Breaking Chains
As a coach, I often work one-on-one with clients facing challenges that require a degree of vulnerability, whether it’s an injury, a body composition goal, or a training milestone. Nearly every week, it’s possible to hear comments like, ‘I wish I could do that, but I’m just not that athletic,’ or, ‘I’ve struggled with this my whole life.’ Curious as I am, my role in the conversation is to gently ask why they feel this way, and responses often trace back to past experiences, like struggling with sports as a child, weight issues since adolescence, or a fear of taking on a goal that’s relatively unknown.
These limiting beliefs are common—many of us carry nagging doubts about what we ‘can’t’ do rather than focusing on what we can. In health and fitness, such beliefs often act as invisible chains, holding us back from achieving our true potential.
These are the stories we tell ourselves when no-one is listening.
Identifying the Chains
Limiting beliefs masquerade as truths we’ve accepted without question. They can sound like:
“I’m too old to start exercising regularly.”
“I’ll never be as fit as those people at the gym, I don’t belong here.”
“I know myself, I don’t have the discipline to stick with it, so why start?”
These thoughts seep into our minds, taking root, shaping our actions and, ultimately, our reality. It’s like wearing tinted glasses that distort how we see ourselves in the world.
Yet reality is not always as it seems, a certainly not what we tell ourselves.
The Weight of Negative Thoughts
Carrying around these beliefs can literally be like dragging around extra weight on a hike - you tire more quickly and the journey, no matter how short or simple, seems so much harder than it should be. In the workplace, a toxic environment or a dismissive boss can diminish our enthusiasm and inevitably our performance. Similarly, in fitness, negative self-talk erodes our motivation and hampers progress. We become fearful of the next rep, the added load, the extra mile.
Think about a classroom where one disruptive student effects everyone’s ability to learn. That single negative influence can overshadow the potential of the entire collective group. In our minds, limiting beliefs are the disruptive student, creating chaos in the background and preventing growth.
Simply put, when we believe we can’t do something, we’re far less likely to try. Or if we do try, we might likely sabotage our efforts subconsciously, finding any excuse or reason to give ourselves an “out”. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Consider the athlete who reaches multiple finals only to choke with each attempt, unable to cross that final hurdle. This happening once is acceptable, twice annoying yet understandable, but at some point it spirals into a belief that that’s all they’re capable of achieving. Forever the understudy, never the star.
With that mindset, they’re less likely with each attempt to push themselves in the pivotal moments, less likely to take the risks when needed, more likely to give up when faced with obstacles.
How can we break these beliefs?
The first step comes with awareness. To hear that inner monologue for what it is. Write down the negative thoughts you may have about your health and fitness abilities. Seeing this on paper can help you realise how irrational the belief may not may not be.
Ask yourself: Is this belief based on fact or assumption? Have you tested it? Is it even your assumption, or one held by another of you?
For example, if you think yourself “too old” to start a goal, take a quick Google search of individuals who began a fitness or health-related goal later in life and succeeded beyond measure.
It sounds cliche I know, but turn “I can’t” into “I just haven’t tried yet!”. This simple reframe opens the door to a wealth of possibilities. Instead of “I’m not athletic, so exercise is pointless,” try “I haven’t found an activity I can really enjoy yet!”
Meet yourself where you are today, not where you think you once were. If you feel too inflexible for yoga, try a 10-minute follow-along on YouTube. Doubt your ability to lift weights? Start with bodyweight exercises. Entire programs with endless progressions can be created using just bodyweight and a few simple items.
Break down your fitness and health aspirations into manageable steps. Success with small goals builds confidence in the early stages and chips away at limiting beliefs. Adding 1000 daily steps (~10min walking) each week for the next month or so can easily take your current activity to a whole new level.
Just as a great teacher can transform a classroom, supportive friends or a motivating coach can completely change your outlook on health and fitness. Take the leap. Join the group. Engage in a community in which encouragement is the norm.
The Ripple Effect of Change
Overcoming limiting beliefs in health and fitness can spill over into other life areas. Improved confidence just might inspire you to take on a new challenge in your professional career, pursue a hobby you’ve either neglected or never quite pursued, or even have the conversation with that person you’ve been putting off for fear of “what if.”
Imagine removing a single block from a damn. The flow of water starts as a trickle, but in time it starts to create new paths, nourish wider areas, and change the landscape entirely. Breaking one limiting belief can unleash a torrent of positive change across your life.
Limiting beliefs are like shadows - intangible but every present. They grow when we feed them with attention, but shrink when we shine a light of awareness and challenge upon them.
Breaking these chains isn’t easy. It does require patience, effort, and sometimes a push from those around us. But the freedom it can evoke is immeasurable. It’s the difference between watching life pass by and actively participating in it.
So the next time a negative thought tells you what you can’t do, pause and question it.
Is this your belief or another’s? What evidence do you have that this is true?
Replace doubt with curiosity.
What if you did try? What if you actually succeeded?
The only way to find out is to take the first step.
After all, the biggest barrier are often the ones we create in our own minds, in the darkness where irrationality seeps in. Dismantle them. The path forward becomes not just possible, but the only option.