With anyone who has ever entered into the strngth training world, whether they are training to be a competitive athlete or training for general fitness goals, there has always been “a breakdown.” When your sleep is off, or your hormones are raging all over the place (maybe even from overtraining from time to time), or you simply have “had it” on a given week with a barbell. Those moments when you stand back and ask yourself why the hell you ever got into this shit into the first place, these are the moments I refer to as “the breakdown.”
I have definitely had my own share of “breakdowns” from overtraining, from injury, from lack of sleep, from too much life stressors like work and school, or even from times as simple as the motivation lacking. In my training career this has happened A LOT. Strength training certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. There are mornings you will wake up and your body just hurts, maybe you didn’t hit your nutrition intake for the day, maybe you pushed your adrenals too far by overloading on caffeine for the past month etc etc. This stuff is hard, that is why it takes work, dedication, time, motivation and a downright stubborn attitude to hit the platform. I have friends who have pushed so hard they caused rhabdomyolysis which nobody wants! Just as our bodies break down from training, so does our mental capacity (and literally the Central Nervous System). Therefore, we have to rebuild it, recuperate and replenish properly.
If you have been in any form of lifting for a long time, I am sure you can relate to this situation to some capacity. How did you get yourself through, “the breakdown?” Believe it or not for you “7 day/week people” sometimes all it takes is a rest day, or even a vacation! For you “3 day/week people” maybe giving some more alternative activity in your lifestyle will keep your motivation up and keep you moving without getting lethargic on your off days. Many times we have to switch up our routine, switch up the norm, just the same as how we need to switch up our programs to keep the stimulus effective on the muscles. If something is falling apart, fix it, and I can promise you just as Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.” So, mix it up to keep yourself moving in the right direction.
Believe it or not, when we hit “the breakdown” we are actually presented with an amazing opportunity. This opportunity is what allows us to develop our mental toughness, increase our physical resilience and strengthen the dedication to ourselves. The number one I always stand by in training is taking care of your body. If you treat your body like shit, you will perform like shit and it doesn’t take an expert to figure that out. (But you would be amazed at what I have witnessed…) If you listen to your body, do what it needs at the time it is needed, your results will skyrocket. That does not mean, “I am craving a donut and a mock meet day in the middle of my meet prep program.” That means, if your body can’t “take it” on a given day, save it for tomorrow. Notice I didn’t say skip it, I said SAVE IT. Allow your training to be your outlet and respect your body as the machine that carries it out. The last thing you want is to be sitting in bed for 6 months on instagram and facebook living vicariously through all your teammates training videos because you tore your patellar tendon from being stupid on a training day that wasn’t even that important in the grand scheme of your macrocycle.
I will always say no matter what, health comes first in any training situation. Push your limits to your max capacity, but within your physical and mental training threshold. Find what that threshold is, push it further to strengthen it, but use your head. If something feels off during a day or a week, don’t keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. Your body will get angry with you, you will get frustrated with yourself and you start a never ending cycle until you take a step back, reassess the situation, and adjust as needed. Training will always be there for you and you have the ability to make it what it is. Therefore, move forward, train hard, train smart, and crush your PR’s to keep your linear progression as linear and consistent as possible.