I am coming off a pure strength phase where I put in six months of training to achieve a couple of big objectives.
When I get more time, I will post how this came about, the result, and the lessons learned.
Now I find myself in that weird place I have found myself in many times before. That place where you have no idea what you are training for. Even after being out of the sport for eleven years, I still have found some type of big objective to shoot for. For instance: increase lean body mass to x, diet down to x% body fat, train for max reps using x on yoke bar squat, train for max 5's with 10 chains on x. In this last phase, my objective was max singles on two different movements. In some ways, this adds meaning to my training. In others, it's my excuse out of training to be healthier.
It's my heaven and my hell- but I've accepted it as mine.
The worst part of it all is what I call “The Gap." This is the time between these objectives where you have nothing going on and no idea what you want to do next, but you know it will be something. Sometimes this is because you don't know, just need a mental break; or are waiting for x-rays, blood work or an MRI to come back to see how or if you can proceed in a certain direction.
Here are 5 tips I use to deal with this bullshit.
I say bullshit because it sucks, but it can ALWAYS be worse.
1. Do what you have to do, the easy stuff.
At this point I do not want to train at all, but I will go to the gym 3-4x per week. I don't want to go. I don't like the drive in, I’ll sit in the parking lot for 15 minutes before even going in, I’ll bullshit with others for 10 minutes (or more) before even doing anything.
I do know there are things I have to do regardless of what the next objective will be. For now, I need to keep my weight up, not let my absolute strength fall by more than 15%, and keep doing the "blood work"
Blood Work = Light Circuits for upper or lower body. An example of an upper body circuit would be as follows:
Using Dumbbells or kettlebells
* One set of 20 on each exercise, no rest between movements, using the same weight for all (light weight - 15-35 pounds)
Chest Press
Chest Flies
Elbows out Tricep Extensions
Tricep Extensions To Ears (elbows in)
Seated Side Raise
Seated Rear Raise
Seated Front Raise
Hammer Curls
Seated Curls
I have also found if I keep one semi high-volume lat training day in per week, I maintain more overall strength than any other single body part training session.
I do one upper body dynamic day and one upper body kind of heavy day (max 3-5 reps).
Because my hips are the issue right now, I pull out all weight-bearing leg work and will spend a couple sessions doing light machine crap.
This may sound like a lot but it's really not much at all. It’s actually the minimum I need to do while not caring if I train or not. If I do less, my joint pain will skyrocket. If I try to do more I am also screwed because in order to do more work, I need to get back to the starting gate and this will take 4-8 weeks of training.
If there is an overall goal here, it is to stay within 4-8 weeks of the starting line. For me, this is determined to be in good enough shape to take the training that will be required to go after the next objective.
2. Find new goals
Following suit with number one, you have to find micro-objectives to keep you going. I get the whole "grind" thing, but I have never seen it that way. You either do it or you don't. There is no grinding in just doing something; it should be expected.
How do you find goals in not doing shit? Find someone else in the same boat and talk it over with them. If they are fucked in the head the same way as you, you will come up with something. I figured this phase would last until January due to work and other obligations. Each time I show up and do the stuff I can’t stand doing, I make a slash mark on the wall of the gym. I have someone else in the same boat as me too. At the end of the year, whoever has the most slash marks wins a dollar. Might be the dumbest bet of my life but it's working for us so it's not that dumb.
NOTE: Understand that neither of will ever compete again and we NEED to train right now more for the mental outlet than any other reason, so the slashes are actually a great idea because it turns off our competitive and self-destructive mindset. Well, it has mine.
3. Accept the "Gap"
I have come to realize that I may never get to the point where I can just train to train or what others would call "workout." There is good in this but also bad because I know my enemy well (me). I will win some and lose more. It's just who I am, and I guess who I will always be. I will be the guy who will always end up doing "stupid shit" in the gym. But with any addiction, I fight to control it instead of it controlling me. When I set the big objectives, they take a lot of time, effort, focus, discipline, commitment and sacrifice to achieve. This not only impacts me but all those around me. When I get around to it I will make a detailed post on how my last 6 month strength phase came about and went. What you are reading now is off the back end of it.
This Gap between objectives is seen everywhere; you can find it in all sports, business, life, etc. You bust your ass to reach a level and when you achieve it (or not) the path seems to stop. Then there are bigger gaps: after you retire from a sport, a major injury, divorce, lose a business, etc. I don't want to blow smoke up everyone's ass and say these are the best times to work on your weaknesses but to some degree it’s true- but that's only after you have let your mind adjust. What you don't want to do is just stop. This would be akin to a race car slamming on the breaks. It's ok to take a break from training, but you need to roll into the pit first, not slam into the wall.
In training, there are some things you simply have to maintain. For me, it's overall back strength, movement, and my aerobic base. The rest can be tricky because with a pure strength phase the total volume toward the end can be low with a very high intensity. Going from a single heavy movement and a couple accessories with a total volume of under 50 work reps to training 4-5 moves with three sets of 10 is a radical increase in volume (assuming the weight is over 60%). This could do more harm than good.
Let's make this easy. There will be times after training for big objectives where you are not going to want to train. This is normal. There will be times you want to not train at all, this is also normal. What I am saying is this is normal and when you feel this way back it down. It SHOULD already be built into your training, to begin with. This is what I call "intelligent training." Now, when you do back it down DON'T stop. If you feel you have to stop, lower the intensity and/or volume over 3-4 weeks and then stop. Also know, when you begin training again you need to build in time to get back to the starting line. You are not going to pick up where you left off. You want to go into the next hard phase, meet phase, challenge phase, etc as healthy as you can because once you begin the process and the closer you get to the end, the higher the risk becomes. This is another reason to not let yourself get too far out of shape during The Gap. The goal for a beginner or intermediate is for there to never be risk or for the risk to be very low. For the advanced, they know the one who usually wins is the one who is the healthiest(not beat up) at the end, so for them, it's expected they will be beaten up toward the end... but they all agree and know... the less beat up the better.
Believe it or not. This all begins in The Gap.
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