Have you ever trained so hard that on your REST days you couldn’t get off the couch?
Years ago I had little time and got to the gym twice a week. Each session I absolutely crushed myself.
The rest of the week I was recovering, and I did next to zero exercise.
You live and learn.
What did I learn?
-You need recovery
-You need movement
-NEVER DO what everyone else is doing
You need Recovery from hard training
I’ll assume you are training hard and you aren’t slacking off. If that’s the case, you need recovery.
Only problem is finding out exactly HOW MUCH do you need?
It depends, of course.
BUT recovery does not mean lay on the couch all day after you sit at a desk for eight hours.
You need MOVEMENT
Active recovery is the key.
You want to move as much as possible on your days OFF.
I like to work out on my rest days. I’ve learned what I can and can’t do on the recovery side but you can learn also what works for yourself.
Most importantly, just move more.
Get up and walk around at work. Do some bodyweight exercises. Take the stairs a few times. Do a quick light conditioning workout.
GET OUTSIDE and take a brisk walk in nature.
NEVER DO what everyone else is doing
What the common man does, you DO the opposite.
The common man eats junk, never walks, only uses machines at the gym if he goes at all…
The common man has no integrity. He doesn’t follow through on his word. He’s weak and lazy and lost.
We need to be diligent about NOT being the common man.
Like David Goggins says, “you have to detest mediocrity” to be the best version of yourself.
Always strive to improve, even just a tiny bit.. every action forward will add up over time to take you to another level.
NO DAYS OFF?
When hardcore gym rat types say things like “NO DAYS OFF!” they might mean it but I look at that phrase differently.
To me it’s imperative that I do some kind of workout every single day.
Like I said before, it can be a quick bodyweight workout, an “easy” conditioning workout.. doesn’t matter the specifics.
What matters is that every day I show up, no matter how I feel, no matter what’s going on, no matter what my mind says..
I do it.
Start a new log. Write in it every day that you did some kind of workout.
Mine goes back to the third week of July.
It feels good to know I have stuck to my strong habits (training and writing daily) but the funny part is, I think about that day I SKIPPED more than the 4 months straight that I succeeded.
That’s my drive to always improve.
No, we won’t always get better. We can’t possibly get “stronger every day” but our INTENT should be to constantly aim to challenge ourselves to step outside our comfort zone and become the strongest version of ourselves.