Now this is supposed to be a bullshitty lifestyle post but personally I hate talking about boring things like, ‘You need more Ying with your Yang’ (Mindset Post). I’ll leave that soppy shit to Fred and Rob they’re more in touch with their Yogi side than I am.
*Yogi – someone who’s in touch with their inner-self, drinks wheatgrass tea and only eats vegetables!
I’m going to break my own rules and wangle my way into writing about the balance of training instead of telling you to you have to have a good mindset or you won’t see progress in life…
So then,
The reasons you’re not seeing progress in your training…
A) You’re not taking de-load periods – What does this mean? Well, cut and dried you need to let your body properly recover. Lifting heavy weights all the time is stressful on your body and your nervous system and if you’re burning the candle at work as well as the gym the you’re only going to stall in progression.
We at Compello try and mix things up every 3/4weeks, we take people from lifting heavy weight to perhaps dropping the load and doing more high volume rep work. Even something along the lines of 30-40mins constant movement at a set pace to hit a little more endurance based stimulus. (Yes, the 2nd cycle is about to start at Compello and some of you will have this delight in your programming!)
B) You’re too sporadic in your training – you’re like a BlueBottle on speed, the amount of times you’ve changed your goals, focus and exercises. Yes, ‘variety is the spice of life’ but when it comes to training, consistently is key!
This ties in with the above, choose a set programme, do it for 3-4weeks and train 3 times/week, after this change the programme for another 3-4weeks (NOT the goal) and at the end of the 3-months you’ll have got a damn site closer to your target than chopping and changing because ‘you don’t see instant progress’….
C) You’re too Inconsistent – Very similar to the point above but this is a little broader and generalised. You just need a bit of consistency! Training hard for 3-weeks and then having 2-weeks off isn’t going to get you anywhere on the ladder of progress.
If you think you can’t commit – start small, 1 session/week, then you can build to 2 sessions but making sure you get down every week. Once you get here you’ll start to see a little more progress and craze it so you’ll then actively want to start training more.
It’s about a habit and trying to make training a habit that isn’t ‘time consuming‘ like your mates say because they’re fat, lazy and can’t be arsed, it’s something you do because you want to become a better person, more energetic, fun and enjoyable to be around!
D) You can’t chill – We’ve all seen it – the person who smashes the gym, 2 times a day, 5 days a week and then on a weekend goes running, swimming and eats nothing but ‘the perfect diet’. To start with your perfect diet sucks as these people don’t know how to enjoy the knock at the door of the Domino’s delivery man or how to sit back with mates on a weekend in the sun having a few drinks and a BBQ….
YOU’RE DOING TOO MUCH! Just chill…seriously, take some time out, you won’t ‘lose your gains’ or ‘get fat’ by having a few drinks and burgers on a weekend – its about balance and being able to forget about going for a run because you had the amazing sticky toffee pudding last night and it didn’t fit your macros.
E) Eat a proper f*cking meal – Anyone who knows me, knows that I love food and this for me is the best part of any day, haha. The last reason why you may not be seeing progress is pure and simple, you’re not eating enough!
Think about it – how are you supposed to survive day to day on: –
Breakfast – Water (no food, gotta hit that ‘fasting protocol I read about in Elle Magazine) or a simple fruit smoothie with water – we definitely don’t want milk in there….
Lunch – Salad box with 100g cooked chicken
Dinner – Homemade Sweet potato wedges, 1x chicken breast and broccoli
Now, some of you may think ‘That seems pretty damn healthy’ – correct, there’s nothing bad here but look at the quantity. A 10-year old girl would be starving off this let alone a fully grown adult….
Realistically you’re starving yourself and your training isn’t getting better because you’re running on empty.
Don’t feel bad about giving yourself more food than your kids on an evening or taking 10-mins for yourself on a morning to actually make scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Eating something is better than nothing,remember that if nothing else…
Chris
chris@compellofitness.co.uk