When Things go Bad, Simplify

When things go bad, simplify. This is a simple statement that could be applied to every area of life, but will likely be ignored by most of us in every area of life. In the lifting world, if someone has a bad competition they tend to seek extreme answers post competition. Training more, with heavier weight, if some PEDs were a good idea, then more will be better, and so on. This usually leads to them peaking their strength about 15 weeks prior to the competition and being completely burnt out by the time they should be starting to think about the next competition. The truth is, we do this as a survival technique, but most of us now don’t have to survive each day. There’s a fast food stop every 100 feet on main roads and if driving isn’t your thing then you can have food dropped off at your door. How does this relate to other areas of life? Think about finances. Strength training, health, and finances all have the same basic principles and struggles. Financial expert Dave Ramsey helps people eliminate their personal debt. One of the things he often says about getting rid of credit card debt is to stop using the credit card. People might argue about points, rewards, and so on. His advice is rooted in simplicity which is what we need when we’re barely trading water. You can’t run up credit card debt when you stop using your credit card. Let’s look at the cycle of what to do when things go bad with your health and training. 

Nutrition

For many people, myself included , nutrition seems to the bigger rollercoaster to overcome. Many people will eat like pro athletes Monday through Thursday and then the train goes off track on Friday and Saturday making Sunday feel like a day of regret and promises for the upcoming week. In our experience, the week gives people structure. Most people have to be at work by a certain time and they get home at similar times. This also regulates when we go to sleep and wake up. Friday after work turns into drinks and staying up late watching tv shows of no importance. If you’ve been crushing your nutrition habit goals and then have a slip up, there are a few things you can do. First, be mad at yourself and just let go of all control eating everything in sight. Or acknowledge that you had a treat and move on. I like to set standards and goals for everything and then adjust based on the season of your life. For nutrition, it’s easy to say we’ll eat 21 meals in a week (3 meals per day). Each week, I use 80% compliance as a baseline. Meaning that I try to hit my targets 80% of the time. If I’m on vacation it might drop to 70-75% or if I’m getting ready for some event it might raise up to 90+%.

70% - 15 healthy meals, cooked at home, veggies and fruits, quality protein

80% - 17 healthy meals, cooked at home, veggies and fruits, quality protein

90% - 19 healthy meals, cooked at home, veggies and fruits, quality protein

You can do the same thing with items like desert or alcohol. For me, it gives a visual representation that I don’t have to eliminate anything and I can better plan to fit it in my schedule. Don’t ruin five days of great work in 48 hours. 

Training

The Monday morning test. This is something I started using with myself since our son was born and it’s been pretty accurate. I noticed with my training and people at Showtime, if Monday morning didn’t happen then it threw the rest of the week off. My personal solution to this was a 5am workout in our basement every Monday. Starting your week off by making a work out puts the rest of the week into motion. On the other hand, starting your week by missing a workout also puts you in motion, just in the wrong direction. Missing on Monday seems to make it easier to miss Tuesday and then by Wednesday you think “what’s the point, I’ll pick up next week”. Sometimes when we step on the scale, we don’t like the number it generates. This leads us to panic mode and we do things like sprints or long distance runs. This single act has caused more injuries than any lifting I’ve seen. It could be the running, or the added activity, or the combination of the two while taking in less calories. This tactic works well for about up to ten days before the aches and pains become injuries and then you miss more training sessions. Train every day to build up consistency and have more good days. 350+ boring consistent work outs each year have a lot more impact than 75 extreme workouts paired with shitty habits the rest of the year. You can’t achieve your goals with a single workout, but you can certainly derail your goals in a single workout. 

Stress

Some stress like stress from a workout is good for you. Chronic stress can add up and wreck your health. What’s amazing is we now have apps designed to tell us to breath or take a moment of gratitude. Believe it or not, these practices have been around for a long time and you don’t need an app on your phone to do it. For every problem, there are now ten answers available in your app store. The problem is, the adds to the list of ongoing notifications or reminders we have which can lead to increased stress and no framework to draw from. Even seeking information on stress management can be stressful. Some sources will say to meditate, while others will say gratitude and mindfulness, while others will recommend doing a self discovery dive. As someone who has gone down most of these rabbit holes, I came back to focus on things I can control such as movement, controlling inputs, sleep, and nutrition. We don’t often think of nutrition as part of our stress management, but your digestive system undergoes stress every time you eat. The stress is much lower digesting lean protein, fruits, and vegetables than pizza, ice cream, and other processed foods. This can help lower inflammation and bring us more energy. When thinking about stress, most people seem to respond better to reducing instead of addition. 

In conclusion, we need to remember that this is all a personal journey. There is no real finish line and we only lose when we give up. The new product or plan guaranteeing all your health and fitness dreams might work short term, but hasn’t been long enough to be tested by time. I view things like extreme diets and new products as putting all of your financial investment into one stock and hoping for the best. When things feel off track, it can be helpful to look back over the last 12-18 months and view progress made in that time. We often have made significant progress that we forget about. We mistake things like a temporary plateau for failure when we just need to give ourselves grace and time. During difficult times, it’s important to remember to lean on your supports such as coaches, training partners, and significant others. We can have some success alone, but much greater success with others. 

‍