A squat is a lot like your boss bein an asshole If youve developed the skills to adapt it becomes a lot easier to manage

In early March, before my trip to Costa Rica and a global pandemic, I hit a goal of 500lbs for a set of 5 on Hatfield squats. I had been building up to that day for months, honing technique and following a plan for just that moment. In reality, though, it had been a solid decade of preparation with every training session I endured.

Training is an accumulation of stress. Those stressors provide us with two opportunities, adaptation or breaking. If we don’t build the skills to adapt we will crumble. By slowly building the skills required for squatting, strength and position and stability, I was able to move a significant amount of weight through space with no damage to my system. Take an untrained individual with that same weight and the results would be catastrophic.

Work and relationships and, yes, even the stress of a global pandemic are no different. Have you ever wondered how two people can be placed in the exact same situation and one will be racked by stress while the other will see opportunity? Sure, some people are genetically or environmentally predisposed to be more risk averse and anxious but these are still skills that can be acquired.

Stress is not just some external pressure placed upon us by an unseen force. It is rather an internal reaction to our environment. If we have no skills to cope with it we will crumble like a newbie lifter under a 500lb barbell. However, if we work to develop skills to regulate our emotions we can learn to adapt to stress and become stronger. Because if you can squat your boss there’s nothing that can stress you out.