Go Ahead, Do Some Ego Lifting

I’ve had people tell me that my posts about lifting on social media have inspired them to try weightlifting, or to get into an aspect of fitness they think they’ll enjoy, or they’ve told me that my antics brightened their day. And I feel similarly about the accomplishments I’ve seen from my friends and acquaintances and from athletes I’ve never met.

It’s good to do things you are proud of. It’s good to work toward doing things that you want to be proud of. That’s the nature of training, after all. You’re pursuing a goal. And it’s up to you whether your goal is a formal competition or a 1RM attempt in front of your gym buddies or something difficult yet silly such as doing a Turkish getup with a kayak.

How to use ego lifting for good

So how do we square these benefits with the critiques of ego lifting? Simple: we pay attention to whether we’re meeting our own needs before we consider how we communicate our accomplishments to others.

Don’t confuse training days with testing days

A satisfying ego lift is something you do to demonstrate the strength you’ve built, but it’s not a replacement for building that strength in the first place. If you max out your bench press every week, your bench gains will plateau pretty soon.

Prioritize the long term over the short term. Most days, you should just be putting in the work, the boring stuff that gets you stronger. And on occasion, you can enjoy a little ego lifting, as a treat.

Do what you’ve trained for

People like to criticize anyone who goes for a one-rep max and doesn’t have perfect form. But as you’ll know if you’ve ever tried one, a one-rep max isn’t going to be perfect, and that’s okay. Hurting yourself in the gym is a lot harder to do than armchair coaches like to pretend it is.

But all bets are off if you do something that is drastically different from what you’ve trained for. If you’ve never done a squat in your life, don’t load up your leg press max on a barbell and expect to be able to walk it out and squat it. Try new things, for sure, but be smart about how you approach them.

Be honest with yourself

If you’re going for a big squat but you’re so scared of failing that you don’t even try to break parallel, that’s not really an impressive squat, is it? Consider whether you are proud of your accomplishments before deciding they are worth celebrating with others.

It’s truly up to you to decide what you’re proud of, though. If you’ve been struggling with your squat depth, a heavy squat that’s a little bit high may still be a thing you want to show the world. Just make sure you’re prioritizing your goals for yourself over what you want other people to think of you.

Recognize jealousy in yourself and use it productively

Funny how ego lifting is seen as attention-seeking behavior, and yet we’re using it for careful introspection. But I think that makes perfect sense. Ego lifting is ultimately about yourself, and it’s valuable to think about what accomplishments you value and why.

If you find yourself in competition with somebody else—maybe they deadlift just a bit more than you—that can be great if the other person is pushing you to train harder and dream bigger. It’s not great if you’re simply seeing somebody doing a thing you wish you could do, and then stewing in jealousy.

It’s up to you where you attach your ego. If you find yourself obsessing over other people’s accomplishments to the detriment of your own training, it’s time to find a new way to focus your work and your goals. But if filming yourself doing big lifts is a way that you challenge yourself and connect with a community of friends and teammates and cultivate healthy relationships with rivals, then I say do it.