I’m sitting writing this, in my local pub with a pint in front of me. Don’t worry this isn’t a radical new approach to training and nutrition involving beer and a kebab. Although that would make me a multi-millionaire if I could get it to work.
The last couple of months have been quite hectic and I’m just after taking a two week break to find a new flat, not by choice. My own training has suffered quite a bit in this time after having a good run of five months solid training I was on a real high. However long days in work, little time off, study, training, eating late at night and not sleeping properly, have all taken their toll and about 2 months ago my training took a real nose dive. I was struggling with my warm up weights and picking up niggles that just wouldn’t go away. So I came to a conclusion………. I was tired.
Not an earth shattering revelation I know, but still a very significant one. It means something has to change, and it was going to take more than a good night’s sleep to sort it out. I’ve been in this situation before it usually came at the end of a long season after several big competitions. The solution is very simple, slow down! Rest periods are essential for anybody who works hard, increased stress both physical and mental really do impact your performance and not always in a good way. Some stress is essential to your development and performance, it’s how we push ourselves on and the love of the challenge is always a big motivator. They trick is to know how much is too much. Think of it like loading the bar for a squat, too little weight and it’s too easy you don’t get anywhere, too much and you can’t lift it properly everything gets sloppy and no matter how hard you try you just can’t make any progress, but when you get the weight right you do the perfect action, drop down nice and deep and drive out cleanly and smoothly. It’s all about finding that balance. One of my friends describes it not as over training but under resting, I really like that idea, when we look at how athletes train and going back to my own experiences of competition and performance training. I start seeing a pattern of working and resting. Even over longer a long season we timed light and heavy phases of training so we wouldn’t be burned out for the bigger competitions. In fact our resting phases were times so we would be able to have something extra for the bigger events. When I look back on this, it becomes more and more obvious that rest and recovery are equally as important to our development as the training itself.
Inability to sleep, inability to concentrate, constant feeling of fatigue, lack of coordination are all warning signs that you’re heading for a fall. Just search online and see some of the symptoms listed you might just be surprised by them. One very important thing is to listen to your body. It’s usually very good at telling you when things are going wrong and warning you of what’s about to happen.
After a four week break from training I’m ready to start back.
