What's going on, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj on www.SeanNal.com and after reading through about a million fitness comments
over the past eight years or so and watching endless fitness videos and reading social
media posts and forum posts of people arguing back and forth, criticizing each other's physiques,
whether somebody's too small or too bulky or how strong someone is, or how weak somebody
is, or their specific training goals.
I wanted to basically make a video today encouraging you to stop putting so much stake in everybody
else's opinion online and to just train for whatever reason you personally want to.
Now, before I talk more about it, if you do enjoy this content then make sure to hit the
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So, yeah, I don't idolize these fitness figures you see online.
They're just regular people.
And don't look to other people in forum threads and comment sections to dictate to you what
your reasons for being in the gym should be, or what you should care about, or what you
should strive for.
Because at the end of the day it's completely up to you.
There's no such thing as one ideal type of physique.
Whether it's a leaner more aesthetic look, or the bulkier bodybuilder type of look, or
the look of a power lifter, or a strongman, or whether it's none of those at all.
And there's no best type of training goal either.
Whether it's training like a bodybuilder purely for muscle growth, or training for power lifting,
or weight lifting, calisthenics, endurance, or just for overall health and fitness, or
some combination of those.
At the end of the day, as long as you're training on a regular basis and you're taking care
of your overall health and fitness everything else beyond that really just comes down to
personal preference.
And unless you have direct practical use for a certain type of training like being an athlete
or living a certain lifestyle that requires a particular type of training so that you
can excel at it, then any style of working out that you gravitate towards or any type
of physique you strive for is your choice.
Just like people have different preferences with the clothes they wear or how they style
their hair, different people have different preferences for how they want their body to
look.
So it's really an absurd argument to tell us someone else that they should be bigger,
or they should be leaner, or they should be this or should be that, or they should train
like this and they shouldn't train like that.
Everyone is really just living in their own little reality bubble and doing their own
thing.
And so they'll automatically tend to put more importance on their individual goals and then
tend to project that onto everybody else.
People often want to validate what they're doing by basically trying to convince everybody
else to do the same so that they can feel good about what they've achieved and what
they're working toward.
But I think a lot of people just take this fitness stuff a bit too seriously when it
all comes down to it, and they forget that fitness is ultimately just a tool for enhancing
your overall life.
And everybody's living a different life and everybody looks at things in their own way.
So if someone's really caught up in becoming as strong as possible and achieving a huge
squat bench and deadlift then they're likely going to see that particular goal as this
super important thing and feel like everybody else should be doing it too.
Or maybe even that people who aren't doing it are inferior in some way.
Or if someone has the mentality that building as much muscle and being as physically big
as possible is the best type of look then they might view anybody else who doesn't train
for that goal as being small and weak.
Or vice versa, if someone trains for the leaner, sort of, more aesthetic look then they might
look at somebody with that bodybuilder type of physique and think it just looks a bit
over-the-top and goofy.
And I've been on both ends of the spectrum personally with that over my sort of training
career.
And I have had both mindsets so I understand the different perspectives.
But you know saying one type of training or one type of physique is better than another
is really no different from saying that playing the guitar is inherently better than playing
the drums.
Or playing baseball is better than playing basketball or even painting is better than
writing.
Everyone has their own opinion.
So basically what I'm trying to say here is to just stop worrying so much about what other
people are doing in the gym and to maintain an open mind for yourself rather than letting
other people, especially random people on the internet who you're never going to meet
in real life anyway, not letting them get into your head and influence you down one
particular path to where you, maybe you start striving for a certain goal or living your
life in a certain way that maybe deep down you actually don't want to be doing but you're
just doing it to maybe prove someone wrong, or to feel like you're fitting in with a certain
group, or because you want to be like somebody who you see on YouTube.
It's really a waste of time and effort at the end of the day.
And if your actions are constantly being dictated by someone else then you're really just reinforcing
to yourself that other people's values are more valid than your own, and that you don't
actually trust your own opinion.
It's normal to be influenced to a certain degree because humans are social animals.
You're never going to completely get away from that nor do you need to.
There's always going to be a certain pack mentality at play.
And I get that, that's normal, but at least being conscious of it and really examining
your motives and what you're doing and why, I think that is pretty useful.
So I would say, sit down and decide on what you actually want, at least for the moment,
what training goals excite you, what type of look you prefer and why, what will actually
benefit you in your day to day life and how it fits into your overall life as a whole.
And then just do that because at the end of the day no one actually truly cares about
what you're doing anyway.
Just like you know that deep down you don't actually really care what anybody else is
doing either.
So don't pedestalize anybody online just because they have a camera and put videos on YouTube.
Myself included.
I'm just a normal dude sitting here talking to his iPhone.
And I have my own personal reasons for being in the gym, my own preferences for how I want
to look, my own goals, and how seriously or not seriously I take the whole thing.
But that might have little or no application to you.
And all these other YouTubers you watch or just people too.
They're just people.
They're not special.
They don't have everything figured out.
They don't necessarily know what's best for you either.
If they've achieved a certain goal that you also want to achieve and they're able to inform
you and motivate you toward, that’s golden.
That's great.
But at the end of the day you have to be able to stand on your own two feet and decide what
is best for you.
So I hope this was helpful, guys.
Feel free to share your thoughts on this in the comments below.
If you enjoyed the video make sure to hit the like button and subscribe.
My official website is over at www.SeanNal.com.
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The links for that or also in the description box.
Thanks for watching, guys.
And I'll see you in the next video.