I'm not talking about influencers here because almost all of those men and women are obviously lying in order to sell useless supplements.  Instead I am just talking about some person that you know that boasts constantly about their physical prowess but this conveniently only happens when no one is around to witness it.   I know several people like this and was having a conversation with one of them the other day.   This guy is annoying because not only is he obviously exaggerating about his own performance but he also isn't in very good physical shape and I actually suspect that he is suffering from low self esteem as well.

I don't understand why people do this but it seems like a lot of people do.   

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I want you to get a mental image of this guy because I am not trying to call him out directly, nor is he particularly rare.  I don't know why people do it, especially when you can tell by looking at them that they are not dedicated to fitness at all.   

The guy I am talking about suffers from "short guy syndrome" and this is unfortunate but also not something I would ever make fun of someone over.  You can't help how tall you are.  He is about 5 foot 5, is stocky, and tries to puff out his chest anywhere that he goes.  He has the look of someone that probably could be strong if he was to try, but mostly he looks like a fat short guy with reasonable biceps.   He is friendly enough, but he will ALWAYS be the person who brings up fitness in social settings and this simply draws more attention to the fact that he isn't exactly a wonderful physical specimen.

The other day we were at a football party and he was talking to me and some other people.  We were not talking about fitness at all.  He just out of the blue was talking about this new fitness place that opened up in our part of town and he said "You know what I like best about that new gym?  After you lift weights for 2 hours you can easily just go straight downstairs and swim 2 hours of laps, no problem."   

The first statement on its own is an absurd thing to say seeing as how none of us have ever seen this guy in any of the gyms that we go to.  If you really do 2 hours of weights than this is fantastic and I wish you the best.  But should you really be bragging about something that all of us just internally roll our eyes over when we have never seen you ever doing anything physical?   The 2 hours of cardio at the end of a 2 hour weight session is just icing on the cake.  World class athletes don't do that much and we are meant to believe that our kind of dumpy friend does this on a regular basis... somehow beyond the sight of any witnesses?   

He kept probing even though none of us really engaged him about his grandiose statement.  I only asked "you swim laps for 2 hours?"  and his response was "yes, but I take 30 second breaks every 200 meters."  Bullshit buddy, bullshit.  What a stupid thing to lie about.

He then asked me about my running because I have, quite regularly actually, seen him walking down the street when I am on my runs because we live in the same neighborhood.  I explained the various routes that I take in order to accomplish a 5k and his response to this was negative... "why don't you run further than that?"   

So not only is this guy clearly exaggerating his own performance but he is also trying to put down anyone else's even though mine are real and his seem like something he is just pulling out of the sky.   If anyone out there actually exercised for 4 hour sessions multiple times a week they would not be a dumpy looking dude like he is.   I never call him out on this though and I am just confused as to what his, or other people like him that do the same thing's motivation is in doing this.

The people I know in the fitness circuits that perform the best are actually the LEAST likely to ever boast about it and I don't know what it is about fitness that encourages this but the liars always have the "best" accomplishments.   

Another funny thing that happened is that later on in the night another friend of mine extended an invitation for our stocky "4 hour workout" guy to participate in a charity 10k that is coming up soon and guess what?  He wasn't available for it.   Funny how that works out huh?

There is no need to brag or tell tall tales about your performance in fitness.  Outside of a few assholes that exist out there, most people, nearly all people actually, don't really care what you can lift, how far you can run, or whether or not you swim laps for two hours.   

If you are involved in fitness, good for you.  You are doing something wonderful for yourself and your body and health will thank you for it.   If you are setting impossible benchmarks for the sake of bragging in front of your friends you are only going to get embarrassed later when you are in a position to actually prove it.   Have your goals, keep them reasonable and achievable, reach for them, strive for them.... maybe even later exceed them.   There is no reason to make up stories about your gym sessions because other people that do go to the gym, don't care at all.

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<sub> I've never done anything particularly profound in the gym... nothing worth bragging over anyway.  But I did get my life in order by making small manageable changes to my overall lifestyle and then sticking to them as time goes by.   I have also NEVER swam laps for 2 hours in a row. </sub></center>