Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Take a week off, not 8 months.

 There is a real tendency to overtrain at the inception of a program.  All of us have experienced hitting it hard in the gym in January, only to sit on the couch for the next 11 months.

Recognizing this, let me propose the following:  One symptom of overtraining is an utter lack of desire to work out.  It may actually be that we need rest.  Rather than have this derail a program for the entire year, consider marking a week off in your workout calendar, and just enjoying it, taking time to recover.

Some of my aches and pains are bordering on injury at this point.

This sentiment comes from the HAES  "just eat it" literature.  HAES practitioners, and psychologists in general recognize that the more mental impetus you put behind forbidding something, the more you rebound into binging on that thing (programs where complete abstinence is called for like drugs and alcohol excluded).  A better approach is to defang it by just indulging on it until you are sick of it.  

So too with workouts. If your body hurts and you don't want to work out, then don't work out, but collect some data at least - in the form of a few X's on a calendar where you were resting.  Most of us let this get out of hand and become 11 months of "rest".