One of my all time favorite lines from Clint Eastwood.
No one likes to think they’ve got limitations. Not even me. But nevertheless, they are a part of reality. Not knowing your limitations and allowing too much raw emotion to determine your training program is a huge and very common mistake when it comes to pursuing fitness goals.
We all like to think that we can get after our goals through sheer willpower and that we just have to plow past things like feeling sore, tired, beaten up, etc. and just keep pressing on until we reach our goal whether that’s fat loss, improved muscle tone, athletic performance, etc.
But that’s just the thing. When most people finally “get religion” about exercise, they go way overboard and don’t allow for time to recover, they don’t have a clear rationale or basis for what they are doing, they don’t change things up, and eventually they tend to burn out.
I was starting to fall into the same thing over the last two weeks. It just crept up on me.
I’d been feeling a bit run down and tired from a change in my training program. I also felt like I had a little too much around my middle for me to feel comfortable with. (A little OCD, I know) Summer is here and I think about these things. I want to lead by example.
So, here’s the solution. Rather than keep banging my head against the wall, I got some emotional distance from the problem, did a little homework and developed a plan of attack. Years ago I consistently made the mistake of training without a plan before. Know where it got me? I was the skinny guy with dodgy muscle tone and love handles. And the angst of being that guy only drove me on to keep beating myself up with more and more work. (Hello, stress hormones, reduced insulin sensitivity, sore muscles, reduced muscle tone, and improved fat storage!)
Luckily, I haven’t been that guy for a long time now, I’ve learned a lot since then, and my turnaround time is a lot faster.
So to avoid the mistake of training yourself away from your goals:
1. Define what you are after.
2. Develop or follow a plan from someone who has successfully achieved that goal and who either started from or has helped people starting from a comparable place.
3.Work hard enough within set parameters to effect a change. There are two main variables, duration and intensity. Intensity is your friend. Duration is not.
4. Stick with the plan and don’t run yourself into the ground.
5. Take a week break after 4-6 weeks of hard work, evaluate how it went, recover, and make a few changes to your program.
Have a great weekend!
Charlie