Your mind can be a fickle thing. One week you’re feeling good about yourself. You hit a couple more reps in the squat rack, shaved 20 seconds off your 5k time and your nutrition is easy.
Next thing, the metaphorical wheels are off. A sickness bug hits the family, a few nights away with work, crappy food and an even worse gym routine means that voice in your head starts beating you up. A simple shift in mindset can make such a big difference when it comes to dealing with the peaks and troughs of training.
The times when people are “on it” doesn’t need discussing. Nobody needs help when that’s happening.
It’s those times when other areas of your life take over and training suffers that cause the issues. This is where people tap into an “off it” mindset and all too often everything goes out the window: nutrition, training, recovery.
“If I can’t make today’s session, then I may as well just start again Monday…”. Sound familiar?
Something I encourage is to think of these peaks and troughs as simply times when you get stronger and times when you’re not getting weaker.
Expecting perfection from yourself is unrealistic. Training is no different to any other area of your life in that there will be good times and not so good ones. Learning to deal with these ups and downs could be the key to making the progress your looking for.
When you’re hitting your pre-planned frequency and keeping your recovery on point are the times to focus on getting stronger/increasing fitness etc. Enjoy them and work your ass off.
During the times you’re maybe not hitting the gym as often and struggling to recover etc, is your time to not get weaker. No, you likely won’t be setting any PBs, but arguably this is the really important time. It’s the work done here, when things aren’t quite going to plan that will mean you don’t drift backwards, ensuring you’re ready to push on when the time is right.
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