The Betrayal of a Strong Body
Most of us understand the risks of being incapable, but there's a less-discussed danger in the very level of our ability itself. A higher skill level, surprisingly, can create a unique path to catastrophe.
This seems counterintuitive. After all, we train to reduce risk by increasing our capabilities. The goal of every practice session or training block is to build a buffer of strength and skill. But here's the crucial difference: while our ability is built slowly, the risks we face are often compounding and can escalate quickly, especially in real world scenarios of physical expression. This disparity in growth and adaptation can lead to a false sense of confidence—especially when our self-perception is based on outdated information about what we can handle. What you lifted last year is not necessarily what you can do today.
My friend, Strange Grayson, recently messaged me about tearing his UCL while defending an armlock. He felt he had plenty of "room" to resist, but his focus was on the wrong point of failure. His thought was just like mine when I tore my bicep: "WTF! But I didn’t even feel it?"
And just last week, a longtime client of mine suffered a torn meniscus during a simple jump. He's one of the most explosive athletes I've ever trained and never once felt at risk. One minute he was gliding through the air; the next, he was on the ground.
These are the circumstances that make injury feel like a shock with a certain doom. It carries a form of abnormal depression because you feel helpless despite your dedication to preparation. It's an experience of being betrayed by the very abilities you worked so hard to build.
Most of us train precisely because we don’t want to deteriorate as quickly as the general population. For the most part, training exponentially increases our odds of staying healthy and capable. The problem isn't with training itself, but with how we model our ability. For the general population, complacency shows up as laziness and apathy towards improvement. But for the motivated, complacency is resting on your previous accomplishments, using the past to assess your future, or assuming that just because you are “training” that you are making progress. This might be the hardest type to fight because the idea of who we are is based on what we have done.
This is why I say that strength training is an exercise in humility, not an expression of ego. To truly develop lasting strength, we have to constantly develop or maintain a sensitivity to our current state. Imagine training like driving conditions. You may have excellent skills and a capable vehicle, but the conditions of the road, the weather, visibility, impact of other vehicles, or even the slightest distraction can lead to catastrophe. Think about this next time you slap the plates on a bar and do what you think you have done a thousand times. That kind of behavior is the dangerous complacency of the motivated.
Every training session is an opportunity to improve your ability, but only if you are able to correctly manage the inherent risk by accurately assessing your state.
