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More than ever people feel obligated to “crush” every workout. Many even think they must complete every workout utterly exhausted or experience soreness the following day. If they’re not totally spent or sore, they (erroneously) think they didn’t work hard enough.
Social media contributes to this false notion that every workout must be an all-out effort, and it’s easy to understand why. Social media is a nonstop highlight reel. People watch their favorite fitness experts and athletes posting videos of their personal records and challenging workouts and think this is the norm—that this “go hard all the time!” mentality is indicative of every single workout. This creates the mindset that every trip to the gym must result in a stellar workout and, if it doesn’t, then they did something wrong or the workout wasn’t productive.