Human beings are capable of accomplishing great feats, but often we first have to overcome some sort of obstacle or barrier to get there.  Sometimes these barriers may be self-imposed limits on what we think we are capable of.  Unfortunately, the power of expectations can have very negative effects on a person’s performance or beliefs regarding their abilities.  These psychological barriers are all too common in both sports and exercise.

Too often when someone is thinking about starting an exercise program they might make statements like “I am too out of shape/overweight/old to start working out”, “If I work out, I’ll hurt myself”,  “I’m not an athletic person and I don’t belong in a gym”, or “Weight training techniques are too hard for me to learn”.  If a person says these things often enough, that person begins to believe that these limitations are real.  At that point it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is what occurs when the expectations of some outcome (positive or negative) actually helps cause that outcome to happen.  This is considered a negative event when it sets up a psychological barrier for a person that leads them to expect failure and, in turn, causes them to fail.  In short, if you believe you are going to fail, you probably already have.

An interesting example of someone who overcame a negative self-fulfilling prophecy is a man named Roger Bannister.  For a long time it was assumed by most people that it was not possible for a human to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.  Many runners came close at 4:03, 4:02, and 4:01, but most runners accepted that a 4 minute mile was physiologically impossible.  Then in 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile.  What is most interesting about this feat is that the year after he broke the record, more than a dozen other runners broke the 4 minute mile.  Since then the time has dropped by 17 seconds and a 4 minute mile is now considered a standard for all professional middle distance runners. 

So what happened?  Did all these runners suddenly get faster?  Did their training techniques rapidly advance in the year after Bannister broke the record?  More likely what happened was that the psychological barrier of the 4 minute mile was removed when Bannister showed that it was possible.  Runners finally believed it could be done and stopped placing a self-imposed limit on what they could do.

A personal example of this phenomenon occurred when I was running a plyometrics (jump training) program for a girl’s softball team. They had a group called the “5 club” where people who could jump up and down on a series of 4 boxes of increasing size 5 times in 30 seconds would be listed.  Most people in the group had managed to make it 5 times through this rabbit hop drill in 30 seconds, but only 1 girl was fast enough for the “6 club”.  The coach and many of the athletes figured that more than 5 times through was not possible for almost everyone on the team.  Late in the semester I gave them the challenge that if 1 person made the route 6 times through I’d get rid of the exercise for the rest of practice.  They were suddenly motivated to push themselves harder and 3 people did it.  I offered this same bargain during the next practice and 3 more people made it.  By the end of the semester, everyone in the class made it into the “6 club”.

One final example that comes to mind is the self-fulfilling prophecy of age and physical activity.  While the aging process does have a deteriorating effect on your physical and mental abilities through the life span, many older adults allow their abilities to degrade faster through negative expectations that result in negative self-fulfilling prophecies.  You might hear some older adults explain their condition by saying “I am too old to exercise”, “I am supposed to get fat and lose muscle as I age”, or “I can’t maintain my muscles as I get older”.  Exercise (cardio and weight training) are very effective in older adults and can help them maintain their physical abilities for quite a long time.  However, many older adults believe in those expectations I just stated and stop being active, which causes them to get weaker.  Then as they get weaker and their muscles atrophy from disuse, they assume it is a result of the aging process which further perpetuates the self-fulfilling prophecy that “old people get weak with age and shouldn’t bother with exercise”.

The lesson here is that belief and expectations can be powerful forces for good or bad.  If you lack confidence and are unsure of yourself, you can easily talk yourself out of exercising and can even impose imaginary limits on yourself that hold you back from your full potential.  However if you have confidence, believe in your abilities, and are willing to try, you can create a positive self-fulfilling prophecy with statements like “I will stick with my exercise program”, “I will lose those 20 pounds”, and “I will get my heart in better shape”.

- Darin Smith, PE/PFT Instructor, Highline Community College