Ass-to-Grass

Sweet Saturday

A fellow fit friend posted something on his feed the other day that really resonated with me. Among other musings, he said, “Comfort does not facilitate change.” Aside from my love of alliteration, this statement stuck with me something serious! (see what I did there?!)

He’s right.

In the gym, I’ve been working on perfecting ass-to-grass squats every rep, every time. It’s hard as shit and really uncomfortable. With 165 across my back, I get scared and start to second guess myself. This happens frequently, even when I have a haus of a spotter standing right behind me. Even when mentally I know I’m strong enough to do it, I second guess myself. All the fucking time. And the result? My squats aren’t to depth, which means I’m not actively working on building a whole squat booty, just half of one. And no one ever wrote a song about half a booty, so there’s that. The point is that I know I can do it, I know I can change and make it happen, but it’s comfortable for me to get to 80% depth and then stop. I know I can drive back up, I know when to stop on the descent. It’s SAFE.

But it doesn’t get me where I need to be, and it’s surely not going to help my squat game at all. What’s so sweet about this sort of self-realization is that since I am actively aware of what I’m doing, every time I go in to squat, I know that I need to force myself out of my comfort. Like Anya says, I just need to rip off the fucking bandaid already and get it over with. Scary as shit, yet. But effective as hell, too.

With Carr’s thought in mind, I’ve been trying to approach my days with a certain level of fearlessness, which is not the same as recklessness. On my last rep of my last squat set yesterday, I knew I was gassed, but I wasn’t totally spent. I had to dig a little deeper to get out that last rep, but I knew I could do it. And I don’t want to be comfortable, complacent in less than perfect squats … or give less than my all. Know what happened? It was my best squat of the day. There’s something to be said in the belief of one’s self.