Train like you mean it!
We’re all guilty of it, at times. Your training program gets a bit too routine, you start chatting more between sets or staying an instagram that little bit longer… before you know it, training sessions are two hours in the gym to do about one hours work. You’ve lost that intensity in your training. The killer instinct is more of a mild assault charge.
For strength training and powerlifting, there is definitely a balance required between enough rest and too much rest. It’s good to keep yourself accountable and check yourself every now and then. Recently, it dawned on me that I’ve been training like a bit of a bitch for a while – so I ramped things up! Owning the fact that I could do BETTER is motivating me to do more work, better work!, and get more out of my training again.
Signs that I was dragging ass included:
– Taking an hour to squat / bench / deadlift
– Looking up from my goddamn phone to see another 5 minutes had passed too often
– Straight up just not feeling like I was making progress
Ok so, you think you might be an ass dragger. Shit. What can you do about it?
Supersets/giant sets: Get more done in less time. Get your heart rate up a bit (because you lack conditioning from dragging ass), it won’t kill you – in fact it will make you better, and help you do more work long term. This could be, for example:
Bench / Row / Abs, rest repeat.
This won’t hamper your lifting, you get to balance your push and pull at the same time, and you get core work done instead of skipping it at the end like we all know you do. Easy, great, do it! You can do similar supersets/combinations with any lift. Maybe you have to eat a bit of humble pie for a few weeks until your conditioning improves – good, it’s part of any balanced diet.
Timing your rest breaks: Literally time them. Set a timer on your phone, put an alarm on it so the whole gym knows if you’re slacking off. Don’t try and say you need more rest, take some weight off the bar if you’re that out of shape – own it, be better, do work.
Re-organise your training: Part of solving the issue for me was having a different plan. The old one was me trying to stick to being strong all the time, rather than giving myself the time to build momentum. I’d lost track of the fact that I was testing strength constantly, rather than building it. If you’ve been doing the same thing for a while now, maybe it’s take to shake n bake baby. Change things up!
Don’t get caught in that slump for too long. It happens to everyone, that’s fine. But don’t let it fester and rob you of months/heaven forbid YEARS of progress. In the wise words of Jake the Dog – ‘There’s no good kind of festering’.
#byliftersforlifters