When was the last time you hit a personal record (PR) in training or were on a roll, seeing a ton of progress?
You'd walk into the gym and you'd hit a PR on everything... the amount of burpees you could do in a minute, your deadlift max weight, your FRAN time.... It's as if you could just walk into the gym and expect a new PR!
Those were the times that were most exciting and exhilarating!
But I'll tell you something that you may already know...
Those days of PR-ing over and over and over again, are only in the beginning of your training career.
This is especially true for any form of weight training or functional training. And those individuals who claim they are PR-ing year-after-year continuously...well they either take so much time off within those years to the point that they reset themselves back to baseline, they're using performance enhancing drugs, or they're trying new exercises all the time which of course they're going to hit a PR.
But if you're the athlete grinding day-in and day-out for years on end, well unfortunately you won't be hitting frequent PR's. That's because you have trained so much that there is less and less room to see the progress by the actual numbers. For example, imagine you hit a deadlift PR of 300 lbs in 3 months of training. Then at 6 months you hit 350. Then at 9 months you hit 380. Then at one year you hit 395. Then at the end of year two you hit 415... As you can see the progress may start to slow. Doesn't mean you're necessarily hitting "your peak," it means your becoming more advanced.
As you become more advanced and the progress starts to slow, that's when you have to change your approach to training. And it doesn't have to be a lot!
These are the 3 Steps I urge athletes to take when trying to overcome a lack in progress:
- Stay consistent: When facing a period of stagnation, many athletes tend to change up their entire routine to feel that rush of excitement that they used to feel when they were PR-ing all the time. However, I urge you not to chase that feeling and instead remain consistent with the current training you are doing. You're undoubtedly going to see a slow in progress with whatever training you're doing. If you build the habit and continuously change up training when things start to slow down, well then you'll never get to see your full potential. However, there are a couple things that may need to change within your program if this is the case which I'll explain below.
- Analyze your recovery strategies: As you get deeper and deeper into your training, you're going to need to become more and more precise and focused on your recovery. You need to be sleeping at least 7-9 hours a night, your nutrition needs to be "on-point," you need to be drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water, and your stress must be managed appropriately (breath-work, meditation, free time for yourself). If you're not doing those, try to put one into play right now! I promise doing that for the long run will make a difference in your training!
- Analyze your form and mobility: How is your movement form? Your mobility? Many athletes will tend to say it's GREAT, but when they sit-down with a coach they realize there's a few things they need to work on which could be holding them back. If you have a coach, talk to them about your form, see if they have any videos they can send you via email or social media. Check out some mobility videos on YouTube to improve your form and mobility. Spend 5-15 minutes a day just stretching. Lots of progress can be made in a short amount of time!
Try to put one of these steps into play right now! And let me know which one you try out by leaving a comment to this post.
And in case you don't have a coach or just want further help with training, recovery, form, mobility, anything... just go here https://linktr.ee/RamboBodyFitness and click where it says..Need Help Working Out? Ask me. I'll help you. Subscribe Here. And subscribe. And I`ll gladly help.
