Maturity And Backing Off

 This is an observation and hopefully some words of wisdom. I have seen many people, people dedicated to training, willing to do whatever it takes.... but were they? when you are willing to do whatever it takes, this can also include doing things you don't want to do, sometimes this could be backing off and needing to know when to do this is very important for staying injury free and keep improving. 

Everyone wants to go beast mode especially if you have a competition looming in the not too distant future its very easy and I have done it myself, finding myself caught up in needing to smash it in the gym, needing to hit the numbers, needing to do a particular exercise because it is the day for it. You spent all day working yourself up getting pumped that you were going to do a certain weight or a certain number of rep's you have taken your pre-workout and done everything right throughout the day, now it's time! except during the warm-ups something doesn't feel right, something is causing you pain, it could be a muscle or a tendon, and deep inside you know its been getting worse recently, so what do you do? This is where training maturity comes in. 

The most dedicated people are so obsessed with the goals they have they will stop at almost nothing to do what is needed, this mentality bleeds over so they believe they need to push through it, when infact quite often its the opposite they need to back off, it maybe for a few days and just be a small tweak it maybe a few weeks for something more serious or even a few months if it is a real problem. Knowing when to do this and when not to can be hard but over time if you learn and listen to your body it will give you sign's.

 Now when you need to back off it doesn't mean stop putting work in but to slightly change the direction. Depending on how bad thing's are you may need to stop doing certain exercises, change to more friendly exercises that do not cause an issue to flare up or it could be as simple as needing more recovery so rather than busting your ass and going super heavy it maybe better to do some higher rep lighter work instead. Just because its not part of the plan or just because its not super heavy doesn't mean it doesn't have a use and adding work like this at the right time can really benefit you in the long term. 

Auto Regulation 

Every day is different, you may have not have slept well, or not had time to eat as much, you maybe going through a lot of stress in life, relationship troubles, or even very seemingly simple things like you are unable to get to the gym at your normal time which could completely change your routine. Most people do not think about these things but they can effect how you perform on any given day. If your program says you must do a certain percent and the warmups are feeling heavy, do not be afraid to drop it, or the opposite if it feel far too easy and your having one of those magical days do not be afraid to go the other way and increase it. No routine can program for life, but knowing how you feel will enable you to adapt, this way you can take advantage of the good days and adapt to the bad days, just like knowing when to back off in training or when to go full steam ahead. This is the auto regulation and as long as you can be true to yourself, true to how you feel and not make yourself believe what you want to believe this is the best way to train.

Many factors can play a role in auto regulation, technique can be one, if your technique is off you maybe lacking concentration or it maybe tightness or muscle fatigue, in this case it would be better to lower the weight. It could be bar speed, on a good day a certain weight your doing within the warm-up might feel like an empty bar and move super quick,on other days it might feel a bit slow like you are lacking power, if this is the case then you adapt. Feeling is another one but this is the toughest to figure out, you can see bar speed and technique in a video, I would recommend always taking videos and watching them back in a session to see bar speed and what you can improve in technique, feel is subjective, and sometimes something feels heavier than it actually is. This may or may not have happened to you but sometimes a weight can feel really heavy, far heavier than you feel it should do, yet when you look back at the video the bar speed is really fast. Sometimes your body can lie to you, you can have a cold and feel horrible yet go to the gym and still hit a pb. Make sure your body is not lying. Make the most of a good day and a bad day! you can always do something productive in the gym now matter how bad you feel, you just need to listen and figure out what to do for the best.