Why Progress Should Feel Hard
Slater Coe • November 24, 2025
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You’ve been training long enough to know that EASY workouts don’t change you.
But there’s a difference between something being hard and something being productive and knowing that difference is the secret to your progress.
In sports psychology, there’s a concept called "desirable difficulty". It means that learning or adaptation happens best when the challenge is hard enough to push you, but not so overwhelming that you break down or burn out.
That sweet spot of being uncomfortable but achievable is what we want.
Why “Hard” Is Good for You
When we face something physically or mentally demanding in the gym, our nervous system and our muscles are forced to adapt. That’s how we get stronger, faster, or more skilled.
But, it might feel messy in the process. Our lifts might slow down. Our positions might feel a little wobbly. Our confidence might dip.
That doesn’t mean it’s not working. It means our body is reorganizing itself under pressure. In strength training, that’s called progressive overload. In motor learning, it’s called adaptive stress. Put more simply, it's growth.
The Science of Struggle
Tempo squats, strict work, lifting under fatigue, barbell complexes, gymnastic complexes… those are all examples of “desirable difficulty” built into our programming.
It’s not there to make you suffer; it’s there to make your nervous system work harder and remember better. The struggle creates skill retention and deeper strength.
How to Use It
*Don’t chase comfort. A workout that humbles you is feedback, not failure.
*Embrace the learning curve. When something feels awkward (like new barbell positions or tweaked technique) that’s your brain wiring a new pattern.
*Recover like it matters. Difficulty without recovery is just fatigue. Sleep, eat, and hydrate like your progress depends on it. Hint: it does.
*Training isn’t supposed to feel easy. It’s supposed to feel earned.
Desirable difficulty is where strength, skill, and confidence collide. It’s where you start realizing that the work you once avoided is exactly what builds the version of yourself you’ve been chasing.
So, when class feels uncomfortable, when the bar feels heavy, when the workout looks intimidating... good. The work is working.
If you notice a moment in class where you want to pull back, try stepping into it, instead.
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A drop set is a training method where you perform a set at one weight, briefly rest, reduce the weight, and continue lifting. Most people know drop sets from bodybuilding, where someone does an exercise to failure, strips weight off the bar, and keeps going until they can barely move. In our classes, we're using the same basic idea, but for a different purpose. Instead of trying to exhaust a muscle, we're trying to accumulate more high-quality reps, reinforce good technique, and get stronger without letting form deteriorate. Take today's Front Squat session as an example: Every 3 minutes for 4 sets 3 Front Squats @ 85% Rest 15sec 2 Front Squats @ 80% Rest 15sec 1 Front Squat @ 75% The three reps at 85% are the main strength work. They're heavy enough that they demand concentration and good positioning. After 15sec, you've recovered just enough to perform two more reps at 80%. Even though you're still fatigued, that slightly lighter weight now feels more manageable because your body has already handled something heavier. Another 15sec later, you finish with a single rep at 75%, which should move quickly and reinforce excellent technique. Those short rest periods are what make the workout effective. Fifteen seconds isn't enough time to fully recover, but it is enough to reset your breathing, tighten your brace, and prepare for another quality rep. You're never completely fresh, which teaches you to maintain good movement even when you're tired, but you're also never so fatigued that your technique falls apart. By the end of the workout, you've accumulated 24 quality Front Squats: 12 at 85%, 8 at 80%, and 4 at 75%. That's a significant amount of productive work without asking you to grind through endless heavy sets. The heavier reps build strength, while the lighter reps reinforce the movement pattern and allow you to move the bar with more speed and confidence. This is one of the biggest differences between strength & conditioning and traditional bodybuilding. Bodybuilding drop sets are designed to maximize muscular fatigue and create a big "burn." Our goal is different. We want every rep to look good. We want to practice producing force, maintaining positions, and building strength under "manageable" fatigue. The drop in weight isn't there because you can't lift the heavier load anymore. It's there because the slightly lighter weight lets you continue practicing high-quality movement after the hardest work has already been done. Over the course of our strength cycle, this approach builds stronger, more technically sound athletes who don't just lift heavier weights... they move those weights better.
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