How is that guy squatting so much?

How is he dead lifting 4 times his body weight? 

How is she doing a muscle up so easily ? 

How does he make his shoulder muscles pop so much? 

How does she have quads that look like that? 


Gym envy is a common affliction. 

Watching someone stronger, more skilled or more jacked than you doing their thing, moving, posing or flexing can make you wonder is your effort worth it. Why do I bother when i can never be that strong, look like that or move like that. 

I’ve experienced it. I still feel occasionally pangs of it. But you need cool down and ask yourself: 

1. Can I train with the same consistency, intensity, frequency and/or focus that he/she can while working towards a certain goal. 

2. Do you feel as strongly about being jacked or having a certain skill. A goal needs to be something you live for. And the more extreme or specific an outcome you are chasing, the more the goal requires in the form of time, energy and attention. 

3. Are you built for it? Everyone can get reasonably skilled and good at powerlifting, bodybuilding or at a strength skill. The entry barriers are not insane as the skills are straightforward enough. But to be considered ‘good’ at something needs the intersection of genetics, hard work and consistency. That’s tough. Not everyone is equally skilled or gifted. Finding that thing you are uniquely skilled or gifted at is a function of right time, right place and right people (luck in many forms). 

4. Do you recognise the effort and timelines to achieve outcomes? Everyone knows what a bicep curl is and has access to protein. But not everyone in the population looks like pop eye. It’s crucial to know how to achieve something. Not just the theory but the practical part of it. 

5. If after all the education, coaching and access to infrastructure, you still don’t consistently pursue a certain goal or outcome, it probably means you don’t care enough for the cause. Nothing wrong with this. It helps to know what causes you feel are worth consistently fighting for and align your expectations accordingly.