One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard from a gym instructor was "Leave your ego at the door". I was only a teenager the first time I heard that and being a teenager, I knew it all, so I didn't take too much notice. "We're in here to build muscle, and this guy is on about ego?". Thats what I first thought. How naive I was....
It didn't take me long to realise what that instructor was on about. I was training with a few friends from school, all of whom were bigger and stronger than myself. So perhaps it was for this reason that I never fell victim to my own ego. After all, I knew I wasn't as strong as the other guys, so I had nothing to lose.
As for the other guys, they were constantly competing with each other to see who could lift the most weight. Whats wrong with a little competition you ask? Well, two main things. The first is that building muscle isn't just about the amount of weight you lift. How you perform the exercise is extremely important. There are a lot of factors that go into what I would call "good form", but I can tell you, three 16 year old boys all trying to out-do each other is not one of them! I remember some of the guys getting a decent back workout when doing bicep curls, which is not the way to do it at all!
The second reason and definitely more important is safety. One of the days I was at the gym with my friends is a perfect example of this. We had all been using the leg press machine for a few weeks. As it is an exercise where you can quickly increase the weight, it was a recipe for disaster.
One day, one of the guys thought he would be the hero and let his ego take control of him. He loaded the machine up with about 450kg. He slowly moved the platform a couple of inches and managed to do a couple of half hearted reps. He'd already let the safety go, so it was all up to him from now on. On his final "rep" he went to lower the weight back when his legs just gave away. 450kg came racing down towards his face and to this day, I don't know how he didn't end up with his knees in his head.
While we stood there trying to push the weight back up, an old veteran of the gym quickly leapt into action and ripped the weights off one side. He then proceeded to give my friend a lecture. A well deserved lecture too. Now, looking back, it's just a fun story, but it could've been a lot worse.
If you ever feel like your ego is taking over from the rest of you, think back to my friend on the leg press machine. Unless you want to be like him, make sure you leave your ego at the door.
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