

"My training is ONLY going to be ineffective"

In turn, own these limitations once decided.  Often I am asked “Why don’t you train THIS way” when one views my training, and I answer honestly that it’s one of my self-imposed limitations.  The most obvious one is the limitation of time.  I budget an hour 4 times a week to lift weights, and 30-60 minutes once a week for conditioning.  For me, that is how much I will allow myself to train.  With that limitation, I am forced to be efficient with my exercise selection, and if I want to get in more volume, I have to find ways to ensure that I can get it done WITHIN that time.  This means making the most out of super and giant sets and short rest periods.  And in turn, now I am driven to start training FOR my training.  If I’m going to be doing supersets and giant sets and having short rest periods, I better have solid conditioning, or else the whole plan is going to fall apart.  How am I going to improve my conditioning?  Well let’s look at my limitations and let that decide how my programming will unfold.

You can observe how the mere addition of just ONE limitation works as the catalyst for further decision making, and has a domino effect that makes the entire training plan unfold.  Whereas before we stared out into a vast abyss of endless decision making potentials, each with a series of known and unknown consequences, we instead immediately shut off a whole spectrum of potential realities and vectored ourselves toward SOME sort of outcome.  Because, fundamentally, A decision is always better than no decision.  Make your decision to have limits and, in doing so, grant yourself some freedom.